Microprose UK - Terry Greer
Microprose UK
X-Com Alliance
Plot Progression and Level definition
Terry Greer
November 1998
Version 2
NB. This contains substantial changes to the overall plot from the first version
INDEX
Introduction 4
Mission list and status as of June 1998 5
Revised Mission 5
New missions added to previous chart 6
Deathmatch/Filler missions 7
Skills within the game 8
PLOT 9
01 Into the Hornets nest (The Scout Ship) P2 10
02 Who goes there? (The ruined city) P3 11
03 Ordeal of fire (The sector command post) P3 13
04 Dark deeds (Ascidian Asteroid space station) P3/4 15
05 The request (The transport ship) P3+Ascidian 16
06A Sandcrawler (Sandcrawler) P1 18
06 Slash and burn (The crashed Transport ship) P1 19
07 Lure and Bait (The Elerium mining colony) P3/4 20
08 Mop up (Colony outpost) P3+Ascidian 22
09 Phage (Research station) P3/4 23
10 Double Cross (Supply Dump) P3/4 25
11 The trap (research station revisited) P4 26
12 Sleeping with the enemy (Atmospheric defence station) P3/4 27
13 Revelation (Diplomatic embassy) P1 28
14 The Sky is falling (Command bunker) P4 29
15 Homecoming (Battleship) P4 31
16 Home run (Patton) P4 33
Fail cutscenes 34
Background Information 35
The Aftermath of the Alien Wars 35
The New frontier (2054) 35
The Broadsword class (The Patton) 36
Axial Mount 36
Breaching pods 37
Later History 37
Ascidian + Sectoid history 38
The Discovery of Earth 38
The rise of the Gods 39
The Origin of the Sectoids 40
The fall of the Earth Dynasty 40
Psionics 41
The Fall of Ascidia 42
Sectoid Society 43
Breeding 43
Sectoid 'Strains'. Mentats, Commanders, Drones. 43
The Nexus 44
Etherials 44
The Hive mind 44
Individualism in Sectoid Society 45
Structure of Sectoid society 46
Swarming/Conquest 46
Control of other species (Ascidians/Humans) 47
Genetic 'constructs': Chrysalids, Housekeepers,Mutons 47
Snakemen (and other intelligent 'Slave' races) 47
The Ascidian system 48
Ascidian and Sectoid Homeworld locations. 49
Postscript: 50
The plot and its relationship to the rest of the XCom universe: 50
Abbreviations and Glossary 51
Introduction
This is a enhanced and expanded draft to:
• Outline the major plot events of Alliance
• How they fit in with the FMV sequences.
• Propose changes to the FMV and script
Suggestions for additional plot development or discussion on the changes made are not only welcome but essential if we are to make damn sure this is the best we can do.
Please note that each mission now has two names, a map name and a mission or tag name. The map name should be used for development, with the ‘tag name’ being used in game to label the ‘episode’ more dramatically for the player.
These ‘Tag names’ are by no means set in stone.
It has been suggested that these tag names be made into ‘mission names’ such as ‘Operation desert Storm’, rather than have then as ‘episode names’. I would be happy with either approach and would welcome feedback and suggestions for names. Names are far more important as labels than numbers from the players point of view.
Please note that the map name should always be used in all correspondence, and not the mission number.
The map name will remain constant, but the order the missions occur within the game has changed substantially, and could do so again.
There is some question as to if we can use the term 'Mentat' since it is used so prominently in Dune. If this is the case we can simply change the term to 'Mentad'.
Notable changes from the previous plot overview
• I have abandoned the use of letters and numbers for numbering the maps. It turned out to be far more cumbersome than intended (and nobody used it anyway).
• In laying out the missions, and their changes, I have removed references to levels which were only ever designed on paper or as far as very basic geometry.
• The order and number of missions has changed considerably.
• Background details regarding Etherials and Snakemen have been altered more in line with feedback received from the first version of the doc.
• The Ascidian/Sectoid system map has been altered to bring it into line with the revised plot.
Mission list and status as of June 1998
Revised Mission
|New Mission No. |Mission name |Was mission number |Status |Notes |
|& Level Designer | | | | |
|01: SP |The scout ship |1 |Geometry 95% |Updated mission specification needed. |
| |Into the hornet’s nest | |Scripting 90% | |
|02: RL |The Ruined city |2 |Geometry 75% |In a state where we can start to playtest the level, and try out alien placement. Awaiting full mission |
| |Who goes there? | |Scripting 0% |specification |
|03: RL |The sector command post |3 |Geometry 95% |In a state where we can start to playtest the level, and try out alien placement. Awaiting full mission |
| |Ordeal of fire | |Scripting 0% |specification |
|04: RL |Ascidian Asteroid Space Stat. |5 |Geometry 95% |Updated mission specification needed. |
| |Dark deeds | |Scripting 90% | |
|05: MC |The transport ship |4 |Geometry 90% |In a state where we can start to playtest the level, and try out alien placement. Awaiting full mission |
| |The request | |Scripting 0% |specification |
|06A:PT |Sandcrawler |N/A |Geometry 75% |Awaiting full mission specification. |
| |Sandcrawler | |Scripting 0% |Needs a single player conversion |
|06: PT/MC |The crashed transport ship |8 |Geometry 15%? |This simply didn’t work properly. To make it easier to complete, the jungle setting should be changed to a|
| |Slash and Burn | |Scripting 0% |desert setting, and linked to the previous multiplayer level, which should then be simplified as the first|
| | | | |part of this. Confirmation awaiting checking of geometry. |
|07: MC |The Elerium mining colony |6 |Geometry 85% |Needs revising, and some serious overhaul.(In particular the middle section) |
| |Lure and bait | |Scripting 0% |Awaiting full mission specification |
|08: RL |Colony outpost |10 |Geometry 90% |In a state where we can start to playtest the level, and try out alien placement. Awaiting full mission |
| |Mop up | |Scripting 0% |specification |
|09: SP |The research station |7 |Geometry 90% |In a state where we can start to playtest the level, and try out alien placement. Awaiting full mission |
| |Phage | |Scripting 0% |specification |
|10: SP |Supply dump |13 |Geometry 90% |Almost in a state where we can start to playtest the level, and try out alien placement. Awaiting full |
| |Double cross | |Scripting 0% |mission specification |
|11: RL |The research station(revisited) |14 |Geometry 90% |In a state where we can start to playtest the level, and try out alien placement. Awaiting full mission |
| |The Trap | |Scripting 0% |specification |
|12: PT |Atmospheric defence station |09 |Geometry 85% |In a state where we can start to playtest the level, and try out alien placement. Updated mission |
| |Sleeping with the enemy | |Scripting 0% |specification needed |
|13: MC |Diplomatic Embassy |12 |Geometry 95% |In a state where we can start to playtest the level, and try out alien placement. Updated mission |
| |Revelation | |Scripting 75% |specification needed |
|14: MC |Command bunker |15 |Geometry 35% |Mission aims need revising. |
| |The Sky is falling | |Scripting 0% |Awaiting full mission specification |
|15:TBD |Battleship |N/A |Geometry 0% |Map requirements to be laid out, mapper to be assigned |
| |Homecoming | |Scripting 0% | |
| | | | | |
|TBD: TG/MC |Patton |11 |Geometry 30% |Part completed. Awaiting full mission specification. Position in overall plot to be decided. |
| |Home run | |Scripting 0% | |
New missions added to previous chart
Full missions
|New Mission No. |Mission name |Was mission number |Status |Notes |
|& Level Designer | | | | |
|06A:PT |Sandcrawler |N/A |Geometry 85% |This is a new idea, which will allow us to make use of the unreal engine in a novel manner. |
| |Sandcawler | |Scripting 0% |The level is being designed as a deathmatch level, and will be converted for the single |
| | | | |player. |
| | | | |For the time being it will not contain any major plot advances or details. |
|15:TBD |Battleship |N/A |Geometry 0% |Map requirements to be laid out, mapper to be assigned |
| |Homecoming | |Scripting 0% | |
Most missions are virtually complete (apart from scripting).
Level 15 is a new requirement for the revised plot.
Consideration was given to resurrecting an existing map: This was rejected for the following reasons.
• All existing geometry's are very basic, and were done with much less knowledge of Unreal’s capabilities. This would mean extensive re-working, and would not give much, if any, benefit in time saved.
• Existing scenarios were rather limiting in terms of environment, and we now know how to push the system more.
• The scenario/setting is such a cool idea that we should go for it.
Deathmatch/Filler missions
|New Mission No. |Mission name |Was mission number |Status |Notes |
|& Level Designer | | | | |
|X1: GJ |Ascidian ruins |new |45% |Deathmatch level |
|X2: GJ |Snakeman Processing Plant |new |80% |Deathmatch level |
|X3: GJ |Sectoid Mountaintop retreat |new |0% |Deathmatch level |
Most of the levels we currently have are not ideal Deathmatch material.
We have two options for compensating for this:
• Firstly to construct Deathmatch levels from relevant ‘sections’ of the existing mission maps.
• To actually create specific Deathmatch levels.
The former is very easy to do and has already been tried with great effect. This will be carried out in earnest as levels are finally finished.
For the latter we intend to construct a small series of Deathmatch levels that are versatile enough to be used in multiple ways.
These levels should:
• Be capable of Multiplayer Deathmatch head to head play (2-16 players assuming 4-8 players optimally)
• Be able to be subsumed later (if time permits or need arises) into the main mission structure as ‘mini scenarios’.
• Form a self contained ‘loop’ where each ‘level’ has a significant different theme and flavour.
• Fit in with Geometry, style, texture use and logic of existing levels.
Details of these levels occur later in this document.(TBD)
Skills within the game
• Skills within each mission will be made more important.
• The player will be expected to make use of troopers with skills within a mission. Skills required for a mission will be made apparent during the briefing and in hint text for the quad.
• If an attempt is made to take the last trooper with that skill on a mission, the player will be warned how important that member of the Patton is.
• Although not stated explicitly, it will be implicit that specialist trooper skills are important and that they should be conserved.
• If the player loses all those with a particular skill (and level of skill), it will trigger an alert message telling the player that the total loss of that skill to the Patton leads to the failure to return home, and the fall of Ascidia. This will lead into the fail game sequence.
Exact text for the messages/alerts above TBD
PLOT
NB. Mission briefings will be found in each missions specification.
FMV INTRO
FMV SEQUENCE 1
INTRO
Cydonia, dimension gate, battle above planet.
