#xcom tygan

[korbensoi]

I'm usually not the one to celebrate fictional characters' birthdays, but I think I need to start, like, right now

Happy birthday to my favorite doc! All juicy burgers for you today, my love <3

[etherealvoidechoes]

Me lying about stepping away until an idea strikes my brain. -.-

Think when I get to included the Fade into my fics I'm going to make it a mix of things.

1. It’s a maintanece time limit(that'll become a virus of sorts) for the newer/lastest generations of ADVENT Hybrids the Elders made in response to a series of defections that happened in a close span of time. Just applying something they already do with ADVENT citizens with the diseases they “cure” and sure they stay cured with regular Gene Clinic check ups(something from the book). So as long as the Soldiers are getting their regular check ups, everything is fine. But if they defect, it'll take some years for the degeneration to kick in. Which the Elders want as the affected will be the perfect hidden bombs that can go off and infect sizable clans in short order. Won't be a perfect way of wiping out the clans depending on the clone lines having some slight variations but would weaken them.

2. The Elders have been to who knows how many worlds and who knows how many things they had gathered and lost track of. So pulling another thing from the book(crystal/fungal contagion affecting wildlife leading to quarantine zones) is it’s some alien virus that so far just affecting the Hybrids for now.

Also forgot about The Lost. Yeah, that can be another source of the Elders machinations having unintended side effects.

Edit: And just remember one of those investigation pop-ups and you find a disease-ridden Sectoid. So there's that too!

3. Somewhat missed genetic errors from all the gene manipulation and cloning the Elders did finally crashing against the wall. Maybe something from another species is clashing with human DNA and causing the issues?

[generallemarc]

Random Starcraft 2 voice actor fun facts:

Stettman is voiced by Robin from Teen Titans. Yes, the same Robin who's still being mangled by TTG. And if that wasn't enough, General Warfield is voiced by one Gary Anthony Williams, who is both the voice of Dr. Tygan from XCOM 2(there's a good bit of overlap between SC2 and XCOM2, with John De Lancie being the most notable example) and also Uncle Ruckus from Boondocks. Yes, really. I'm probably gonna have more of these, and I'll send as many as my un-adhd-medicated brain commands.

[modded-xcom2-aar]

The Tutorial: Part 1

Dan's Notes: Due to the more cinematic, cutscene-heavy nature of the opening tutorial mission, the whole of it has been depicted in video form. This will not be the case with most missions. It should also be noted that the tutorial is skippable, as are the DLC missions, but for the sake of storytelling, I have enabled them. In addition, this update will be a fair bit longer than most updates will so I can get all the tutorial stuff out of the way.

Operation Gatecrasher After Action Report

After 20 years of struggling and acting underground, XCOM was finally able to perform Operation Gatecrasher, a combined effort by XCOM and the Reapers to locate and rescue Commander , the original operating commander of XCOM. Due to the high-priority nature of this mission, XCOM was forced to execute the mission through unusual and unconventional means.

Operating in this mission were rookie-level soldiers Jane Kelly, Peter Osei, Ana Ramirez, Reaper soldier Elena "Outrider" Dragunova, and Central Command Officer Bradford. Osei and Ramirez were killed in action while the surviving rookie, Kelly, was promoted to a Squaddie-class Ranger. In accordance to XCOM's agreement, Dragunova fled the scene before the deployment of XCOM's forces, rejoining with the nearest group of Reapers.

Thanks to the distraction created by Bradford and Kelly, as well as the efforts of Dragunova, city center forces were minimal during the rescue operation, limited to a handful of troops and a group of reinforcements.

Tutorial Geoscape, Part 1

Dan's Notes: During the recording, this cutscene stuttered, causing audio lag and making it a pain to watch. I have taken this footage from a compilation of cutscenes from the vanilla game. Credit to LFP Gaming for creating the original video, XCOM 2 All Cinematics / Cutscenes / Movie. All other cutscenes posted in this update were taken from my personal recording, and any future instances of outscourcing cutscenes will be noted.

