Operation Glass Calm

Alright, time to go kill some aliens! Everybody on board: Zed, Shepard, Alexi, Mary, Daniel...wait, where's Daniel? A quick look at the roster shows that he's injured and out of action for a while. Apparently some glass from that exploding car (which so tragically flunked us out of our last mission) caught Daniel in the arm. Being the quiet, shy sort of trooper he is, he didn't say anything but decided to deal with it himself. Turns out the scratches got infected and Daniel has a half-a-degree fever. Since the fate of humanity is in our hands, any sort of fever is a non-starter for going on a mission, so Daniel's sitting this one out. Time to call up the man on the roster...or, er, woman on the roster, as the case may be.

Sophie Brown

Sophie is from rural England and has been defending the cows on her family's farm from alien abduction since she was old enough to milk them. She joined the army at 18 hoping to see a little more of the world and by 20 had been flagged as a tactical prodigy with an amazing gift for predicting enemy movements on the battlefield. Unfortunately that meant that the parts of the world she saw most were inside military think-tanks and briefing rooms writing and reviewing strategy manuals.

XCOM plucked her from the shadows (or florescent lighting, as it were), offering her a chance to get back in action in exchange for her help unraveling the mind of an enemy unlike any other. Sophie is smart, thinks fast on her feet, and possesses a wealth of knowledge about all things military and strategic. She's a bit of a light-weight when it comes to pop-culture, however; her whole life has been on a farm and in think-tanks. Shepard's joke about trying to infect the aliens with "Bieber fever" went right over her head.

Operation Glass Calm, (Abduction) Mendoza, Argentina

So Sophie is in for Daniel. We'll give her the med-kit for this mission. Zed still his had grenades. We're taking the Arc-Thrower along this time, hoping to catch us an alien for interrogation; it'd be nice to know a little more about what these guys are up to. The problem with the Arc-Thrower is that you have to be really, really close to the alien to use it and it doesn't always work. That means there's a chance you could find yourself staring straight into the muzzle of plasma rifle held by a very conscious ET who is more than a little perturbed that you just tried (unsuccessfully) to taze him. The job has a suicidal, take-one-for-the-team quality to it that is right up Shephard's ally, but Zed says "no," he wants his assault trooper loaded down with extra body-armor, not stun-guns. If someone else tries a stun and it doesn't work, Shepard might be able to get to them in time to blast the alien, but if the point man himself is left holding the bag he'll be on his own.

Mary's the next to volunteer; she still want to prove her worth, especially since her first mission was a failure and she'll be the only Ryan going this time around. Zed doesn't like this idea either, but he's running out of choices. Sophie's playing medic; as a sniper Alexi will be too far away to use the Arc Thrower; and, loaded down with a rocket-launcher and grenades (which he isn't about to give up), Zed isn't agile enough to do the job. Looks like Mary will get her wish.

Here's the team for Operation Glass Calm:

We're headed to Argentina. We had several calls for help, but I can only go to one place at a time and Argentina offered to bolster XCOM's engineering staff and, at the moment, I really need some more engineers. One of the other calls came from Asia. Not responding means that panic there will increase, which is problematic since our failed mission in India means that they're pretty freaked out already. Hopefully they'll hold on a little longer; the engineers will help us get some satellites up so we can see the alien's coming. That should come everyone down a bit.

We touch down outside a convenience store. A freaky alien pod is sitting outside. Civilians seem to have already evacuated the area or been rendered unconscious by the aliens. We should be able to revive them once the ET's are dealt with. Shepard checks the store and spots 2 sectoids inside investigating the candy bars; maybe they're intrigued by all the chocolate that says its from "Mars." Sectoids are the smallest and weakest of the aliens; they're genetically designed cannon fodder, pumped out of cloning facilities en masse (we know this because we autopsied one earlier). Since these guys aren't too touch and they're cornered, Zed decides to let Brown and Ryan (the rookies) take them down for the experience. If they can wound one of them we might be able to go in and capture him.

They have everything at these places: sodas, candy, coffee, aliens...

 Shepard positions himself by the door; if they rush out he'll blast them. Alexi takes a position behind the alien pod to keep an eye on all approaches, lest something unpleasant come along while we're in the 7-11. Mary and Sophie take position and open fire...and miss...and miss again...and keep missing. This is not encouraging. If it weren't for the fact that the aliens are also demonstrating remarkably poor marksmanship we would have a problem. Finally, one of the sectoids fires out a blast of plasma and incinerates a chunk of concrete about 2 inches from Mary's head; her pony-tail catches on fire. She puts it out and is fine, but that's enough waiting for Zed; he opens with his heavy Gatling gun and he doesn't miss. Two dead sectoids. Clean up on aisle 5!

Mary isn't at all happy about this show of over-protective paternalism, but the middle of an alien abduction isn't the time to discuss it. Two more sectoids are in an alley around the corner. One disappears through a doorway into what looks like a library. The other scampers up a drainpipe to the roof and prepares to rain down plasma on my squad. This is why we have snipers! Alexi scopes in on the sectoid on the roof but before he can pull the trigger and blow the little guy's head off, Sophie, to the shock and wonderment of everyone, blasts him off the roof with a precisely aimed burst from her rifle. Apparently, while she isn't comfortable yet with the idea of spraying bullets around a convenience store, she did get a lot of practice shooting pigeons off the barn roof when she was growing up. Seeing that little grey alien up there brought it all back.