The end of the sequence will need slight re-editing, and one or two new shots. (Details TBD)
CHAPTER 1
Arriving at Mars for a scientific survey of the alien bases at Cydonia the USS Patton, crewed mainly with scientists and researchers, inadvertently awakens an mysterious device also in orbit.
The device is a alien transporter* which, now activated, sends the Patton through an artificial wormhole to a far distant star system. Not built to withstand the forces generated by such a voyage, it arrives disabled and disorientated, with a large number of the crew dead, or injured.
As the systems come back on line it becomes apparent that they have been transported into the midst of a titanic struggle between two alien races.
The crew watch as one race, heavily outnumbered, tries bravely to protect it’s world from an attacking space fleet.
Despite inflicting heavy losses the defenders are destroyed, but not before they have managed to destroy the main part of the invading force, forcing their attackers back into the depths of space.
The defenders follow, pushing their enemy further from their homeworld, leaving the Patton undiscovered, and floating amidst the wreckage from the battle.
Still keeping a low profile by only using it's passive sensors, the Patton detects a nearby floating derelict from the attacker's fleet, and in a desperate attempt to find out what the hell is going on, the captain decides to initiate a boarding action using a breaching pod,
*The device is not Sectoid, but Ascidian, left over from the Ascidians visit to Earth 10000 years ago. Sectoids have simply 'appropriated' the technology. This information will be revealed via a 'command message' during the game.
01 Into the Hornets nest (The Scout Ship) P2
Day 0
An introduction to the game, kept small and simple with only 2 troopers used to get a feel for the control methods.
Boarding the alien ship the orders are to secure the vessel and obtain all possible information.
The ship is piloted by the Sectoids, a race we know well from previous X-Com encounters.
During the boarding the Sectoids, in an attempt to prevent the player from getting the required data, start a self destruct sequence.
If the player finds the secret area, this destruct sequence can be cancelled. This will give an equipment bonus to the player.
In the debriefing we will find out that:
• Most data is purged by the time we take control of the alien ship
• The rest uses complex encryption codes unknown to the Patton crew.
• There’s nothing in the data to tell the player anything about the Sectoid's enemy.
We are left with one fundamental question to be answered with the next mission; Who are the Sectoids fighting?
If the data recovered is made the subject of a research project, then addition information will be made available to the player.
This information will include star charts and details of the binary system inhabited by the Ascidians and Sectoids.
Additional information will also hint at the fact that the attack was an 'kamikaze' strike aimed at a specific point on the planet below.
(This location will be discovered anyway in advance of mission 2, but the information will also mention the bunker and caves deep below the surface).
02 Who goes there? (The ruined city) P3
Day 3
Uses 3 troopers (allowing the player to gain a little more practice before going on to a full squad, and to gain experience of protecting a squad member).
Trapped sixty light years from home, without the technology to get home, and with a Sectoid fleet almost breathing down their necks, it's clear that the Patton is in a very precarious situation.
Whoever the Sectoids are fighting could be a possible allay, and so the Captain decides to try and contact whoever, or whatever lives on the planet below.
The Patton's sensors are now mostly back on line and they reveal large areas below that have been ravaged by war.
In particular they detect sporadic fighting from a small settlement near to a recently formed blast crater.
Breaking radio silence the Patton broadcasts messages and greetings but receives no response.
The captain is understandably loath to risk a landing with the ship’s only shuttle, but decides there is no other way to contact these 'enemies of the Sectoids'.
The planet below is blanketed in it's own sensor net, but the Patton detects a blind-spot, a way through the electromagnetic fog, probably the same one that the Sectoids used in their bombing run, and the captain decides its worth the risk.
There are many still injured, and the choice of who to take is still severely limited.
The player will be instructed to take a trooper with 'Alien Languages' as a skill so that contact with the mysterious race fighting the Sectoids can be made.
While the Patton continues to broadcast friendship messages, using the ship's shuttle, the player's squad lands in the blast crater, and makes their way into the ravaged city.
The architecture is unlike any alien artefact that Xcom has every come across.
The design, construction and imagery are reminiscent of certain ancient Earth cultures, in particular ancient Egypt. Much will be made of this in Patton broadcasts as the troopers move around. The place has been decimated, first by the blast, and afterwards by the invading Sectoids.
As the squad make their way through the damaged city, they will come across Ascidian and Sectoid corpses, and witness Sectoids killing Ascidians*.
As they pick their way through the ruins, the player will come across barricades, apparently set up by the Ascidians to slow down the invaders progress, strewn with the bodies of the defenders.
The players route will lead into the old undercity, down into the natural caverns deep bellow ground, where the remaining Defenders are still bravely defending against the remnants of the Sectoid invasion force from a reinforced bunker.
After the player takes out these attackers, the firing from the bunker will cease, and the trooper with 'Alien languages' skill will offer to try and contact the Ascidians within.
A very short scripted piece will then follow with the trooper approaching the bunker, and the Ascidians opening the doors and coming out.
This signifies end of mission, and the details of the proposed alliance will be spelt out in the players debriefing. (Including the following)
The Sectoid raid was an attempt to take out several high ranking Ascidians. The Ascidians targeted were planning the Ascidian counterattack of Sectus, and their loss to the Ascidian cause would have been immense.
Ascidian plans have always been hampered by their extreme susceptibility to psionic attack. In any face to face attack Sectoids would simply use psionics to turn Ascidian against Ascidian, or leave them gibbering wreaks upon the floor. In the humans they see an immense potential, a secret weapon, a weapon that can go where they can't and which could turn the tide of the war.
*Due to the way the AI operates it is entirely possible that the player will enter into conflict with these Ascidian forces.
However even if Ascidians are killed this will not affect the formation of the alliance, but should have an affect in a later mission.
Flags for future missions are:
• Player Ascidian conflict, but no deaths.
• Ascidians killed, but no player deaths.
• Squad member killed, obviously not the player character, but no Ascidians killed by the player.
• Deaths on both sides
03 Ordeal of fire (The sector command post) P3
Day 10
The Ascidians want the Patton's help.
They have scheduled an attack on a Sectoid Command post located on Ea.
Ea is a small airless world with an elliptical orbit at right angles to orbit of Ascidia, that swings close to Ascidia every 135 days.
Ea has particular significance to the Ascidians, who consider it the doorway to the afterlife, and as far back as they can remember they interred the dead body of their most revered individuals there.
Sectoids on its surface are an intolerable sacrilege that must be rectified.(This will be explained in the briefing)
This command post* on its surface is used to monitor Ascidian deployment and control all Sectoid forces in the Ascidian home system. If this base could be destroyed then the disruption to the Sectoid chain of command would free up resources and allow the Ascidians to go on the offensive.
Once every 17 years the orbits conspire for Ea to enter into the shadow of Ascidia, forming an eclipse as seen from the surface of Ea.
The Ascidians have been waiting for this event for almost ten years, for while the base contains an Elerium power source, and bristles with sensors and weaponry, it has two major weakness:
• Most of the outlying defences are solar powered.
• The Sectoids defences have been built to keep out psionically challenged Ascidians and not humans.
These simple oversights could cost the Sectoids dear.
Due to their psionic susceptibility, in face to face combat, the Ascidians can only intercept the base using their 'Harbinger' attack craft. Consequently they had already resigned themselves to the fact that, while they stood a good chance of neutralising the base, much of value would also be destroyed.
If the player was to take a small squad inside the base prior to the attack, they could be of immense use.
The aims of the squad are multiple:
• Shut down the computer controlling any defences powered directly from the base in order to give the attacking ships a better chance and reduce casualties.
• Sabotage any craft in the hanger bays, again to prevent Ascidian casualties.
• Obtain the Bio-lattice embedded within the skull of the base commander.
This Bio-lattice is particularly important, it is a nano-construct built molecule by molecule, works at the quantum level, and is impossible to copy.
Linked directly to the brain the lattice acts as a repository and recording of everything experienced by the host. Simply having the lattice implanted, would enable any Sectoid to step immediately into the commanders role, with full memory of all
that had gone before.
If the Ascidians can read the dead commanders memories it would give them knowledge of every action ever carried out or planned by the base commander. It would compromise all the plans the Sectoids had made up to that point.
To the Sectoids it's capture would be a disaster.
The Ascidians provide as much detail of the base as they can, including a possible entry route into the base.
The mission itself starts inside the Patton shuttle, just after it has made a clandestine landing in a small box cannon, the base proper is across a canyon, which is guarded by an automated sentry gun system. This automated system is solar powered, which gives the player his opportunity to gain access once the eclipse occurs.
Once across the canyon, the squad enters ancient Ascidian catacombs, where the bodies of dead leaders were once interred, before the coming of the Sectoids.
If any resistance is met the squad is to try and avoid it, if this is impossible it should be dealt with quickly since the mission will get much tougher if the alarm is raised. The player will be rewarded for careful and stealthy play.
Any attempt to enter the ship through the front door will be dealt with by extreme force. The only way in will be via the bases' thermal heat vents, which will require careful timing.
On being discovered the Base commander will attempt to escape to his escape module. The commander must be prevented from escaping, and shot, and re-shot, until the ‘Bio-lattice’ is released from his head. The Captains feedback from the Patton will underline his distaste at carrying out this act.
This is important because it will show how he changes later in the game after his ordeal at the hands of the Sectoids in mission 5. He knows that an alliance is necessary in order to get us home, but he is still unsure if we can trust the Ascidians? (This info will be passed across in command messages between missions)
To finish the mission, the player will then either:
• Have to get his squad out and away before the Ascidian attack, and back to the shuttle.
• Reconfigure the remaining escape capsule to take him back to the shuttle/Patton.
Final decision will depending on how scripting and playtesting progress.
The Ascidians will be overjoyed, not only have they recaptured control over a large part of the Ascidian system, but they now have details of Sectoid plans. One plan in particular worries them. (see mission 5)
As part f the debriefing it will be mentioned that the Captain has been invited to Ascidia to receive 'honours' and valuable supplies/gifts, and that Yeager has been left in command.
*These Command posts are large customised spacecraft that have touched down on the surface of another world. Once down, the craft cannot possibly lift off again. They are in effect 'instant bases'.
This is important as the only way in is via the engine vents beneath the ship.
(This information will be included in the mission briefing)
04 Dark deeds (Ascidian Asteroid space station) P3/4
Day 18
At the end of the previous mission the Captain was invited to Ascidia to cement the alliance.
A 'Command message', between this and the previous mission, will report on what the Ascidians have discovered from the Bio-lattice recovered in the previous mission. This intelligence will point to the next mission (see the transport ship).