Excerpt from Central Officer Bradford's Journal:

While I was acting undercover, I noticed a lot of commotion about it being the 20th anniversary of the "formation of the ADVENT Coalition". That's a load of bull. Just about any world leader that didn't willingly turn on humanity was being manipulated into doing so, usually with psionic mind control. 20 years, huh? You know, they say you get older your perception of time starts to speed up, but I remember every agonizing moment that led up to this point. Years of travelling and scraping by, slowly finding any other wandering survivors, hearing word of resistance groups until ultimately forming my own and branding it with those four letters I held onto to remember what once was. Osei and Ramirez might have just seemed like just another dissident to the ADVENT troops that slaughtered them, but I'll always remember their parts in reassembling XCOM.

One shower and a set of fresh clothes later, the Commander was ready to go to the science labs.

Dan's notes: The Commander is never given a canonical name, gender, speaking lines, or appearance. The Commander is effectively you, the person playing the video game. I think it's fun for players to create some kind of commandersona, so I have decided to create one. The core idea was to make someone comically unassuming for their elevated status within the fiction. One thing to note is that there isn't really any way to make a fat character in this game, and I'm pretty sure it would be a pain for a modder to pull off without serious clipping issues. As such, I decided to make the Commander fat.

Excerpt from Commander Stumpe's Journal:

Gosh, it's all so darn confusing. It felt like I had been on the longest war of my career, but then one day I find myself getting pulled out of a spacesuit and I'm told the whole thing ended 20 years ago. Jeez, I really hope maybe I can turn things around this time.

At the behest of Chief Science Officer Tygan, Commander ordered the Science team

Excerpt from Commander Stumpe's journal:

Dunno why he called himself a Chief Science Officer when it was really just him and any guy he trusted enough to handle equipment. Odd fellow, that guy. Wonder what happened to Vahlen.

Having survived Operation Gatecrasher, Jane Kelly was promoted from Rookie to Squaddie. Kelly had decided to specialize as a Ranger.

Dan's notes: Although they served as scout units in the vanilla game, their real specialties are their shotguns, which have a higher crit rate than other weapons, and goes up the more up close and personal the Ranger gets. Reapers and Templars outdo them on both stealth and melee terms.

Shortly afterwards, Commander Stumpe was invited by Central Officer Bradford to come to the research labs.

END OF PART 1

[companionwolf]

Fill #1 for Flufftober

Prompt: 25. Nook + 29. "Hey, wake up!"

Fandom: XCOM 2

Verse: uh based on my canon? (I'm kin); NOT shipfic

TWs/CWs: None

The Commander drifts.

They know vaguely they lie in the space under the bar where it turns, curled up with their tail over their nose in the little nook.

Central tends the soldiers, thinks his CO can't see him go to nip a drink straight from the vodka bottle, flinches when they growl softly and sets it back down.

They're here on the Avenger in 2035, a few months post freedom. At least, here enough. With their eyes shut and neurons slow, the Commander could be anywhere else. Could convince themselves of it.

They could be back at HQ, taking shelter under the Hologlobe, listening to the idle chatter and noise of the personnel around the room.

They could be on the run, the fire behind their eyes and smoke in their lungs still, pressed close to Central under a rotting blanket as the cold bites at them both through walls of a decaying house.

They could be in the simulation, any iteration of that, tucked away somewhere in the false halls of a false Anthill, taking a moment of respite.

But they're here.

Here in the future, still not quite accustomed to quadrupled form and lack of humanity. Here, where they have lost. Here, where they are still running. Here, where dream and unreality mix with stark cold truth. They wish they knew some much for sure-- what was sim, what wasn't.

All they can do, they suppose, is keep asking.

Did Pettachi ever feed me a spicy thing-- sime kind of prank, a joke? I don't know, Commander. I don't remember those details well anymore. (Mark that one down as a maybe, then.)

