Mission 2 Day 20

Alien Jerk landing reported New Hampshire farmlands, USA, 5:00 pm.

Sky Ranger responds, Mission Begins 8:58 pm.

ROSTER

CO Sgt. Brunelleshi - Heavy Cannon

Pvt. Rankine - Laser Pistol
Pvt. Evans - Rocket Launcher
Pvt. Cavataio - Laser Pistol
Pvt. Cicconi - Laser Pistol
Pvt. Young Le - Laser Pistol
Pvt. Drudge - Laser Pistol
Pvt. Maniago - Laser Pistol

Troops deploy smoke grenade to conceal movement off the landing ramp, a tactic that should have been used on the first mission. About 20 yards north lies a corn field, to the west a farmhouse. Light is favorable.

After a safe departure, no contacts were detected. Pvt. Cavataio makes for the corn field to see the other side of the farmhouse, seeing nothing. Sgt. Brunelleshi is not used to the weight of the Heavy Cannon, but is having more success than Donaldson (he is not shot immediately). He moves south west to get a better look, and spots a Grey inside the farm house. The Grey was no doubt overturning furniture, running all the taps in the bathroom and allowing all the food in the refrigerator to spoil, because they are all naturally pre-disposed to assholery. Anyways.

Then it get stupid. Cicconi dives in front of Brunelleshi firing into the window, striking the alien. It returns fire, striking Cicconi, who mans up and takes it. Young Le then dives in front of Cicconi, firing into the window also but hitting nothing. Rankine decides, hey, this is working out, and dives in front of Young Le immediately next to the window, firing in and also hitting nothing. So now 4 soldiers are in a row, trying to shoot over one another at a single Grey.

Evans heads further southeast, spotting a Grey in another corn field. He panics, firing his rocket launcher (with extremely limited ammo) wildly, missing it by about 50 yards and destroying a good chunk of American Farm Land. Maniago backs him up though, and shoots the Grey down from across the field. Drudge runs for the door on the farmhouse, hoping to open it and take down the Grey before he liquifies Rankine.

Rankine, however, is liquified. His essentially useless body now out of the way, Young Le fires 6 laser rounds at the Grey and returns the favor.

Sgt. Brunelleshi splits his men off - Cavataio and Drudge take the north side of the farmhouse and move east, Young Le and Cicconi move inside the farmhouse, while he takes Evans and Maniago south of the farmhouse and moving east.

Young Le and Cicconi try to clear the house while the other teams maneuver. Brunelleshi spots a Grey further south, which Maniago takes down. I take back all the bad things I've said about him, he can have all the Jager he wants back at Satan's House.

Cavataio and Drudge move past the farm house and into more corn field. Turning south, Drudge comes face to face with a Grey. They exchange fire but hit nothing. Cavataio maneuvers and shoots, but also hits nothing. The Grey lines up his next shot -

Young Le and Cicconi finish clearing the house. Out Cicconi spots the Grey out of the second story window of the farm house. He also sees the "I'm fucked" look on Drudge's face. Despite his wounds, Cicconi manages to line up his pistol and take him out. God damn, when humans work together, everything works out.

Sgt. Brunelleshi and his team sweep the southern buildings without incident. Cavataio radios in - he's found the UFO in the south east corner of the farm. All troops converge on the UFO front door. Young Le picks up a dead alien's rifle. The weapon is massive especially for the Grey's small stature , no doubt compensating for their lack of human sized genitalia. Cicconi's eager to be on point, but Brunelleshi puts Drudge in the front - there's no way Cicconi could survive another hit.

Drudge primes a grenade and puts his hand on the entry controls -

UPLINK LOST. DATA FLOW INTERRUPT.

Day 18 New Lasers

Engineering finished production on 6 new lasers. This should be useful, provided the men get to shoot at anything.

Replacements Day 16

I've hired 3 new troopers to fill in for the dead and wounded. I say "fill in" very loosely, since by the time Donaldson is ready for action, his replacement will have been active for more than twice as long as he has. 

On the urging of Pvt. Le, I have hired his younger, stronger brother Marky. To avoid confusion, I will refer to him as Young Le. He is remarkably similar to his brother, even declaring himself the "Head Sniper". I can only assume this is part of some inane family ritual.

The other two replacements are Pvt. Drudge and Pvt. Maniago. The faces Drudge can make defy physics, while I fear our liquor supplies won't hold out much longer while Maniago remains on site. I only hope his "casual drinking" won't get any worse once he sees his best friend's abdomen explode out his back on his first mission for no other reason than that aliens are God's prototype ASSHOLES.

Pvt. Evans' and  Pvt. Cavataio's stew was actually pretty good. Sgt. Brunelleshi has won at least a passing respect from the rest of the staff, but his behavior is still creepy. Pvt. Rankine continues to schedule meetings with me, which he fails to show up at. I suspect Pvt. Cicconi is involved in some underground gambling ring, which I'm fine with as long as it doesn't distract the engineers and scientists from their duties.

Sgt. Brunelleshi will lead the next mission. God help us.