The mission briefing for 'dark deeds' will seem to 'break into' the normal run of events, with a 'priority alert' bombshell:
'The Ascidian shuttle en-route to Ascidia containing the captain has been ambushed and destroyed by a Sectoid fleet'.
However, one of the ship’s life pods is unaccounted for, Ascidian transmissions indicate that the captain may have survived, but there is no sign of any escape pod.
The Patton then receives a second bombshell, a Sectoid transmission.
The image of the 'High Sectoid' will appear for the first time.
It will announce that it has the captain safe and sound. Should the Patton give itself up, the captain will be returned, and it promises help in returning to Earth. However, should the Patton continue helping the Ascidians, then it will be earmarked for destruction. They have a day to decide.
Yeager is not taken in, she knows the Sectoids for what they really are.
The Sectoid transmission is traced to a small space station. This base, constructed from hollowed out asteroids, was originally built by the Ascidians, but was captured by the enemy a few weeks previously.
The High Sectoid from the transmission is well known to the Ascidians. It has been linked to scores of abductions and mutilations in Ascidian space, and the appearance of 'converted' Ascidians' who work clandestinely for the good of the Sectoids. The high Sectoid is considered to be one of only four, and the Ascidians think he is being groomed for greater things.(High Sectoids 'name' to be decided)
The Ascidians would be no use in an attack, while they could destroy the site using their 'Harbinger's' , it would be of little use to the Patton as the Captain would be killed.
If the Patton can launch an attack, and secure the most vital parts of the station, they will come in and help clear up afterwards.
The Ascidians provide the Patton with station schematics, this allows the player to start the game with a complete map for the first time, even going as far as suggesting where the captain may be held.
A rescue is mounted towards this installation suspected of holding him, and the full mission briefing is given.
The mission is straightforward, find the captain and rescue him, but is complicated by two other factors.
• The Sectoids will attempt to destroy the station if they get wind of the attack
• The place is a veritable death trap, filled with high explosives.
The mission will also :
• Expect the player to make intelligent decisions as to when an area is secure.
• Feature a cameo of the ‘high Sectoid’ in the final ‘scene’.
05 The request (The transport ship) P3+Ascidian
Day 24
A variation with one member of the squad not fully under the control of the player (perhaps with it’s own scripted agenda.).
The Ascidians make a request for aid.
Their Bio-Lattice research has identified a command given by the High Sectoid, to the Commander of the base destroyed in mission 3, to meet, and protect a transport ship. This ship has now been detected en-route to the recently destroyed Sectoid base on Ea.
The Ascidians have been jamming all system communication and the ship is still unaware that the base has been destroyed. It’s only a matter of time before it gets in to visual range, so speed is important.
The details recovered from the lattice indicate that the transport is carrying a new weapon, of unknown construction and type. The weapon is known as a 'singularity inducer', but that tells the Ascidians nothing.
The ship is of Ophidian (Snakeman) construction, and would be easy to destroy, but that would then also destroy it's cargo.
The Ascidians need to obtain details of the weapon, preferably actual get hold of working examples, they need to know its capabilities and mode of operation. It may be possible to use it against the Sectoids.
They want an Ascidian specialist to be placed on board the ship, somebody who knows what to look for.
The Patton has to provide an escort. The Troopers’ job is to accompany him while he carries out his mission, and to protect him at all costs.
Whilst the above is true, the Ascidians also want an eye-witness account of human effectiveness in combat. The Ascidians secondary job is to record the troopers’ activities for later analysis by the high council.
One of the captured Sectoid craft from the previous mission is used to gain entry to one of the transports hanger bays.
Once on board the Ascidians’ secret agenda will be manifest by a series of increasingly strange requests for aid.
During the mission the Ascidian will:
• Change aspects of the mission briefing on the fly.
• Introduce new sub-goals, apparently at random.
• Run off on ‘secret missions’ with a request to ‘follow me’
• Intentionally alert the enemy to the squads presence.
• Make comments about ‘how well’ they were performing, possibly even ‘rating’ them.
The Ophidian ship is actually performing multiple tasks:
• It is transporting a section of the 'gate' generator that is to be used to 'fling' the killing asteroid at Ascidia. (The Ascidian will comment on it if he sees it)
• It is transporting chrysalid 'shock troops' in cryogenic suspension in readiness for the attack on Ascidia.
• It is transporting a 'Singularity inducer', but this won't be found out for a while. (see later)
• It is transporting a Ethereal (see section on ethereal) that is oversseng the matter for the 'hive mind'.
The player must:
• First shut down the main engines, to prevent the ship from escaping (This will cause the ship to drift into an asteroid field, and will result in the loss of one of the cargo pods (The vital one containing the 'singularity inducer'.
• The asteroid hit (above) will result in the release of a large number of Chrysalids from the cargo pods. These will take to the dark recesses, and ducts, of the ship and put the fear of god into the player.
• Track down the weapon. This is impossible (see above), but the player won't know that, and in doing so he will have to explore the entire ship.
• In doing the above he will have to clear out the entire ship, a fair bit of which will be infested by
• Late in the mission it will be discovered that the ship is drifting into the path of a large asteroid, and will be destroyed before the engines can be brought back on line. The player will need to make his getaway.
• During the players return to his ship, the ship will be boarded by reinforcements making it just that little bit more difficult.
A 'post mortem' in the debriefing will lament on the failure of the mission, but that the Ascidians were impressed by the player and squad.
Shortly afterwards a message from the Ascidians will state that further analysis has indicated that the weapon was on board, and that it must have been in the pod broke off early in the previous mission.
06A Sandcrawler (Sandcrawler) P1
Day 28
The Ascidians have tracked the damaged cargo pod from the previous mission to the desert world of 'Gula', where it entered the atmosphere and crashed into a large flat desert plain on the southern continent.
Captured by the Sectoids in the remote past, Gula has been home to the Ophidians for centuries.
The Ascidians suspect that the Ophidians have been genetically modified to be subservient to their Sectoid masters, and have no idea where they originally evolved.
The Ascidian council believe that there is a good chance that the pod survived re-entry. Long range sensors have detected much Ophidian activity in the vicinity and they believe that the device has already been recovered, and is en-route to a nearby Sectoid base.
There is no way the ship or shuttle can get there in the time required, and the only hope is a single 'Razorback', a modified torpedo capable of taking a single trooper.
That trooper (the player) will have to survive on his own until help arrives.
The briefing shows the player an ophidian 'Sandcrawler', a long-range surface tractor used to explore the sand seas of Gula, toiling tirelessly across the surface.
The player is to:
• Board the Sandcrawler.
• Find the device
• Destroy all evidence of human presence (ie blow the thing up)
• Escape, on foot, to the canyon to the north.
• Head to a rendezvous point (given in the HUD display) where the player will be met.
The player's 'razorback' will impact just ahead of the crawler, giving th4e player only a little time to get onto the vehicle before he is attacked by 'Sand-flukes'.
Sand flukes are a hazard that aren't mentioned in the briefing. (But they will be in the eventual debriefing…with an apology for their omission). Sand-flukes only occur on soft sand, unfortunately that's all there is around here, and often follow Sandcrawlers,
The Sandcrawler will be a noisy place, and noisy weapons should not alert the opposition as much as normal.
Eventually the player will find the 'Singularity device', guarded by a forcefield and several Sectoids. the device is small. (Appearance to be designed).
The device is large enough however for the player to clear elements out from his inventory in order to fit it into his backpack. The player should only be left with a single weapon, ammo reload, and medikit.
Once the player has obtained the device, and set the Sandcrawler's reactor to explode, he will make his getaway heading towards a point indicated by the HUD display.
This will lead into an auto-load of the next level.
This mission is largely a lead-in to the following one, and will not be heavily scripted. It was designed primary as a death-match multi-player map.
06 Slash and burn (The crashed Transport ship) P1
Day 29
The Sandcrawler blows up, and the player finds himself on the edge of a canyon.
If the player doesn't descent into the canyon, the sand-flukes will eventually whittle down his reserves and he will die.
Once in the canyon, and at the correct HUD 'waypoint' the Patton will get in touch and give him a second waypoint o aim for.
From here on the player will have to survive until he meets up with friendly forces.
Snakeman weaponry will not be usable by the player, so the player will have to be careful how he rations his ammo.
• Periodically Sectoid ships will pass overhead, and Cyberdisks will be sent out to hunt him down.
• There will be several Ophidian 'basking spots' where the player will have to be particularly careful.
• There will be 'soft sand areas' infested with sand-flukes to avoid.
• If any Ophidians are left alive after an encounter, the player will also have to contend with 'search teams' trying to track him down.
Half-way through the mission the player will come across the wreckage of a small spacecraft…from Earth.
The Patton will be incredulous, and start searching old records, but there will be no way of identifying the ship. The wreckage is fairly recent, certainly not more than a few months. The inference is clear, somebody must have gone through the Mars' Gate ahead of the Patton, but who, and more to the point, where are they now?
There will be a medikit, rifle and ammo hidden in the wreckage.
The mission will play as a single player game, with much more, jumping, and movement than most of the other mission maps.
The landscape will start out as dusk, and then the sun will set, plunging the map into moonlit darkness, the player will have to survive until dawn, when rescue will occur at a designated site.
The rendezvous site will be a wider part of the canyon, containing the rendezvous team, with the captured shuttle.
As the player arrives at the rendezvous site, things take a turn for the worse.
07 Lure and Bait (The Elerium mining colony) P3/4
Day
As the player arrives at shuttle, A sectoid fighter craft appears overhead and fires upon it.
If the player doesn't take charge and get all the men under cover of the nearby caverns, they will all be shot next.
Once under cover the Patton will contact the player and tell him of the problem.
(Audio only…the mission briefing needs re-doing in any case, so it isn't wasted work)
"They're stirred up like an ant's nest, we need to get the Patton's shuttle in to get you away, you're going to need to create a diversion etc…."
There is an Elerium mine nearby, the squad needs to sabotage it in order to draw attention away from a proposed pick-up site.
This sabotage is to take a simple, but effective form:
• In the lower part of the mine the drill ‘safety cut outs’ must be disabled.
• This will cause them to power up and fire overloaded energy beams into the Elerium deposits.
• Elerium is volatile and this should start a chain reaction that will take out the entire area.
• Once this chain reaction has started there will be no way to stop it, and the squad will only have 5-10 minutes (decided by playtesting and difficulty) to get to the pick-up point, through a reinforced map.
During the mission the Captain will radio down encouragement and it will be apparent that any reticence in taking the war to the enemy has evaporated since his brush with the enemy.