Did Rivera save us when base fell? Yes. (Mark that as real.)

I traveled with you, right? Yeah, I got this scar from those days. (Another check mark.)

We had MELD, in 2015? What the hell is MELD, Commander? (A no.)

Central leans against the bar; the Commander, eyes closed, inhales-- his scent mixes with the alcohol and the ship itself, and their heart slows.

Somewhere, they are still human. Somewhere, they are lying on a operating table? Or maybe a strecher. It doesn't matter. What does matter is he is there too, younger but still him, holding their hand.

God, they wish they could smile the way humans do. All they can manage now is a facsimile of it.

Did they want this? They were dying. Did they ask for this? Why was it this, and not...? Their head hurts, sense of phantom pain and ache.

Footsteps, distantly.

The Commander's ears swivel toward them. A rag tag mix of OG A Team and Alpha Squad-- Fisher, Guzman, and Johnson, to be more precise. They come into the bar loud, Johnson and Guzman laughing at something Fisher has said. Central greets them gruffly.

Oh, Central, thinks the Commander. Their heart swells with love for their XO, for their crew. Oh, humanity.

In their chest the thud of a false thing, made to function the same but never falter. Whatever they had first, it's long gone-- the aliens upgraded much of their internals when they were captured. Whatever it took to keep them alive.

The Commander feels a grimace across their face, knows it's not real, knows it's their human mind covering the reality of their pseudo canine face up because otherwise they'd be barely functional, they'd be lost to themselves entirely.

They mentioned this to Tygan once. "It's covering everything up," they'd said. "Pretending nothing's different." They guess it's too much to ask their mind to adjust so quickly. They spent less than a year in this form before they got caught, before the tank, the simulation.

And in there? They aren't sure what they were, human or this, whatever this is they are now.  They remember being on all fours in some of the hazy bits and pieces, but is that real, or just through the filter of their current self perception?

The Commander thinks.

They don't see themselves as bodily human. There is no overlay of a human self-- their mind is not that desperate. Sometimes it is, like with facial expressions and the sense of missing hands, but usually their self maps properly. 

To be honest, they weren't ever really that comfortable in a human body at all. It was fine, they mean. It was a okay body. A good body. Just not quite right. Just not really theirs, them.

The bark of Guzman's laughter brings them back. The Commander imagines they hang on her mirth like a lifeline. She centers them here, with the sound of her living and breathing and--

Central's voice calls down to them: "Hey, wake up."

The Commander opens a eye, looks up at him. He's studying them, a expression they can't read on his face.

They unfurl slowly, stretching as best they can in the small space, brushing against his legs. "What do you need, Central?"

"Fisher wants you," he says.

The Commander snorts, stands and shakes themselves as if they're drying off from being wet. The collar Guzman gave them jangles.

"What does he need, then?" they ask.

Central shrugs. "Something about a bet."

They roll their eyes. Or at least it feels like they do. Isn't that the same thing, in the end?

"Oh goodie, I love when my soldiers have scores to settle," the Commander says through a yawn.

They see Central shift uncomfortably, don't understand why--

"Sometimes I forget," he says, mostly to himself.

But they hear it. Of course they can hear it. Their head hurts; they feel like they can feel the inner mechanics of their throat, the voicebox, the connections. Obviously they can't. But they feel it anyway. A glitch in their mind's erratic defenses.

The Commander takes a breath-  false air into false lungs; everything a facade of a biological system, all tailor made to keep the brain running.

"Okay, let's go see what the Wonder Ranger wants," they say, half to Central and half themselves.

When they glance back at him as they come out from behind the bar and apporaches Fisher, the Commander sees Central lean forward, his eyes flicking from them to the younger troops, back and forth, taking in the situation.

Something about knowing he's got their back, just like after base fall, just like during the transplant, makes them breathe a little easier.

He's here. The soldiers are here.

They're here.

That must mean something.