MISSION 1 Day 14

Alien Assholes detected in Costa Rican Jungle, 12:05 am, January 14. 

SkyRanger 1 responds, Mission begins 2:04 am. 

The moment X-Com troops set foot off the Sky Ranger, they are fired upon from an unseen position to the east. 

The troops maneuver to find cover, but Donaldson is struck in the leg before he even gets off the Sky Rangers's ramp. Apparently, it was a bad choice to have him carry the Heavy Cannon, as it was taking him 3 times as long to move as all the others, including Cicconi who had the rocket launcher. 

Selflessly, Cavataio dashs towards the source of the incoming fire, hoping to spot an alien and give his team mates something to shoot at. He spots the asshole bare moments before he opens fire again. It's a Grey, one of the little aliens who I can only assume come to Earth and start shit because of galactic penis envy. Before his jealously enraged, puny mind even thinks about pulling the trigger on his inferior alien weapon, Cavataio calls his position and Brunelleshi blindfires, striking him in the chest and dropping him like a sack of dumbass potatoes. 

Le moves to back up Cavataio, while the others (except for Donaldson, who limps back onto the Sky Ranger) take cover behind some trees after being fired on again. Marco stays where he is, letting the bloodlust fill his brain, waiting for an alien to give away its position. I guess all that time spent playing with the guns back at Satan's House was worth it. 

Inspired, Brophy tries the same maneuver Cavataio pulled. He dashes madly towards the incoming fire, and spots another Grey. Rankine ducks out of cover and takes 2 shots, both missing. The others can't seem to get in a good position so they stay low, anxious to see how Brophy makes out.

He doesn't. He eats a laser blast right in the face.

Le is dropped by a sniper. Cavataio gets to higher ground, but can't see anything. That's when I call Mission Abort. There's no way we can proceed with 3 incapacitated and only 1 tango down. No one can see 5 feet in front of them in that god damn magical alien darkness.

The troops make it back onto the Sky Ranger, Cavataio drawing fire the whole way but dodging like a madman. Now they at least know that these aliens are not fucking around. They are Supreme Assholes, who come to Earth and mess with our shit for NO REASON. GOD DAMN. EARTH FOR HUMANS!

Anyways, Brunelleshi was promoted to Sergeant for being the only man to bag an alien. Donaldson, through some incredible fuck-up in the paper work, was also promoted. Evidently, getting shot in the leg and never setting foot off the Sky Ranger is what we like to see from our soldiers. Whatever, maybe this will give him the confidence he needs to actually move around a little. I think someone else will take over as heavy gunner though. 

Pvt. Le however, receives a near fatal wound and gets nothing. This is the truly amazing part: Le is almost killed on the field, but he'll be ready for action in a week. Donaldson? FORTY FIVE DAYS! It will take him FORTY FIVE DAYS to heal up. That's a lot of Rock Band. 

Can't wait to meet the replacements!

RIP Brophy. Now you know why we don't talk with the aliens.

Mission Outcome: Poor.

Day 11

Satan's House Scientists have figured out how to make Laser Pistols. The boys in engineering say they can replace our conventional weapons with lasers in just over a week. I hope they'll get to use them soon. If we don't take down some aliens soon, the governments who fund us will be less inclined to keep us fed. And that's when the aliens knock down our door and mess with our shit.

Unacceptable. 

Pvt. Donaldson and Pvt. Cicconi are getting too good at rock-band. Pvt. Evans and Pvt. Cavataio have been in the galley for the past few days, "Getting a stew going on" they say. Pvt. Rankine keeps saying he'll report to daily briefings, but he never shows up. We need a life threatening situation FAST to wake up these rookies.

The First Week

THE ROSTER

Pvt. M Brunelleshi

Pvt. J Cavataio

Pvt. M Evans

Pvt. M Le

Pvt. L Cicconi

Pvt. D Rankine

Pvt. J Donaldson

Pvt. M Brophy

The troops have settled into "Satan's House", our wonderfully named base of operations. It's in a secret location somewhere in Cuba, close to the Bermuda Triangle so we can get the jump on any alien who tries to steal a yacht or dump a World War 2 airplane, just to mess with our shit. The recruits are pretty green, but they seem to hate aliens, which is 90 % of this job. 

Satan's House holds 2 Interceptor fighters and 1 Sky Ranger transport ship. The pilots keep mostly to themselves, especially since the new recruits arrived... they have some strange behavior. Pvt. Le insists he is the "Head Sniper" and has challenged to fight anyone who claims otherwise. Pvt. Brunelleschi spends most of his time playing with the guns and having one-way staring contests with the rest of the staff. Pvt. Brophy has been found sleeping outside and mentioning, very politely, that maybe we should try *talking* with the aliens. 

I can't wait to see him try.

No sightings reported yet, but it's only a matter of time.

X-Com

X-Com is an old video game for the PC, where you take the lead of an alien-fighting paramilitary organization dedicated to preserving the planet Earth for its glorious human residents. You pick the location and organize the running of your base, raise funding and train soldiers. Soldiers who you can name. This is our story.