This map will feature many dark areas where the use of trooper lighting will be essential for maximum benefit.
Just before the player arrives at the part of the mine where the drills are located, he will enter into a large underground chamber.
This action will activate a series of force-fields trapping him, and any one near him, inside.
Any trooper outside the room will be inaccessible to the player (static on their screens and the player will be unable to 'jump' into them. (They will be classed as 'converted' from now on)
A 'wall' will slide apart revealing a force-field, and behind that the High mentat.
The High mentat will gloatingly thank the player for bringing him the 'singularity inducer'.
(The inducer will be 'teleported' from where it currently is, and it will materialise next to the Mentat. It is now back in the hands of the Sectoids once again.)
The Sectoid will also talk of the humans already in their control, from the crashed ship, and how much it has learned from them. It won't tell the player what the inducer is for, but it will imply that it is being taken back to Sectus to be checked over. The high mentat will then wish the player a speedy death, and will be gone, leaving several Sectoids apparently readying their weapons.
Just before the force-fields come down and the Sectoid guards attack, A couple of Ophidians appear behind the Sectoids, and kill them.
One then comes up to the forcefield and, through a translator device, tells the player, 'Remember this'. He then closes the 'wall' and the forcefields close down.
(This plants an Ophidian 'mole' in the system giving the Patton access to information not available to the Ascidians. It also opens up the potential for the Ophidians to become allies in the future.)
The player then has to deal with the safety cut-outs and get to the pick-up point.
Once the cut-outs have been disabled, the player will only have a finite time before the entire base goes up.
The debriefing will be a depressing affair, the recovery and loss of the 'singularity inducer' weighing heavy.
The crashed human ship will be identified as the Charybdis, a small private trading vessel, presumed lost six months previously, with a crew of twelve.
From now on, if any trooper is left alone on a level which includes the high Sectoid, there is a chance that the trooper will be ‘converted’.
This will only happen once per mission.
Every mission, on which a ‘converted’ trooper is assigned, will have something ‘go wrong’.
One, or more, of these ‘go wrong’ events will be present on every level where more than 1trooper occurs.
Converted troopers do not shoot accurately at the enemy.
‘Conversions’ can be discovered, and reversed, by placing a trooper in medbay for a mission’s duration.
08 Mop up (Colony outpost) P3+Ascidian
Day
Tiamet was once a luxurious world ruled over by the Ascidians, evidence of their structures can still be found scattered across the surface, some are still in good order and these have been commandeered by the Sectoids.
Tiamet was overrun many decades ago, and all Ascidians were thought to have been annihilated then, but recent messages seem to indicate that, incredibly, there are still survivors holding out in the hills.
Bolstered by recent successes, and by the development of a Psi-shield the Ascidians want us to investigate.
The psi-shield is an Ascidian development, based on information provided by Patton scientists.
The Ascidians council want the player to take an Ascidian fitted with the psi-shield, down to the surface of Tiamet and meet with these 'resistance fighters'.
If successful the Ascidians on Tiamet will be fitted with the shield and be far more effective at fighting back.
The council make contact with the 'survivors' who they are convinced are genuine, and arrange a meeting.
The squad have to covertly reach the meeting point, located within a cave. There they will meet with the 'resistance fighters', and give them the shielding devices that will allow them to remain hidden from the Sectoids.
While the hand-over is taking place, an Ascidian within the resistance group starts laying in to the resistance fighters and X-COM around them.
This Ascidian appears to be virtually indestructible, but it is in fact a new type of cyber-Ascidian, specially constructed for this exact purpose.
In addition, the Ascidian with the psi-shield is a hopeless failure, and he panics and runs into the darkness.
A few Sectoids will simultaneously appear, teleported in to help out the extermination.
Their primary action will be to fire at the roof of the cave-mouth causing it to collapse, and forcing the squad to find a new way out.
Out of contact with the Patton the squad will be pitched into the unknown with no mission briefing to follow. The shuttle , out of contact with the squad, will consider them dead, and return home.
The recovery of the Psi amplifier, and destruction of the cyber-ascidian will be only the start of the squads problems.
Even after finding their way into the occupied Ascidian outpost, they will have to contend with:
• Discovering a way to alert the Patton of their survival
• Finding a route to the landing pad, avoiding the many powerful psionic ethereals present.
• Defending the pad against a massive force until their rescue from the recalled shuttle
The Ascidian buildings are now used as a 'conversion centre' and evidence of this will be found everywhere, including large numbers of converted Ascidians and Cyber-Ascidians en-ice..
Along the way the player will find out about Ascidian involvement with early human history, and drop hints that they also created the Sectoid race themselves.
The debriefing will indicate that scientists on board the Patton have examined the Psi-shield and figured out what went wrong. The Ascidians now soon have psi-shields.
This needs to be automatic, and not part of the normal research, as we need to guarantee it is done by a specific stage of the game.
09 Phage (Research station) P3/4
Day
The Patton receives a message originating at the Ophidian base on Gula, which it recently sabotaged.
The message is from an Ophidian, who gives them information regarding the crew of the Charybdis.
They were sent on a transport to a Sectoid research station, co-ordinates supplied.
The Ophidian had never seen an uncontrolled species before and admired the way they fought. He thinks they deserve better, although he thinks they may all be dead by now. He transmits a series of codes, and asks for assistance when the war is over in ridding Gula of the Sectoid presence. He claims he is not alone (He comes across as naïve, and intellectually challenged. It's a reasonable assumption that the Ophidians have had their intelligence reduced to make them more tractable.
Pressured by the Captain, the Ascidians provide the Patton with intelligence for the Sectoid Research station which lies within the asteroid field between Ascidia and Sectus. The station has no main armament, its power signature is small, and its also only half completed. The Ascidians did not consider it a threat and bypassed it in an attempt to avoid detection.
The Ascidians also provide information that suggests that a prototype of a new transportation device is being worked on there.
This information leads the Patton’s scientists to believe that this may give some insight in to the workings of the dimension gate generator previously found at the alien base at Cydonia on Mars.
Unfortunately this doesn’t sit well with Ascidian plans to keep a low profile until they can hit the Sectoids hard on their home planet.
They also (and understandably) consider the source untrustworthy.
Undeterred the Captain plans a small raiding party utilising a captured Sectoid craft to gain access.
The captains plan is foolhardy, but his recent brush with the Sectoids have robbed him of some of his better judgement.
The mission is launched, and initially all goes well.
The base is being used by the Sectoids for more than one type of research. The squad will find evidence of ‘Portal technology’ along with areas devoted to Bio-medical, and viral research.
This latter area will prove particularly problematic in that a fire-fight will ensure in a wing of the most virulent culture area.
The result will be troopers highly contaminated with plague virus (the player remaining apparently immune). The advantage of this is that troopers put into medbay will also get scanned for ‘conversion’. This give the player a really good chance of discovering this early on.
The player will also come across the remains of the Charybdis crew. A series of rooms will be devoted to many and various forms of Human experimentation and mutilation. Some will be alive, and begging to be put out of their misery.
The squad will be able to find a piece of the portal device being built here. The main device itself should be visible out of the window, but only just started and in dark silhouette, so that no detail is seen until the station is revisited later.
The piece will ultimately prove of little use. What information is obtained will give more details of some gigantic plot that the Sectoids are up to and that it involves this research station. The details will be very vague and include only a little basic physics.
After obtaining the piece, if the player tries to cause any real damage, then extreme force should be applied to persuade them to leave. The Patton will continually request that they pull out…NOW.
Wave after wave of defenders will sap the squads strength and force them back to their shuttle. The only way to ‘win’ this mission is to withdraw, the player will be told this repeatedly by the Patton.
If he chooses to ignore the advice, its his fault.
Plague cannot be eliminated until the cure has been ‘found’ and researched. A trooper with plague should have their health, and cumulative health reduced each ‘mission’ until either the trooper dies or the cure is developed.
A trooper in Medbay should deteriorate slower than one who isn’t. Medbay should slow plague.
If Plague exists on the Patton, then each ‘debriefing stage’ 0-1 troopers at random should ‘catch it’.
If the plague is not confined to medbay then 1-2 additional troopers should develop the disease.
10 Double Cross (Supply Dump) P3/4
Day
Things haven't been going too well lately.
As long as the 'Phage' is still rampant on the Patton, the ship can have no contact with the Ascidians.
Information recovered from the previous mission indicate that the original phage organism originated on Apsu, dredged from the depths of the shallow methane sea that covers the entire surface.
Obtaining the pure form of the phage could help in obtaining a cure, so the Patton sets course.
Apsu is obviously heavily used by the Sectoids, its surface dotted with various mining platforms.
These platforms are CHON factories. (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen), and each is a vast automated apparatus for converting the basic elements of life into a form useable by the Sectoids each resembling an Earthly oil rig.
The Captain chooses one which appears powered down and disused.
The team needs to contain a xenobiologist to identify possible Phage sources.
Initially deathly quiet, with just the occasional dripping sound, the base will 'come back to life' once the power has been turned back on.
Many items within this facility do not react well to explosions so care needs to be taken.
The base is far from empty, it is well defended with Housekeepers, Cyberdisks, Sectopods and Sectoids, and is used by the Sectoids as a listening post. Destroying the site will be a serious blow to Sectoid intelligence
Once the player clears out the base they can activate the transmitter and receive transmissions.
The Patton will obtain Phage samples, but while they could be used to develop a cure, there simply isn't enough time to develop an antidote from scratch. The Patton has only one possible solution.
11 The trap (research station revisited) P4
Day
The Patton is now on its own.
The cure for the Phage plague has to be back at the research station, they have to return.
This time they use a breaching pod to gain access. On their approach they can see the, now finished, curve of the portal, and realise that the Sectoids have built a gigantic dimension gate attached to the site.
As they struggle out into the first room, the player is 'teleported out' everything goes black.
When he comes too (fade in again) he is trapped inside a forcefield, unable to move (but can look around).
The player cannot contact the other members of his squad, they should all show as static, and he should be prevented from 'jumping' into them.
Outside the High Mentat floats on its little disk:
• It will look the player in the eye and gloat.
• It will press a switch and a vial of purple liquid will rise from the table. 'Is this what you were looking for?'
• It will then try and enlist the support of the player (Wraith).
• It will say how the players psionic skills are unique
• It will offer to take Wraith back to earth (suitably modified to help it gain mastery over the earth, and found a new Sectoid colony.
Just as it is finishing there will be an explosion and the door will blow in, The Sectoid will look towards the explosion, and then retreat into a small ancillary tube, and be gone, just as the players squad arrives.