[noparg]

Xcom2 - Review

With the release of the Nintendo Switch a lot of companies decided to release ports of their games on it. The latest to join this trend was 2K with their collections, namely for the Bioshock, Borderlands and XCOM2 series. Today we’ll review the XCOM2 collection, the oddball of the bunch, which includes XCOM2 and its DLC.

Story

Set twenty years after the first game, XCOM2shows a future were XCOM was incapable of repelling the invasion. After a war with heavy casualties, the aliens set the ADVENT coalition, formed by humans originally interested in negotiation with the invaders, as puppet government.

At the start of the game, an XCOM assault team is diving into an ADVENT facility to rescue the Commander, the character from whose point of view the players interact with the game. After succeeding in their mission Dr Richard Tygan, XCOM’s resident scientist, starts a procedure on the Commander in order to remove a chip implanted in their skull.

After analyzing the chip, it turns out to be a connection to the whole ADVENT network, through which they were using the Commander to analyze and provide tactical information on their campaigns.

With the Commander now freed, XCOM is back into the playing field. After raiding several of ADVENT’s secret facilities, XCOM discovers the Avatar Project, which they will have to stop.

As part of the War of the Chosen expansion, three new factions are introduced into the game, with extra bits of story for each of them. An example of this is the conflict between the Reapers and Skirmishers, which is ended by a truce against their common enemy, the aliens.

The expansion also adds three special enemies known as the Chosen, each of them having a special relationship with one of the new factions. They also have some backstory which can be found and read in the archive, adding some amount of flavor to their characters.

Graphics

While the graphics in XCOM2 Collection are as good as expected, they are definitely downgraded from the other versions. Sometimes the image will look muddy or somewhat lacking in details. This is not a stylistic choice since the blur happens to go into whatever is being shown, but taking into account the lesser power of the Switch it was most likely necessary.

Even if player controlled characters are not the most unique, players can fiddle around with them. All allied soldiers can be customized with a decent amount of options, allowing for a slew of different designs. It is worth mentioning that while this is a nice touch, it could’ve been somewhat more polished since a few of the options are somewhat lackluster.

Enemies are a whole world, with each of them including very unique designs which allow players to know at a glance what to expect. The only possible complain would be with the standard soldiers, which from a top-down perspective can sometimes be confused. This first part also applies to boss enemies, which boast special looks to match their abilities.

There are a few graphic mess-ups in the game, such as enemies going through walls due to their size, soldiers putting their arm through walls to shoot, etc. Another one would be how the camera is handled at times, making weird moves that don’t show anything and being generally awkward.

Sound

XCOM2’s sound is pretty good; the voice acting, soundtrack and SFX all have high production value and effort put into them. That said, the soundtrack can get somewhat repetitive after a while, with most songs being pretty similar.

It is also a very nice touch how allied soldiers have accents matching their nationality (if the option is enabled), though same as with the soundtrack, after a while of hearing the same catchphrases it ends up becoming repetitive.

Gameplay

Both mainline XCOM games play as turn based tactics games. In them, the player controls a squad of soldiers which start being the same but obtain different classes after downing some enemies. These classes obtain more skills as the soldiers defeat more enemies and continue improving. Soldiers belonging to the factions added by War of the Chosen evolve somewhat differently, having several skills to choose from without special training instead of the standard two.

Missions feature varied objectives, from hacking into ADVENT terminals to rescuing civilians. A few of these missions offer the option to evacuate without defeating all the enemies, but most of them don’t. As the player progresses through the game, more missions with more types of enemies start appearing.

As previously mentioned, War of the Chosen adds the three Chosen enemies. The way they work is that any operation conducted in there are has a chance for them to appear. If the player manages to defeat them, some extra skill points will be received. The Chosen cannot be killed until several “covert operations” are launched and their hideout is discovered. Once this happens, an assault can be launched to kill them for good.