That leaves one left in the library. It's alone, it's cornered, and by God Mary Ryan plans to take this one alive or die trying (which is a distinct possibility). Zed doesn't like but realizes this the best shot they're going to get and there's no point in letting Mary carry the Arc Thrower if he isn't going to let her use it. Also, he's pretty sure she's going to try it no matter what and there's no point in losing a good soldier to the brig for disobeying orders if you don't have to. Shepard kicks in the door and spots the sectoid hiding behind the paranormal-teen-romance section; it's big enough to provide a lot of cover. The next few moments go like clockwork. Zed's heavy automatic rifle lays down a steady stream of suppression fire, keeping the sectoid's head down. With the alien cowering and unaware, Mary charges in the room, Arc Thrower at the ready, Shepard is two steps behind her with his shotgun; if the high-tech taser doesn't work on the first try he'll have one shot at the alien before it reduces Ryan to cinders. Seconds later the sectoid is passively twitching on the ground as electrical currents shot-circuit its nervous system. We have our first live captive and Mary has her self-confidence back.

She also gets a promotion to "squaddie" and a specialization. She's a sniper now, our second, and will stay in the back row, though I suspect she'll be more inclined to get into the thick of things than the brooding Alexi is. With all the indoor fighting in this mission, and Sophie picking off the one sectoid on the roof, he didn't even fire a shot. Sophie get's promoted as well and, thankfully, specializes in support. She'll carry a med-kit from now on and a smoke grenade too. Nice work team.

Back at the base our sectoid goes into the Alien Containment Facility to await its "interview". Zed and Mary get a chance to hash things out. Her nabbing the sectoid impressed him and he's willing to admit that he doesn't need to look out for her...well, not any more than he looks out for the rest of his team. In exchange for that respect, she agrees that he's in charge and promises not to do anything stupid to try and prove herself. Over the next few days that spend a lot of time together, mostly working out in the gym, discussing tactics and past experiences. Zed has finally found someone willing to listen to his old war stories.

In other news, we get our monthly report card from the secretive council which pays our bills. They give us an 'A', which is fairly generous, what with that dead general and all, and some more money and people. Looking at the condition of the world, I see things are going pretty well except in Asia. Calming things down there will be our next priority.

Dramatis Personæ

We're going to begin in medias res because (1) I like the phrase "in medias res" and (2) its no fun trying to write about something that hasn't happened or characters that haven't been created. So...

Our Story Thus Far:

Aliens have come to earth! They're not nice aliens like ET, nor are they blow-everything-up-aliens like in Independence Day; they're more the randomly-abduct-a-few-people-here-and-there-while-sinisterly-plotting-evil sort of aliens. A council of nations, led by a bald guy whose face we can never quite make out, has created an international organization tasked with figuring out what these invaders are up to, stopping them, and in the mean time, saving as many people as possible. The world is on the verge of panic; it's up to us to keep things under control until we can sort this situation out. We have a giant underground base in Europe (which can be expanded later), a small force of interceptors, a squad of elite soldiers to work with.

Our base, or "the ant farm," as it's known.

So far, results have been mixed. Our first contact with the aliens went rather badly, which was, I'd like to emphasize, NOT MY FAULT! Mission #1 (operation "Devil's Moon") is an in-game tutorial which, no matter what you do, kills three quarters of your soldiers. It's kind of depressing. After that, things went better for a while; we launched a satellite, developed a weapon capable of stunning an alien but not killing it (the "Arc Thrower"), built an Alien Containment Facility in our base to house the little buggers once we capture them, saved some people from abduction, rescued someone who managed to escape from alien custody, and shot down a UFO! Not too bad if I do say so myself. And in all that time, we only had one additional fatality, so, thus far, the most deadly force we've encountered was a poorly scripted tutorial.

We join our team at a time when things are a little bit somber. After in-game weeks of success, we've just had our first "failed" mission. The squad was tasked to retrieve a military officer whose unit was pinned down by an alien abduction force in India. I don't want to go into the details of this particular mission, but to make a long story short, remember this: when cars are on fire, they sometimes explode. So, don't put anything you want to keep (like a military officer you just risked your life to rescue) next to a burning car. That's a tip; write it down.

At least the entire squad made it out alive. And, without farther adieu, here they are: the people who will save humanity (also, one person who tried but is dead now).

David ‘Zed’ Ziegler (Heavy Weapons)

Zed is the cornerstone of the XCOM squad, the ‘old man,’ our highest ranking member and the lead combatant on most missions. He’s been with us from the beginning, since the first tutorial mission of the game which forces you into a specific sequence of moves to walk you through the basic mechanics of tactical combat and, incidentally, kills off all but one member of your team.