One of the troopers will explain how they've fought their way to him tracking his suit telemetry, and that they have to go now. (The vial of serum is still there to be grabbed.)
The player now needs to fight his way out of the station, but will need to find a slightly different route from the way in, which is now stoutly defended.
The debriefing is a relief, they now have the antidote.
12 Sleeping with the enemy (Atmospheric defence station) P3/4
Day
The Patton rejoins the Ascidians for an attack on an atmospheric defence station high above the surface of the Sectoid homeworld ( Sectus)
In order to make the planet below accessible to Ascidian fighter craft the defence grid, that protects the planet below from unwelcome visitors, needs to be taken out.
Production of the Psi-shield is only just underway, and so the humans aboard the Patton, with their psionic resistance, are the ideal vehicle for this.
The squad will enter the hanger bay in the shuttle, which has been electronically camouflaged to resemble a Sectoid fighter (at least as far as the Sectoid sensors are concerned).
Once aboard the station, the Squad has several tasks to complete:
• It has to continually destroy any security ‘cameras’ along its route, this ensures minimal hassle from defenders.
• The squad must also disable all long range scanners, shields and defences. This should ensure that the attacking Ascidian fleet isn’t seen until its too late.
• The squad must also place a transceiver near the site of the main power generator so it can be targeted. Once started, the chain reaction should take out the entire structure after a predetermined time to allow the squad to get back to the shuttle. This predetermined time will be continually reset as the player moves back across the map so that no matter what he does, it feels as though he is racing against the clock.
Although not a major part of the mission, the Patton will radio observations to the squad, observations that imply that the Ascidians have possibly been hiding something.
The mission needs to be synchronised with attacks from the Ascidians so a tight timetable is required. Certain areas of the map will be hit before others, it is essential not to be in those areas.
An Ascidian ‘prisoner’ will be found in one of the harder to reach areas.
If rescued, he will tag along with the rest of the squad (as for the transport ship), and possibly even escape with them at the end.
He will be very grateful for his rescue. The longer he survives, the more ‘details’ about the Ascidians he will give away’
He will warn the squad that the council have no intention of helping the Patton return to Earth.
The Ascidians do not trust short lived species, they simply do not have he perspective for proper civilisation. They simply will not trust humanity with 'Gate' technology.
This betrayal hurts immensely, but the captain decides that they must carry on helping the Ascidians, at least for now
13 Revelation (Diplomatic embassy) P1
Day
The Ascidians are having problems, Sectus is holding out better than expected.
Although the outer planetary defence grid has been destroyed, the inner one, located on the planets surface is intact.
Powerful deflector shields prevent small items from entering the atmosphere by slowing them down and then flinging them back into space.
Large items are destroyed by ground based plasma or laser weaponry. The resulting fragments are then handled by the shields.
They have hatched a desperate plan, that is a potential suicide run.
They want to remove the threat of the enemy race by assassinating the alien leadership.
The player must undertake a one man mission in a stolen shuttle down onto the surface of Sectus.
The captain agrees, even though our trust of the Ascidians has been dented, the Sectoids are still the main threat.
There the player must find the central conference room, seal the doors to the chamber and then assassinate the entire leadership. Once the assassination has been complete he must return to the shuttle, and return to the Patton.
It goes wrong from the start.
The shuttle codes are out of date, the shuttle is shot down and the player has to escape into the city sewers.
Staying one step ahead of the trackers, the player must make his way towards the central chamber, to complete his mission. The Patton can occasionally communicate with the player via an extremely tight beam broadcast. This means being in exactly the right place, at the right time. Successive locations will be programmed into the player’s HUD, along with a countdown to the next communication.
Gameplay will be much more single player like. More use will be made of platform and mobility based puzzles.
The emphasis will be on ‘keeping moving’. Should the player slow down, ‘something’ will find him.
A few safe-houses will be provided, to allow the player time to think, these will be normally associated with Patton broadcasts. In these cases the Patton will monitor the area and notify the player when these areas become unsafe.
The mission will be split into several maps.
It is at this point that the Ascidians full plan is revealed. The research station is a vast dimension gate which the enemy will use to throw an asteroid at the Ascidian’s home planet to wipe them out for good.
After the assassination has been completed a new restocked map in alert mode will be used. The Patton will talk the player through, giving him clues, and alerting him to the existence of a possible getaway vehicle on the roof.
14 The Sky is falling (Command bunker) P4
Day 145
The enemy has launched a last ditch attack on the Ascidian’s homeworld. They are sending an asteroid through a dimension gate, set on course for the Ascidian’s homeworld.
The location of the 'Gate' is known, but the Captain has a plan, rather than destroy it, why not change the destination codes, so that Sectus is destroyed instead.
The Ascidians initially don't agree, but realise they can't reach the gate in time to prevent its use.
If the asteroid hits the Ascidian’s planet it will wipe out life on the planet, in a similar manner to that seen on Earth 65 Million years ago. A 'swarm fleet' will then move in and take over while the population is 'pliant'.
A massive bombardment over the Sectoid capital diverts the inner shield long enough for 4 torpedo pods containing squad members to slip through. Once down the player must track down the other members of the squad, and then carry out a carefully choreographed series of events.
First they must find their way to the local node of the inner shield defence, then they must shut down this local node so that the rescue shuttle can pick them up later.
The gate destination controls are kept at two locations. They must both be captured and the destinations altered as the fail-safe systems will only accept a destination change if both controls have been set to the same location.
The facility must be captured and the destination co-ordinates for the gate reprogrammed at both control sites so that the asteroid is re-targeted onto the Sectoid’s home planet.
During the mission they will pass through two war rooms, one planning the invasion of Ascidia, the other an attack on the Earth. Both are filled with images and details of their activities, and plans for domination.
In the ‘Earth’ room they again come across the ‘Singularity Inducer’ and discover its function. It is a nano-constructed weapon of incredible power. It is a marvel of engineering, it is compact, and can be carried, but will necessitate the removal of all the troopers inventory. It is also a copy, and the player will find out that the Sectoid Swarm fleet has another.
Once primed, and connected to a Terawatt power supply it would generate enough negative vacuum energy to create a warp in space capable of destroying all matter within a 1000 mile radius. (This information will be given to the player from a mission specialist on examining the device). The potential destruction is awesome:
• In space this ‘activation’ would do little beyond its 1000 mile radius of effect.
• If the Sectoids used it on the moon, the abrupt and violent change in mass would destroy all earth’s defence forces stationed there, and cause immense gravitational forces that would fracture every fault line on Earth, cause every volcano to erupt and send tidal waves half a mile high to batter the earth into submission.
• If activation occurred on the surface of the Earth, it would totally destroy all life, right down to the microscopic level.
En-route to their pick-up point the squad will pass through the lair of the ‘Hive mind’ which will attempt to control them psionically.
The player will be able to destroy the hive mind only by the sacrifice of a squad member.
They will then need to get back to the surface and the shuttle, in order to escape Sectus before the Asteroid strike.
The strike will wipe out the entire command structure leaving the remaining Sectoids in confusion, and easy prey to Ascidian attackers.
On their return to the Patton they are greeted by bad news.
The Sectoid 'Swarm' fleet is already heading for the gate. With Ascidia still intact and able to defend itself, the fleet has only one possible target, Earth! Their planned invasion has been brought forward.
The Ascidians are confident that with the Patton designed Psi dampers in place they can capture the gate intact, but too late to prevent the Sectoid fleet from passing through.
The player will not be able to return to the Patton without the ‘Singularity inducer', if he hasn't got it, he will be 'ordered' to return and capture it.
15 Homecoming (Battleship) P4
Day 146
As the Patton sets course for the gate complex. An Ascidian engineer is teleported on board to help prepare the Patton for its passage through the wormhole.
He brings a teleport control module, and a number of the newly developed Teleport recovery devices which can be used to teleport a trooper out of trouble, providing they remain in contact with teleport control.(Just in case the Patton hasn't researched them)
The Ascidians capture the gate generator, but it has been damaged and there is only enough power remaining for one transfer.
The Patton still has the Singularity inducer, recovered from the previous mission.
The captain refuses to hand this over to Ascidians, demanding that they be sent back through the gate rather than an Ascidian craft. Reluctantly the Ascidians agree.
The singularity inducer is now mankind's last hope. The Patton must return through the gate and stop the Sectoid threat before it can overrun Earth's defences.
As the Patton arrives at the gate the last remains of the Sectoid armada launch a counter-attack.
With the raging battle between the Ascidians and Sectoids as a backdrop, the gate is activated and the Patton slips through.
Back in Earth space the Patton materialises close to the Alien warship, already it is being attacked by various XCom interceptor craft, but they seem to have no effect on its monstrous bulk, and one by one the human defenders are picked off.
The Captain announces that all remaining squad members are sent into battle, but that the player should hand pick his squad. It is the players squad which will be assigned the singularity inducer. The Singularity inducer is relatively small, but will still take up most of the inventory slots of a trooper, allowing that trooper to only carry a single main weapon.
The inducer is also configured for a Sectoid power source. Converting to an alternative power source is impossible in the short term, and the amount of energy required to prime it so large that a generator the size of an office block would be needed. In Earth’s system there is only one power source that can do the job, and that’s the one powering the Sectoid battlecruiser.
Along with the player the squad will consist of an Engineer, a nuclear scientist, and an alien languages expert.
These will all be needed/useful (degree to be decided) in finding the power source and installing the device.
To avoid detection, and maintain as small a profile as possible to the enemy sensors they eschew the shuttle, breaching pods and razorbacks and freefall towards their target with only their suits for protection.
This is dangerous, but the stakes are high.
The player starts the mission slowly falling towards the Immense Sectoid mothership.
All around space is filled with exploding XCom craft Through his suit radio he hears the cries of troopers who aren’t directly under his command as they die, one by one, in the cold vacuum of space.
Just as the player lands aboard the Battlecruiser, the Patton will be fired upon, and contact with it will be lost.
The player should now feel very much alone.
There is only one objective, to this level, find the main power source, attach the device, and activate it.
It will be tough going all the way.
The ship is cavernous, containing thousands of Sectoids and hundreds of attack craft (glimpsed through windows and monitors).
The forces opposing the player will be as varied as possible, ideally he should come across most of the creatures he has previously encountered.
Creature placing will be structured throughout various levels of the ship to minimise memory problems (so that only a few alien species are loaded simultaneously), and the mission may well be broken down into separate maps to make this easier.
Eventually the player will find the ships main power source and fit the singularity inducer.
As the device is primed and activated the Patton will come back on line and teleport the remaining squad members to safety.