A great part of XCOM2 is the base and map management, with several locations which can be analyzed to receive bonuses. Inside the base itself, the players can choose researches for Dr Tygan, unlocking improvements, new items, etc. They can also build new facilities, craft items, visit the archive etc.

All of the research and construction takes in-game time, which passes as the player scans the aforementioned locations. At the end of every in-game month, supplies are received from other resistance cells. These supplies act as money of sorts, being required for most improvements or items. There is also another currency known as Intel which can be used at the black market and some other places.

Overall, it is very arguable that the base management is as important as the operations themselves if not more. This management is also a hard part of the game which may get overwhelming at times due to a lot of events happening very close to each other, but as they improve, the players will get used to it.

Now that everything about the game itself has been talked about, there are is pair things to mention about the port, which is less than perfect.

A big issue is the abhorrent loading times; going for up till a pair of minutes at times. It is safe saying a player would have more than enough time to get fully dressed or take a bathroom break while the game loads. This is especially true for any save reloads, which are even longer than other load times. Similar to this, crashes can occur, which force to reload the game from the last save.

Directly related to this, during some of the loading screens voiced dialogues may start, but due to the game being stuck in said screen no subtitles will pop up for those playing without volume.

Lastly, it is important to mention that the game will drain the Switch’s battery in about 3 hours while undocked. Besides this, it will make it get hotter and the game itself will start getting choppier/slower the longer it’s played for, up till the point where inputs may take several seconds to register.

Conclusion

XCOM2 is a really good game on the hard side of general difficulties. While accessible to everyone, it is hard to master and requires either time or being familiar with the genre as a whole. If the player can get past the issues of the port, which don’t affect gameplay itself, it is a more than recommendable game.

Personal Opinion

“XCOM2 is very fun, I had a really entertaining time with it, thought the loading times annoyed me to no end. It definitely is a great tactics game and a worth purchase, though I’d personally recommend getting it on any of the other platforms over Switch. This recommendation is due to a pair of factors, but mainly because the other versions don’t have the issues intrinsic to the port (though allegedly the loading times are still sketchy) and are more likely to get sales anytime soon.”

[bloodilymerry]

Hey, Tygan, have you been playing Mortal Kombat?

[janeaudron]

I’d like to imagine when Tygan gets lonely in his lab Bradford pops down every once in a while to chat. And by chat it’s just listening to Tygan babble on about his findings and various scientific things. Bradford may not follow along too well and just nods every once in a while and zones out at other times. Tygan would probably figure out he zones out every now and then but doesn’t care. He’s just happy to have some company he can ramble at.

Bonus is Bradford actually learns some things and the “big science-y lingo” and uses them ever now and then and Tygan just cracks a smile when he uses them and in the correct way.

[korbensoi]

Commander: I'm not that obvious! Also Commander:

[etherealvoidechoes]

Bradford would be both relieved and annoyed with having Kamon back(Main or AU) as he had the brain for all the logistical stuff.

Relieved because less stress and Kamon catching things or making suggestions he and the team would have never come up with.

Annoyed because Kamon would handle stuff he wanted to do and Kamon sometimes forgets to inform people he took care of it when he’s just locked in. And stop disappearing into the engine(lab), workshop, or bowels of the ship to tinker/dismantle things to see how they work when you’re needed for a damn meeting.

[xcommatriarch]

Oh. My. God. He blames himself even for the missions going wrong.

Doc... Dear... My beloved, please...

[blessed-pineapple-cruncher]

any xcom scientist: exists

me: is that an evil person?

[modded-xcom2-aar]

The Tutorial: Part 2

With utmost priority, Commander began to organize Operation Necrotizing Key.

Dan's Notes: Due to a graphical glitch, two of the soldiers, both of whom normally wear modded-in clothes, appeared in clean-generation outfits. I believe there may be some mod conflicts, as some modded assets were determined to be clean-generation outfits anyways. At the time, I was not permitted to customize soldiers, but this will not be the case after the tutorial section is completed.