Zed was the sole survivor of that mission and the experience changed him in a deep and personal way. For instance, going into that mission he was a young Latino rookie named Humberto Gonzales, but in the wake of that initial tragedy he felt the need to embrace the Israeli nationality randomly assigned to him by the game, to age about 30 years, and grow a nice thick mustache.

He also got a promotion and developed a special talent with heavy weapons, which gives him a rocket launcher as well as the standard grenade that most soldiers carry; which is to say, Zed blows stuff up. The game discourages the overuse of explosives because they prevent you from capturing alien weaponry and equipment intact for study purposes. The game’s scientist persona, Dr. Vahlen, regularly complains when valuable artifacts are reduced to debris. Zed doesn’t give a damn about research. He knows that the best way to keep a Martian plasma rifle from blowing a hole through your squad mate is to turn it, and the alien holding it, into a pile of ruble. And that’s good enough for him. 

Zuzana (Support, KIA – operation “Lazy Crone”) and Alexi 'Spectre' Morozova (Sniper)

The Morozova siblings joined XCOM together. Zuzana’s credentials were as a former Spetsnaz operative; Alexi’s credentials were as a dropout with a drinking problem who had no life…and as Zuzana’s little brother. Zuzana wouldn’t accept a position with XCOM unless they brought Alexi into the program as well. It turns out that several months of intensive physical and mental training, without access to vodka, television, or strip clubs was just what the doctor ordered; his mind and hands steadied and Alexi earned a place as the team’s foremost sniper.

Zuzana was our first fatality since the scripted tutorial/massacre that was Zed’s first mission. The team went after a crashed UFO in Australia, took out the ET lookalikes lurking outside without any trouble, but ran into a towering figure of glowing death once they breached the hull. This “Outsider,” the ship’s captain and (apparently) a ‘being of pure energy,’ materialized and took out our senior Russian operative in a single shot. Did I mention that deaths are permanent in this game? R.I.P. Zuzana. I’m sorry you weren’t around long enough to get a nickname.

We’re still waiting to see how Alexi deals with this loss. His sister was the reason he was in the program in the first place, but he seems devoted to pulling his own weight, especially now. So far, he’s only become more withdrawn, quieter, steadier, more focused…just what you want in a sniper. Now, I’m not saying that XCOM wants to profit from the bereavement of a sibling…but when it came time to replace Zuzana we did decide to hire twins. 

John 'Shep' Shepard (Assault)

Shepard is the last component of our initial foursome. His background is police, not military. A former SWAT officer, he developed a reputation for charging straight into the jaws certain death, shoving a shotgun in those jaws, and making certain death seriously reconsider its life choices. His general disregard for his own safety is second only to his obsessive concern about the lives of his squad mates.

When the Outsider took out Zuzana, Shepard WAS out of cover and charging forward before the collection of wet materials that used to be her body hit the ground. We don’t know if you can really kill beings of pure energy with point-blank shotgun blasts to the head, but thanks to Shepard we do know that you can make them go “Arrrgh!” and dissipate in an explosive, sparkly sort of way.

As an assault soldier, Shepard can cover more ground than anyone else and still fire his weapon. Officially that means he’s the point man on most missions; unofficially it means that, if you find yourself facing deep trouble with no way out, he’s the guy most likely to come charging out of nowhere in an attempt to blow deep trouble to kingdom come.

 

Mary and Daniel Ryan

The Ryan twins are the latest recruits to the XCOM program. They were both with the British SAS, albeit in separate units, and pleased to find that XCOM had no restrictions on them serving together. As the only woman currently in the squad, its important to Mary that the other members take her seriously and treat her as an equal; she tries to make her presence felt on the field and around the barracks. It hasn't been a problem with her brother, Shepard, or Alexi, but I think Zed is going to have trouble not thinking of her as a daughter-figure, especially if she keeps that ponytail.

Daniel, like Alexi, is a quiet, reserved sort of guy. But where Alexi is brooding, Daniel is just plain shy. He's taken the time to read everything available on the extraterrestrial threat, the XCOM project, and he organization backing it.

The twins are too new to have nicknames or specializations yet. We’re hoping one of them will end up as a Support operative to replace Zuzana as our primary medic tactician. I hope it’s Daniel, because if the game randomly makes assigns both of my first female agents the role of “nurse,” my wife will take umbrage. Also, Daniel Ryan sounds like a great name for a medic, don’t you think? Hopefully it won't take the loss of a sibling for him to really embrace the role.

That's everybody. At the moment, the world is mostly holding together. The council that funds XCOM is made up of 16 member states. Every successful alien attack increases panic in the target nation and decreases their confidence in XCOM. If panic goes too high the nation will withdraw from the program, effectively surrendering to the aliens. If 8 nations withdraw their support the program is canceled and we lose the game. 

Looking at the screen below you can see that panic levels are pretty low everywhere except India, which might have something to do with our letting their general get blown to smithereens by an exploding Volvo in that last mission. You can also see our base in Germany and that we have a satellite up over China on the lookout for UFOs. Satellite's decrease panic so we'll try to put one up over India as soon as possible.

Next time I'll take a stab at describing an actual mission.