At some point in the mission the player will come across the High Mentat who has dogged his every move throughout the game. The high Mentat is leading the attack on Earth, and is to be bio-converted into the Earth’s Hive mind when the Sectoids take over. (This will be explained to the player in mission via a gloating set piece)
Full details of this encounter are to be worked out when the battlecruiser map is designed.
The player will then gain great satisfaction in killing him.
The end of game FMV sequence will start showing the Sectoid fleet being decimated by the Singularity inducer, and end with a tribute to the fallen, with Patton heading for Earth. (as at present).
An addition sequence at the very end could be added to link into the Alliance sequel, providing we have decided on the direction and details by then.
16 Home run (Patton) P4
Day ** (To be decided)
There are several places where this would fit in the overall plot, and I am unsure as where it would be best to place it yet.
Having found out about our involvement with the Ascidians, and ascertaining that the Humans are a distinct threat to their plans, the Sectoids launch an attack on the Patton.
The attack will take place while the shuttle is returning from the previous mission, the player will thus start the level with whatever inventory they finished that mission with.
There will be several key areas where the invaders should not get.
• Labs:
Items in the labs currently being researched will be here, they will be removed by the Sectoids, never to be seen again.
• Stores:
Sectoids in here will start removing items, limiting the players inventory in future levels
• Crew quarters, Med bay
Sectoids in here will ‘remove’ troopers at random
The longer the mission goes on the bigger the changes made. (This should be affected by difficulty level)
Essential crew members are located in the forward part of the ship, and are safe for the time being. Others have been captured and are being removed. There is therefore a time limit. The longer the player takes to complete the mission the more squad resource members will be removed.
Providing that the player takes back the Patton (otherwise it’s ‘game over’ anyway) the player will always be left with at limited number of troopers (to be decided).
If the player has less than, say, 8 troopers at the start of the mission then this game ‘feature’ should possibly be disabled.
‘Converted troopers’ will be the last to be ‘removed’.
The main aims will be to:
• Eliminate the opposition and recapture the ship
• Destroy the Sectoid ship hovering nearby.
• Free captured crew members (take as little time as possible)
This will be another mission where the map is present from the start (after all the player is supposed to live there).
Ascidian aid will be noticeable by its absence.
The ‘high Sectoid’ will make another appearance.
Fail cutscenes
There are 3 proposed cut-scenes:
• The fall of Ascidia
Much as at present with voice over.
• The destruction of the Patton
Again much as at present, alternative approach for missing scenes to be defined, but more use to be made of voice overs.
• The fall of Earth
New requirement, should be done simply, possibly using photographic reference as back plates.
All will be independent, but some fail games will play more than one, when this happens there should be discernible gap between them.
Most of the animation is already done for these, with the exception of the ‘fall of Earth’ sequence which is new.
Dialogue and script will need altering to make them independent entities.(Full Cutscenes section TBD)
The fail cutscene(s) played will depend on the point in the game reached.
Mission 1 - 2:
At this point there is no Alliance and so the sequence will only sjow the Patton being destroyed.
The destruction of the Patton
Mission 3:-Mission14 (Before discovery of Earth invasion):
The fall of Ascidia
The destruction of the Patton
Mission 14 (After Discovery of Earth Invasion)
At this point the Earth is now known to be under threat so the stakes are increased
The fall of Ascidia
The destruction of the Patton
The fall of Earth
Mission 15:
At this point Ascidia is safe, so the only threats are to the Patton and Earth
The destruction of the Patton
The fall of Earth
Background Information
Please note the following:
• Information in italics is background and is not revealed in the game.
• Information flagged with a # symbol will be gradually revealed either through wall murals, reports, research, or direct disclosure.
• Information in bold will be considered given at the start of the game in the ufopedia.
• I have only recently got hold of a copy of the ‘timeline’ and there will be minor changes in the following, including the addition of dates, to be carried out to make the details compatible.
(Still to be categorised)
The Aftermath of the Alien Wars
As the Second Alien war gradually faded from humanity’s day to day concerns, other problems reared up to take its place.
Earth’s resources were depleted, not only by fighting the alien hordes, but also by overpopulation and mismanagement. The atmosphere was becoming heavily polluted, world-wide fish stocks had collapsed, agriculture was struggling and raw materials of every kind were becoming hard to find and even harder to extract.
Coincidentally the recent wars had also led to rapid technological advancement, this was to be our sole saving grace, and once more Mankind turned his eyes to the heavens.
The New frontier (2054)
Mars and the Asteroids were closed, forbidden to civilian traffic. Only a few XCom scout vessels ventured out that far, and only then to ensure that the alien menace was gone.
The moon, however, was close by.
With Human-Alien hybrid technology it was now easily accessible. The moon would become the new source of Earth’s resources. The Earth itself would be given time to recover, or at least that was the theory.
Within months the ‘mega-corporations’, that controlled most of the worlds wealth, had staked their claims and the ‘goldrush’ began.
The names would become famous:
• Anaxagoras:
A crater close to the moon’s north pole where light volatiles, and water ice, were found in abundance in deep chasms perpetually shrouded in night.
• Plato:
A large impact crater where meteoric iron and nickel were discovered in vast quantities scattered about the surface.
• Tranquility:
The place where man had first set foot on another world held a particularly strong pull. There were many better mine sites, but of them all Tranquillity spawned the most traffic. A large frontier-like settlement grew up, and all Luna administration was based here.
• Farside:
Where Earth forces cleared out a small relict pocket of Sectoid defenders left over from the first war. The tunnels and buildings were later converted into farside beacon. Shielded from Electrical interference from earth by the mass of the moon, this site would become a long-range observation point from which to watch over the solar system.
Within six months there were 3-4 ships a week in each direction. Within a year this had trebled.
Long before this first anniversary had occurred this Earth-Luna run began to be plagued by ‘pirate’ activity.
Known as the ‘Kabron Pirates’ they were clandestinely funded by the different mega-corporations in an attempt to sabotage each other, but there were still other threats hanging over the Earth.
Not all alien activity had ceased immediately following the destruction of Cydonia or T’Leath.
From time to time a small isolated Sectoid ‘colony’ would be found inhabiting air filled caverns deep below the moons surface, or a single ship would make an attack on one of the ships leaving Tranquillity base, but these were few and far between.
Out in the asteroid infested wastes between Mars an Jupiter there were still remnants of the alien fleets in hiding, and they would prove a bigger threat.
Luckily construction of the ‘Broadsword’ class had begun in 2055, it would quickly make its mark..
The Broadsword class (The Patton)
The Patton is the first of the Broadsword Class vessels ever built.
Due to the small number constructed ,and that the Patton was by far the most famous, the majority of people still think of them all as ‘Patton’ class.
The Broadsword vessels were designed for multiple roles in the inner solar system, and the space immediately around Earth.
They were large vessels capable of both carrying a substantial amount of cargo (up to 1000 tons), and of defending it against organised attack.
Their main purpose, however, was to patrol Earth orbit out as far as the moon and deter all attackers.
Slow to manoeuvre, their strength lay in an axial mounted gauss torpedo, and the numerous breaching pods with which they were equipped.
Axial Mount
The fearsome axial gauss torpedo was capable of firing a wide range of alternative warheads.
All of which were fired using the linear accelerator that ran down the lower axis of the ship.
The simplest was little more than a high density solid metal cylinder coated with depleted uranium, used for piercing through the outer hull and disabling an enemy without destroying it.
More powerful variants included ‘High explosive’, ‘Plasma’, ‘Message pods’ and even a ‘drop capsule’ designed for quickly getting a man down from orbit (used for the first time in the ‘Siege of Mare Crisium Base’).
There were also nuclear warhead variants, but in comparison with the development of alien/human hybrid technology they seemed crude or inaccurate, and were quickly phased out.
Breaching pods
The breaching pods were another important weapon in the Broadsword’s arsenal.
The pods were limited in manoeuvring power and range, but they were heavily shielded with every human and alien stealth technology known to man.
Launched from one of the Broadsword vessels on a ballistic trajectory the engines wouldn’t fire again until interception occurred.
Coasting towards their targets in free-fall their sensor profile would show as barely more than a pinch of sand.
At the last possible moment, and just before impact, the engines would fire to slow the craft
These were small squad sized attack craft capable of attaching themselves limpet like to outside hull of any craft.
Once this manoeuvre was carried out, a combination drill, laser and plasma lathe would cut an access tube into the ship allowing the squad to board it at their leisure.
Later History
As the space lanes became calmer and more civilised, a second use was found.
The axial mount, so capable of ‘pacifying’ hostile spacecraft at extreme range, was also found to effective at destroying, or deflecting, small asteroids.
Most Broadsword class vessels had survived their previous incarnation, and were thus put to use ridding the Earth, and her colonies, of potential sources of Armageddon.
Ranging far and wide across the inner system, often for long periods of time, it soon became apparent that their size and capabilities made them perfect for the role of long range survey craft.
The Patton was one of the first fitted out for this purpose.
(Although further in the future, and not part of the current storyline, the remaining Broadsword class were eventually converted to interstellar drive capability and sold off as private deep space colony ships.)
Ascidian + Sectoid history
The Discovery of Earth
Almost ten thousand years ago, the ‘Ascidians’ discovered Earth.
They came using a highly sophisticated ‘portal’ technology, which created artificial wormholes, and which made possible the crossing of vast reaches of space in moments.
They came driven by an insatiable curiosity about the universe.
When they arrived mankind was mainly scattered across the globe in small hunter-gatherer groups, and the arrival of these beings from the stars impressed and influenced them heavily.
These visitors descended from the heavens on pillars of flame, they moved faster than the wind, they had magical items, the like of which had never been seen before, and they had mystic knowledge of the ways of the world, they knew when it would rain, they knew how to rid a crop of pests, they could light up the darkest night.
They must be gods.
At first the Ascidians were benign, they taught agriculture and engineering, and introduced the population to writing and mathematics.
To man these things came easy, he had an aptitude that surprised and delighted his teachers, but it was clear that man’s average life-span was too short to support a viable civilisation.
Their explorations had shown that any species that lived, as an average, for less than 120 years, was prone to destructive tendencies. A short life-span didn’t allow a long term strategy, or outlook, to develop. The individual was incapable of planning for the future, worse it was actually genetically programmed to maximise the present, wars, ecological collapse and resource mismanagement were the normal trend.
The Ascidians had seen it several times before, they had found the remains of such cultures five times in their travels, in each case the species had self-destucted just around the time that nuclear fission was being discovered.
This time they could prevent that outcome, or so they thought.