Excerpt from Commander Stumpe's Journal:

We were in such a rush to get the mission done that I just told the two closest rookies to slap on whatever the closest pieces of armor they could find lying around and hop in the Skyranger. They seemed a little cheesed off about it, but that's lesson 1 for you: If you wanna wear something besides the basics, you gotta make sure you've got it prepped.

Operation Necrotizing Key After Action Report:

Dan's notes: Not really sure why the game decided the "wilderness of New India" was in the "Greater Anchorage Area", but even without the mod I added that adds more locations, the game is weird about the names of mission locations, often going for a much more general area than wherever it appears on to be on the map.

Central Officer Bradford's Pre-Mission Briefing:

CENTRAL: Communications with resistance forces in the area have gone dark...which can only mean one thing. These people sacrificed everything to give us this shot. We need to recover that converter at all costs.

With the first priority of recruiting the Commander out of the way, the next major mission for reviving XCOM needed to be accomplished: Acquiring an ADVENT power converter needed for base operations.

Prior to undertaking Operation Gatecrasher, regional resistance cells were contacted to find the power converter. Serendipitously, they managed to block the ADVENT convoy meant to deliver the converter to the next location.

Operating in this mission were Squaddie Ranger Jane Kelly, and Rookies Cain Juntley, The Wanderer, and Christopher "Troopz" Taylor.

Dan's Notes: It was at this point going through my footage that I realized that the Steam overlay was on. Whoops! Disabled it between the first and second session.

Enemy forces included ADVENT troops, Officers, and a Sectoid.

Mission Control's notes on the enemy forces:

CENTRAL: The ADVENT Officers seem more capable than the grunts. We're not sure whether to chalk it up to training or stricter mind control. TYGAN: Although they bear some resemblance to the Sectoids first encountered during the invasion, their genetic structure now includes human DNA. They're stronger than ever with an even greater psionic potential. COMMANDER: Oh jeez, those sectoids are real scary now, eh? I miss the old ones, they were a lot cuter and way less of a threat.

The combat began with The Wanderer ambushing a Troop and an Officer by throwing a grenade at the pod while they were scouting the area on a rooftop.

Commander Stumpe's Notes:

Good old grenades. Guaranteed damage and great for destroying cover. Oldest trick in the book is to land an explosive grenade at a rooftop. If the explosion doesn't kill 'em, the fall will.

Unfortunately, just before Kelly could stabilize the Converter, The Wanderer was mind-controlled by the sectoid. While the sectoid hijacked The Wanderer's mind, The Wanderer was dragged over to Cain Juntley and fired on him, killing him in a single burst of fire.

Mercifully, once Kelly had stabilized the converter, she was able to kill the sectoid using her sword.

Commander Stumpe's notes:

Those fellas looked so darn frail. I'd say get 'em a sandwich but they probably eat people. I figure a good whack will hurt them way more than a gunshot.

Dan's notes: Sectoids have a weakness to melee attacks and can easily be oneshotted by any melee class.

With the converter stabilized and ripe for the taking, the mission was considered a success.

For surviving the mission, Troopz and The Wanderer were both promoted to Squaddie. Troopz decided to specialize as a Sharpshooter, while The Wanderer took the path of the Stormrider.

Bradford's Notes:

Just like it sounds, our sharpshooters engage enemy targets with pinpoint accuracy from extreme range. They're also trained in pistol marksmanship for the occassional close encounter.

Raze's(???) Notes:

We are the ultimate weapon, and we will not rest until every last alien is dead. The Storm is coming, Commander. Let's ride it together.

Dan's Notes: I don't utilize sharpshooters as much as I do other classes, however I find training a sharpshooter in pistol skills to be extremely fun and versatile. Sniping-focused sharpshooters are also handy, but when the game is designed to be focused on pushing forward, it's something I put less focus on.

As for Stormriders, I have only gotten to try them out while doing a test run I did during signup week, but they're pretty interestingly designed as a non-templar melee-only class. No idea who Raze is.

In addition to our key objective, XCOM managed to recover an expanded magazine. And as according to original XCOM procedures, bodies were collected and placed into cold storage.

Tygan: These items should prove useful in our ongoing efforts against the aliens. When you have a moment, Commander, I've made some interestesting discoveries as they relate to the implant we removed from you earlier.

Dan's Notes: Forgot to check the loot descriptions for the other pick-ups during the recording. Will see if I can find them later.

Tutorial Geoscape: Part 2

Personnel Logs:

The Wanderer and Kelly sat in the bar. While it was a nice place to relax, it also served as a memorial for all those lost in the fight against ADVENT. Osei, Rodriguez, and Juntley's portraits had been taken and placed on it. This wasn't the only memorial. There was another, much larger one that was dedicated to any original XCOM members that had been lost during the original invasion, which was kept off of The Avenger and in the resistance haven the Avenger was currently docked in, and many resistance havens kept their own personal memorials. Death was a constant risk for those who chose to deny the Elders. The Wanderer had gotten their usual headgear back on: A gasmask and a hat that was good for keeping the sun out of their eyes. They had a special tape deck they liked to use instead of speaking. Not because it was practical or tactical, they just found it aesthetically pleasing. If they needed to explain things more thoroughly, they had other means. Signing. Tablets. A whiteboard if absolutely necessary. Tactical signing was more handy when prepping an ambush anyways. Kelly had her head in her hands. Three operatives were dead in one night. It's not that she wasn't used to death, but on some level she was frustrated with herself. Scouting further away from the convoy, there was no way could've gotten to the Sectoid before The Wanderer started firing on Juntley. She downed another shot. The Wanderer tapped on her shoulder. They began signing to her. She was drunk, but she was familiar enough with signing that she could get the gist. Mind control was like a bad dream, they signed. You could see what you were doing and feel what you were doing, but you couldn't control it. With a dream, you could wake up and remind yourself there's no way any of that could've happened. When you were freed of mind control, you just had to live with whatever the controller decided on. "You know," she said aloud, for she was too sluggish to try signing herself, "I checked the reports and the footage and the stuff. If I, If I had tried shooting him, I don't think it would've worked. Would've missed, or it would've hit and that asshole would keep moving Juntley around. It's not your fault, it's not my fault, it's just," She readjusted her position so she could lean her back against the counter. "It's just like, circrumstatial bullshit. And that fuckin' sectoid The Wanderer nodded. They pulled out the tape record and pressed a button. "[Thank you for your time.]" Said the recorder. They offered her their hand. And then they started arm wrestling, because Kelly was drunk and didn't realize it was supposed to be a handshake.

Jane Kelly and The Wanderer developed the start of a friendship together.

Commander Stumpe was summoned to Engineering to speak with Chief Engineer Lily Shen.

Excerpt from Commander Stumpe's Personal Journal:

Shen's gone? Darn shame...well, I knew it wasn't particularly likely he'd survive 20 years of an alien empire. But his daughter looks like she's got a good head on her shoulders. Love those little robots she's got flying all over the place.

SHEN: I can't promise any miracles, Commander, but I should be able to put some of this stuff together in no time at all. I'd suggest we get started with a medikit, it'll probably come in handy sooner rather than later.

Dan's notes: Medikits are a massive boon in the battlefield. I highly suggest keeping at least two on hand, one for the combat unit and one for the reconnaissance unit. At this point in the game they're very limited, but that won't be the case once we get Specialists in our roster.

Commander Stumpe was quickly thereafter summoned to Research, where Tygan had made completed his research on the implant chip.

From Commander Stumpe's personal journal:

He's right. I can't really explain it, but it was like I was in some kinda endless war commanding endless missions. Every so often it felt like victory had been achieved only to find myself back at the beginning. Kinda like when there's only reruns on TV. I wonder if TV's still around? That's beside the point, I guess. When it was happening I couldn't really tell I was in a loop. It just sorta happened, ya know? Wonder how much of it was real. I remember we had mech troops and gene splicing and every so often you could get a psi soldier. Not to mention all those battles with EXALT. I wonder if they were just simulations or if I was really commanding alien soldiers with an XCOM paint job. Pretty scary stuff.