Mankind’s average life-span was 45 years.
With a proper eugenics program, they reasoned it would take little more than a couple of centuries to raise it into the 90’s, and another hundred years would take it well past 120.
Thus was the great genetic experiment born, it was their first great mistake.
Being taken for gods had many advantages. The Ascidians could do as they pleased, and they took full advantage of this in their dealings with man. Gods were not to be argued with, their will was all.
A fertile river delta, which now lies deep beneath the surface of the black sea in the eastern Mediterranean, became the location of the Ascidians’ project. This was their second mistake.
Here they placed a population of hand picked humans, selected for their genetic purity, a gene bank from which to mould their new version of humanity. They had carefully terra-formed and seeded the area to make it a veritable paradise, a perfect garden in which to carry out their breeding program.
To avoid undue ‘contamination they set up their main base elsewhere.
This was positioned on an small volcanic island, hundreds of miles away. Their scientists considered the island geologically stable. This was their third mistake.
Ascidian ships were not capable of creating their own spatial anomaly, so traffic between Ascidia and Earth was initially one way.
The explorers who had came through the Portal from Ascidia were unable to go home, they were trapped on Earth until they were able to construct another Portal for their return.
The portal required raw materials that were abundant, with one exception, there were no Elerium deposits to be found on Earth.
Initially this didn’t worry them unduly. Those that had volunteered for the expedition knew the risks, and knew that the problem would one day be rectified.
Their descendants felt differently.
The rise of the Gods
The second generation took to ‘God hood’ more easily than their forebears. The adulation of the humans permeated their psyche. Within a generation the Ascidians on Earth were behaving as Gods, and expecting it.
They WERE gods, and they would have the trappings that they deserved.
Slavery appeared, mankind’s abilities and strengths were bent to whatever whim the ‘gods’ desired. At first they laboured to construct cities, irrigation canals and roads for the ‘betterment of society’, but later, monuments in the name of individuals would run with the blood of those that constructed them.
Elerium deposits had been found on Mars, the current ‘dynasty’ turned its attention there. Thousands of ‘workers’ were shipped there to build the portal, and to dig for the elusive mineral needed to fuel the ‘Gate between the stars’.
Even when the gate was complete, they remained there, constructing monuments to their Ascidian masters.
The Portal was complete. Ascidia and Earth were now in constant contact.
The rich and exotic society that had grown up on Earth intrigued the homeworld Ascidians. They were faintly repelled by the concept of slavery, but attracted by its concepts and imagery. The need for extra manpower was high, and the selfless toil of ‘servants’ would be immeasurably useful.
They could not condone the slavery of another species, but if they could construct a being perfectly adapted to its condition, one which exhibited no emotions or free will, would not that be the perfect ‘servant’ for their own society?
The eugenics project on earth was mated with the Ascidians’ knowledge of their own Genetic structure.
Despite the stellar gulf that between them startling similarities in base pair combinations were found. Earth and Ascidia possibly shared the same distant ancestor, a bacteria blown on the interstellar winds, a degree of commonality that permitted the next and biggest mistake the Ascidians ever made.
The Origin of the Sectoids
Under normal circumstances no creature of Earth could ever naturally pair with a creature from Ascidia.
Even the lowliest worms were too far removed from their common ancestors to produce viable offspring.
But scientists, whatever their species, are persistent, and clever. They used human DNA as a template, simplifying it considerably ,and stripping out all the genes switched off by evolution over the last 4 billion years. All duplication and redundancy was removed.
They analysed the main control genes, calculated their effect and experimented with morphology until they knew how to construct man in any form they wished.
They then started replacing sections with sequences copied from Ascidian DNA. Sequences designed to make the ‘servant’ fit in with Ascidian ecology, nutrition and more fitted to see in the light from their sun.
They also changed the structure of the brain to one better suited to a ‘hive’ mentality, one where individualism was repressed.
By the time they had finished they had reduced the human complement of 24 chromosomes to 3 tightly coded entities.
The resultant organism had a genetic structure far simpler, and more effective, than any produced by the random vagaries of chance mutation and evolution. Its modular construction would allow for almost infinite customisation. This same simplicity would eventually allow the inclusion of genes taken from any organism native to either Earth or Ascidia.
Thus the Sectoids came into existence.
Sectoids were mules, the infertile hybrids between human and Ascidian DNA.
The only way to create more Sectoids was by cloning.
They were the perfect ‘servant’. No emotions, no concept of self, a willingness to sacrifice all for their master, and they were intelligent. A Sectoid could be quickly trained for almost any task, even war.
When the time came for war with the upstart colony on Earth Sectoids were in the front line.
The fall of the Earth Dynasty
The Ascidians on Earth had grown in stature and influence. Although few in number they ruled large sections of the earth and had a base at Cydonia on mars.
Their voluntary ‘tributes’ to Ascidia dwindled, then stopped. The rulers considered their ‘debt’ to their ‘homeland’ paid and wished to continue developing Earth and its rich untapped resources for their own benefit.
This was intolerable. The upstart Earth colony could not be allowed to get away with this, otherwise it could be taken as a precedent by Ascidia’s other colonies.
A fleet was despatched to re-address the balance, to eliminate these dissidents and re-establish proper rule. This fleet consisted largely of Sectoid clones, specially adapted for combat.
The war was costly on both sides, but the Earth’s ruling Dynasty had prepared well. Their fortress was well protected. They beat back the attacking hordes, and would have survived but for two cruel twists of fate.
The first, was the appearance of a single strange alien craft, apparently crewed by some modified form of human, that persistently undermined many of their carefully laid plans.
The second, was that one of the final salvoes, fired by the attackers, triggered tectonic plate movement deep beneath the Mediterranean.
The ruling dynasty’s island base was built upon a small volcanic island, an island that man would one day call Thera. Triggered by the tectonic activity the volcano exploded violently, and without warning, taking with it all signs of the Ascidians’ stronghold and technology.
The Ascidians were gone, but would not be forgotten.
A tidal wave, created by the explosion at Thera, crossed the Mediterranean at several hundred miles per hour towards the site of their breeding experiments.
The low river delta was no protection for the hundred foot wall of water that smashed through the area destroying all in its path.
Thousands died, the few survivors scattered to the four corners of the globe, taking with them garbled and half remembered stories that would form the basis for segments of the old testament, of the books of Gilgamesh, and of the legend of Atlantis.
Their culture and architecture would also survive their fall, and influence cultures from the plains if the Indus valley, through the deserts of Egypt to the jungles of South America.
The ‘colony’ on mars, deprived of supplies, would founder and die, and leave no trace.
Ascidia had gambled badly.
Earth’s ruling dynasty was destroyed and the Sectoid fleets had returned, but Ascidia’s jubilation was short lived.
Sectoids showed self organisation in ways that the scientists did not predict.
Too late it was noticed that, en masse, the Sectoids exhibited a form of emergent behaviour totally unexpected.
Psionics
The Sectoids had powers and abilities way beyond anything the Ascidians had ever experienced.
They could communicate telepathically, after a fashion. And by force of will they could control another, or even kill with a single mental command.
To the Ascidians this was shocking. Not even in the myths and legends of their distant past had such abilities been imagined.
Their scientists theorised that the origin of these powers could not possibly lie within the Ascidian part of the Sectoids' genome. The source of these abilities must lie with the humans, possibly lying dormant for centuries, human genes were the problem. Genes that were now part of the Sectoid makup.
To make matters worse it soon became apparent that the Ascidians were particularly susceptible to these Psionic abilities of their ‘servant’ race.
The fleet had been equipped with clone tanks to replenish losses in combat, tanks that were now under Sectoid control. The Sectoids were even starting to tamper with their own genetic structure. They had realised the value of maintaining a gene bank for their experiments, this translated into a drive for Human and Ascidian genetic stock. It was actually more than a drive, being infertile, it was the only way they could maintain their identity.
Their fledgling Psionic powers now enhanced by careful human gene splicing, the Sectoids turned their sights towards their ‘masters’.
The Fall of Ascidia
The Sectoids were now in charge of their own destiny.
The Sectoids Psionic abilities, and their control over their own reproduction made them potentially highly dangerous, to the Ascidians.
They had to be destroyed.
The resulting battle exhausted both sides, the Sectoids were almost exterminated, but at extreme cost. Ascidia lost contact with its other Stellar colonies, its economy lay in ruins, and a dark age settled shroud like across the system.
For over a century the Ascidians were incapable of space-flight, and by the time they clawed themselves back to the stars, so too had the Sectoids.
Time and time again the pattern repeated itself.
Sometimes the Ascidians would have the upper hand, at others the Sectoids would be there first.
Sometimes the Ascidians would re-invent Portal technology and seed new colonies out amongst the stars.
Sometimes it would be the Sectoids.
The dark ages gradually increased in length, most Ascidians knew nothing of the causes of their predicament, or the role humans played in its origin.
All they knew was that eventually one side would completely destroy the other.
This time the Sectoids were the first to re-discover the secrets of the Portals, and their first tentative steps out into the wider cosmos would once again impinge on the Earth.
Sectoid Society
As provided by Ascidians: Exact text to be finalised.
NB. Not all the information in this section will be provided to the player during the course of the game
Breeding
Sectoids are biologically infertile. They are asexual and are incapable of breeding.
This doesn't mean that they can't reproduce, only that they can't do it without technological intervention.
All Sectoids are produced from the same basic genetic stock. Growth factors administered at various stages of development lead to the various castes. Occasionally the hive mind will alter this stock for a limited run to try out specific genes for their ‘fitness’.
Genetically therefore Sectoids are virtually identical. The small differences that do exist are normally present for the following reasons:
• Specific 'strains' with their genetic structure adapted for specialist reasons.
• Experimentation within the 'species' by the hive mind.
• Random mutation. The odd gene will still mutate spontaneously, especially in the Sectoids' high radiation environment.
Sectoid 'Strains'. Mentats, Commanders, Drones.
Apart from the various slave races, and their genetic constructs, Sectoids exist in several main castes:
1. High Mentat:
High Mentats are in charge of strategy for an overall project or area. They can make quite wide reaching decisions regarding their sphere of activity, and are answerable only to the hive mind (via the nexus).
2. Area Commander:
Area commanders are largely in charge of specific installations or space craft. They make limited strategic decisions in the absence of contact to Mentats. Area commanders may also be Mentats, but not normally. They are normally differentiated by a skin tattoo.
3. Drones:
Drones are the vast mass of the Sectoid hive that actually do the work.