With the research efforts completed, the Commander went about ordering the next research project, Modular Weapons.

Commander Stumpe's notes:

The most important thing to prioritize are the guns. It's not good when a soldier gets shot to pieces, but the best defense is a good offense. If the enemy goes down before they get a shot in, that's a soldier that never got shot to begin with.

Shortly thereafter, the commander returned to the bridge, where more developments occurred.

Excerpt from Commader Stumpe's personal journal:

Ya know, one of the things people say when they're flying is "I can see my house from here!" Course, we didn't fly over Manitoba, and even if we did my house is probably a crater nowadays. But it was pretty exciting! We'll be flying all over the place now, so I'll have to get used to that. And the cramped quarters. Reminds me of the old days with the UN.

END OF PART 2

Dan's notes: Unfortunately, I accidentally set off another mod-based glitch during mission select that softlocked the game, so the first recording session ended here. Expect more updates soon!

[companionwolf]

Collective Blorbo Tierlist (from 'I like this skurnkly' to 'we are dating/friends')

Blorbo

- Dexter Grif (RvB)

- Eddie Brock (Venom)

- The androids Conrad and Holloway (LRR's ALIEN Heat Death)

- Chorby Short (Blaseball)

Super

- All the Fuga kids save Malt (Fuga)

- Simon Jarrett (SOMA)

- Catherine Chun (SOMA)

- Richard Tygan (XCOM)

- Lily Shen (XCOM)

- Jane Kelly (XCOM)

- Betos (XCOM)

- Jaylen Hotdogfingers (Blaseball)

Ultra

- Epsilon Church (RvB)

- Ammy (Okami)

- Murderbot (TMBD)

- ART (TMBD)

- Washington (RvB)

- Carolina (RvB)

- B-12 (Stray)

- Malt Marzipan (Fuga)

- Jeanne (Fuga)

- Asaru (XCOM Declassified: the Bureau)

- Venom (...Venom)

- Sally (friends xcom oc)

- Lizzie (friends xcom oc)

- Sunday (Red Sleeves)

- Monday (Red Sleeves)

- Jack (Red Sleeves)

- Jordan (Red Slevees)

- Kitchens (Unmadegaming's ALIEN RPG Dotverse)

- Parker 'Prime' MacMillan (Blaseball)

- Parker MacMillan III (Blaseball)

- Parker MacMillan IIII (Blaseball)

- The Microphone (Blaseball)

Ultimate (aka if you're a F/O you go here save Helly R. who is so cool she goes here despite lack of F/O status)

- John 'Central' Bradford (XCOM)

- Parker MacMillan IIIII (Blaseball)

- Mark S. / Mark Scout (Severance)

- Helly R. (Severance)

- The Reader (Blaseball)

- S1&2 Get In the Trunk PCs (Magdalana, Jordie, Cumstone, Gavin, Caesar)

- Peter Strasky (SOMA)

- Harris Schafer (LRR's ALIEN Heat Death

- Roman Moritaka (LRR's ALIEN Heat Death)

- Clinton Barker (LRR's ALIEN Heat Death)

- Tim Wright (Marble Hornets)

- Jay Merrick (Marble Hornets)

- Sam Yao (Zombies Run)

- Rusty Nickel (Geomon)

- Umpire Jetstream (Terrorball)

DARK (aka problematic fave)

- William Carter (XCOM Declassified: the Bureau)

[justxcomthings]

[image source]

JXT: When They Forget The Extra Cheese On Your ADVENT Burger

[pgirl1986]

Fanfiction.net

DeviantArt

Second chapter! At which I try to write canon scenes from a different perspective. I think I did okay!