Sub-Castes:
• Worker
• Pilot
• Warrior
• Mentat
• Scientist
All Sectoids above drone level are fitted with a Bio-chip to aid in their eventual replacement with minimum impact. This Biochip stores information throughput, and acts as a secondary memory cache.
There are two special cases, the Nexus and the Hive mind.
The Nexus
The Nexus is the co-ordinating ‘fuse’ between all the high Mentats and the ’Hive mind’. It makes no decisions, and has no effect on policy, it merely co-ordinates the hive minds activities. Without the nexus the hive mind is subject to constant interruption as the various High Mentats try to cross correlate all the information they need to function efficiently.
Etherials
The exact role of Etherials was never uncovered in the first two alien wars.
It was always assumed that they were in some way superior to the ordinary 'run of the mill' Sectoids, but their exact placing within the alien hierarchy was unknown.
Telepathically linked to the Hive mind, via a powerful Psi-amp, they function as a direct extension of the hive brain, policing the actions of the high Mentats, and hence the entire Sectoid 'society'.
To use a human analogy: If the High Mentats and the Sectoids are the stormtroopers, the Etherials are the SS.
Their main function is to 'cull' any Sectoids which deviate from the norm, or which seem to be developing 'self'. They also act as a direct link to the hive mind, allowing it to gain experience 'first hand' of the world outside the hive, or to interact directly
Their clothing is not for modesty or rank, but a sophisticated 'environment suit' that enable its wearers to go almost anywhere.
The 'suit' also contains a number of embedded systems, such as sensors, force-fields and the psionic amplification circuits needed to link to the hive mind.
These enhancements make the Etherial a formidable foe.
The Hive mind
Each hive only ever has a single hive mind active at any one time.
Destruction of the hive mind will lead to the immediate growth of another to replace it.
Normally a ‘backup’ is ready and waiting to swing into action when the primary mind is incapacitated.
The first action of a new hive mind is to contemplate its eventual replacement and take appropriate steps.
A ‘Hive mind’ is not necessarily a specific entity.
The Sectoids have experimented many times with the makeup of the Hive mind
In the past it has been:
1. A disembodied brain
2. A single Mentat with abnormally high intelligence
3. A computer.
4. A gestalt mind made from several embryonic Sectoids.
The choice is made by the previous hive mind as what it considers appropriate for its replacement.
From outside it will be impossible to discern the makeup of the hive mind.
Individualism in Sectoid Society
Individualism within Sectoid society is rapidly stamped on.
For Sectoid society to function correctly the service of every individual should be totally bent towards the needs of the 'hive'.
Despite this certain individuals will, by luck or chance, become more important than others, and may through disfigurement or coloration come to be recognisable.
The average Sectoid lives a short and hard pressed life, so individualism of this type is limited to the more important ‘castes’.
High Mentats
High Mentats are often distinguishable due to their age, cybermetic implants, markings and various scars.
Similarly because of their position in the hierarchy Mentats are often seen as being the driving force behind various activities.
Their relative independence does sometimes lead to a High mentat developing the concept of 'self', and hence suffering divided loyalties to the hive. This may even go as far as a High Mentat attempting to overthrow the hive mind, or flee the hive in order to start a new colony.
Because of this possibility the hive mind has developed 'Etherials'. To control and 'cull' any possible threats to the hive's stability.
Etherials
Etherials are distinguished by their size, and clothing, and their apparent effortless way of moving.
This apparent individualism is incorrect, since they are linked directly to the hive mind, they are possibly the least individual of all the alien castes.
Structure of Sectoid society
This is a simple chart showing the ‘reporting’ lines for Sectoid society. It should be remembered that reporting, as such, is an alien concept to the Sectoids.
Swarming/Conquest
Periodically Sectoids will ‘swarm’.
This is characterised by a huge Diaspora of ships containing a complete copy of the parent ‘society’ in miniature (complete with representatives of slave races and genetic constructs). The swarm also includes its own ‘Hive mind’.
The first activity of a swarm is to find a base of operations.
The second is to find a suitable ‘resource’ from where they can obtain genetic ‘improvement’.
Earth has witnessed one such spawning, although it was not aware of the fact, in the form of the first alien war.
In that particular case the Swarm made for the abandoned Ascidian constructs on mars from where they then launched their attacks upon the earth.
The idea of conquest is actually alien to the Sectoids, their purpose is far more sinister.
Control of other species (Ascidians/Humans)
Sectoids do not fight for the fun of it, or for the maintenance of an empire.
Their entire drive is for their own preservation. This takes the following form:
• A species that can be utilised genetically (E.g. human, or Ascidian) must be ‘managed’:
6. If the species has dangerous technology then that technology must be removed.
7. If the species is numerous must be cropped, to allow it to re-evolve.
8. If a species is ‘stable’, it must be forced to evolve, by disrupting the society or introducing viral/bacteriological agents.
9. If there is a competition for resources, the species must be ‘persuaded’ to change its needs.
10. The species must not be driven to extinction, merely ‘encouraged’ back to a simpler way of life.
11. If the species attacks the hive, it must be rendered ‘safe’.
• A species that cannot be utilised genetically, is a potential long term threat to resources and must be eliminated.
Genetic 'constructs': Chrysalids, Housekeepers,Mutons
The origin of these creatures is lost in time. The Sectoid mastery over gene-splicing allowing them to tailor specific organisms to whatever need they require.
Some have obvious human gene complexes, others Ascidian.
In general these are purposefully bred to be dumb and expendable.
Snakemen (and other intelligent 'Slave' races)
The Snakemen are a little more unusual.
Again their origins are lost in time, and their homeworld has not been identified, consequently the degree they have been modified from their original genetic make-up is unknown.
Intelligence has not been totally bred from these creatures, although it may have been reduced or modified, and They seem to enjoy some degree of autonomy.
Despite this apparent freedom, they are still 'slave' species controlled by their alien masters.
Snakemen tend to be used in areas where some initiative is required, or where specific environments make Sectoids less effective.
The Ascidian system
The Ascidians system is a binary star system.
Primary
The Primary is a yellow/white sun slightly younger than our own, and much hotter.
The Ascidians call it ‘Kethlar’ which means ‘The bringer of warmth’.
In order from Kethlar the planets are.
Anu : A cross between Mercury and Venus. High temperatures. Lifeless, medium atmosphere (CO2)
Ea : An airless world, small and devoid of life
Gula : A large desert world
Ascidia :Also called ‘Anshar’ and known as ‘The celestial world’ this is the Ascidian homeworld.
It is a smallish world, and very old. Little to no Tectonic movement. The atmosphere is thin, and cold.
Enkidu :A gas giant, it has a single small cold orbiting moon known as ‘Lap’.
Secondary
The Secondary is much larger, red and cooler.
They call this ‘Vor’ and it is named after a mythological deity known as the ‘Wanderer in the underworld’
Sectus : (Originally known as Marduk) This, originally was an Ascidian colony.
After the ‘Earth’ escapade The Sectoids were driven from the Primary system, but found refuge here, assimilating the colony in the process. The world is totally exhausted, the atmosphere wreaked.
Tiamet :A jungle world, little visited by either race. Considered unsafe and biologically impure.
(ie bacteriologicaly unsafe.)
Apsu : A cold world, with seas of liquid methane.
They orbit around a common centre, which has become a ‘collecting point’ for cometry debris and asteroids.
Asteroid field
The regular orbits of the primary and secondary stars within the system have caused an ‘island’ of an asteroid field to form in the gravity well at their joint centre of mass.
This is a hotly contested region of space between the Ascidians and the Sectoids, due to it’s tactical and mineral resource value.
Within this field, both the Ascidians and Sectoids have created listening stations to forewarn of any fleet movements.
The density of the asteroid field makes the long range scanning of these areas impossible.
Ascidian and Sectoid Homeworld locations.
Postscript:
In the 1940’s The Sectoids re-discovered ‘Portal’ technology.
They used it to obtain small amounts of genetic material, from Earth, to ‘improve’ their strain. (After all they were about 30% human.)
In 1998 in Egypt The Sphinx and Pyramids were closed for ‘renovation’.
Many rumours began to circulate.
Rumours regarding the finding of hidden chambers below the Sphinx. Chambers that allegedly contained the ‘hall of records’, the sum of all knowledge possessed by the Pharaohs. These records, in turn, led to the finding of ‘something’ deep within the great pyramid of Cheops.
The first alien war started several months later, if the rumours were to be believed it was no coincidence.
The plot and its relationship to the rest of the XCom universe:
XCom Enemy Unknown
All data is compatible, and expansive.
XCom Terror from the deep (TFTD)
The exact relationship between T’leth and the Sectoids has not been spelt out.
The inference in TFTD is that the Sectoids and Aquatoids share a common ancestry, and this goes back millions of years.
This could very easily be mistaken knowledge on the part of human research.
1. The time scale could be much less (say 10,000 years…and the relationship still stands)
2. T’leth could have been overtaken during the Ascidian civil war. (Again the relationships would be sound)
3. Time travel could explain all anomalies.
In short we have many options.
XCom Apocalypse
No link needed, the aliens are all different.
XCom Interceptor
Sectoids in XCom Interceptor are a long lost ‘swarm’ and as such can vary in their makeup, and approach.
Abbreviations and Glossary
Abbreviations:
MC: Marc Curtis
SP: Stuart Poole
RL: Rab Letham
PT: Paul Truss
TG: Terry Greer
GJ: Guy Jefferies
-----------------------
Nexus*
High Mentats#
Area Commander*
Hive Mind
Drone:
Castes:
Worker
Pilot
Warrior
Scientist
High Mentats#
High Mentats#
Area Commander*
Area Commander*
Etherials
Snakemen
Chrysalids/ housekeepers etc.
3
2
1
Map Name Episode
1 The scout ship Into the hornet’s nest
2 The Ruined City Who goes there?
3 The sector command post Ordeal of fire
4 Ascidian Asteroid SS Dark deeds
5 The transport ship The request
6A Sandcrawler Sandcrawler
6 The Crashed transport ship Slash and Burn
7 The Elerium mining colony Lure and bait
8 Colony outpost Mop up
9 The research station
10 Supply dump Double cross
11 The research station(revisited) The Trap
12 Atmospheric defence station Sleeping with the enemy
13 Diplomatic Embassy Revelation
14 Command bunker The Sky is falling
15 Battleship Homecoming
* Patton (probably) Home run
Vor
Lap
Enkidu
4
5
6
8
9
12
11
14
15
Ascidia
Asteroid Field
Kethlar
Anu
Ea
Gula
Sectus
Tiamet
Apsu
10
6A
7
11
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