Ace Combat XCOM: Enemy Skies

kilopi505 · Jun 1, 2020

Here's the...continuation!

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'OH CREATOR OH CREATOR I'M TALKING WITH HIM OH CREATOR OH CREATOR.' Annie Scarborough's mind went as she started to talk with 'Pixy' Foulke.

"Mr. Pixy, I would like to begin with the question of if you, like, are at least aware of what kind of PC game Tracers in the Sky is. If you aren't, then I would explain it to you."

'Please know my game, please know my game-'

"All I know is it's a computer game where you fly planes against other players and the computer AI using a keyboard and mouse or one of those game controllers. I frankly don't know or care about the plot, I already fly into combat for a living to feel too interested in such a kid's game."

The answer, expected as it was by Annie long ago, still felt depressing to her.

"Poor girl! Why say it like that Pixy! Look, she's sad now!" A grandmother in a wheelchair loudly scolded Pixy.

"I'm just trying to tell the truth, White Witch. She did say she will explain more if I'm not informed. Lay off me, would you? So kid, explain away."

'Ok. Continue work mode, squee and hug later.'

"So, you know what it is but like, not how it is played. Tracers in the Sky has to gameplay modes. Story mode, where you play as a single player and finish the story. And Multiplayer mode, where you play against other players on LAN or over the Electrosphere. With me so far?"

"Yeah."

"So uh...Welewe Game Studio next release for the franchise of Tracers in the Sky will not take place on the world we had dubbed Strangereal. No, it will take place here. In our world, our history. And its name will be Tracers in the Sky: The Belkan War!"

"That's...a very daring idea, Ms. Scarborough. If I remember right, the entertainment industry never did anything but documentaries when it comes to aces and the air wars ever since that spectacularly terrible movie by the Yuktobanians about Old White Witch here," Pixy cautiously said, while pointing at the grandmother in the wheelchair from earlier, seated nearby and apparently listening in to their conversation along with a few other people.

"Stop. Please. Don't want to remember that awful, awful movie," the White Witch, as Pixy called her, moaned as she facepalmed in her wheelchair.

"Oh? Hello Ma'am."

"Hello."

"So what does your game studio need with me regarding the Belkan War game?" Pixy suddenly asked Annie. "Need me as a consultant?

"No, the players of the Story mode will play as you Mr. Pixy! So what I want is your body!"

'...Oh my Creator what the eff did I say?!'

"Uh, I mean, like, well, to have your image and voice and knowledge for the game I would need your body...shutting up now."

As Annie hid her blushing face in her hands, she heard Pixy talk with the people who were listening in nearby.

"Guys, stop. Don't look at me that way. She's...Ms. Scarborough, how old are you?"

"Nineteen."

'Oh my Creator he's going to say I'm a kid and too young for him. Nooo, how embarrassing. '

"Ah. She's a teenager. You guys don't remember doing something awkward at that age, like flubbing your words? I remember getting into a fight when I was a kid because I flubbed a greeting."

'Oh my Creator he's so understanding! Squeee!!! '

"Yes, yes, awkward teenager. We uh, get it. Right guys?" Annie heard a woman nearby say to some other people. Said other people agreed, but chuckling while doing so.

"Ok. So, Ms. Scarborough, the players will play as handsome, old me while hearing my voice all the time. Are you aware that I'm not exactly the...hero of the war?" Pixy asked in a self deprecating tone that made Annie feel for him.

'Oh no, he's sensitive about that! Poor Mr. Pixy!'

"Aw, don't be sad Mr. Pixy. A World Without Borders happened a long time ago, what is important is the now. As for the game, the plan is that when you suddenly joined A World Without Borders, the player will move POV to that of your wingmate Cipher...or at least that is the boring politically correct way I thought up at first. Now, I like, got two new ideas yesterday."

"Oh? What's your two new ideas? And what's a POV, by the way?"

"Point of View. New idea number one is that since the Belkan War officially ended weeks before you joined A World Without Borders, then the game ends during the Lumen Peace Treaty, in defiance of the worldwide public perception that the Belkan War actually ended at the Battle of Avalon Dam. And then you speak about what happened to you after the Lumen Peace Treaty in the ending credits. Idea number two is that we never go away from your POV because we treat this as a...biography of sorts about you, limited to the time of the public perception of the Belkan War. So like, which idea are you ok with Mr. Pixy? Original, idea number one or two?"

"...about idea number two...are you including the time I was introduced to the ideology of A World Without Borders? And the time I was in that terrorist group?"

"Yes, Mr. Pixy."

"...daring. Very, very daring of you. I like that attitude. I just worry that governments around the world would drop a hammer on you and your company for doing so if I choose idea number two."

'Oh my Creator he likes and cares for me!!! Squeee!!! I'll kiss - HUG! I MEAN HUG HIM LATER!!!'

"On the contrary Mr. Pixy, I would like, describe it as timely. Haven't you seen the discussions on the Electrosphere after Belka announced their alliance with the aliens and their deadline? Or especially after Osea pulled their funding of X-COM a few days ago?"

Pixy blinked, and then looked at her seriously.

"...what discussions? I only use the Electrosphere for work purposes."
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What do you think, @huhYeahGoodPoint?

Swedish15 · Jun 2, 2020

Minds of Last Resort

Erusea, Farbanti, 10 hours after Trigger drove off the battleship
Princess Cosette stared at the report in her slender hand. She looked immaculate, as usual, even if her last night of uninterrupted sleep had been - had it been after the battle of the Lighthouse? She took another sip of the black mass that her cook called coffee while on the other end of the ramshackle video conferencing system a man, clad in shadows, informed her with a deep bass tone that Osea had left the XCom project.

"First Belka, now the Oseans? That is a harsh blow, indeed. How is T- Strider Squadron?"

The Speaker nodded and replied:

"Strider squadron had no losses; Mobius squadron lost two fighters, Bard squadron another one. XCom Usea had the best results; the aliens inflicted higher casualties on the other areas. Regarding Strider 1, he is currently under observation. He is well, but he has... changed. But the Council continues to trust in the Commander."

Except for Belka and Osea, of course.

"I thank you for this update, Speaker. The Kingdom of Erusea is still committed to the XCom project as well."
Then she sighed.
"Speaker? How does one know when it is time to break one's own rules?"

The older man was silent for a minute, considering, thinking, before he replied, calm and collected. He would be as cold as ice when his office stood in flame, Cosette was sure.
"You cannot know, Princess. You have to act and pray that you acted rightly. And remember. We will be watching."

The video stream flickered out, leaving only the black background to mirror her worries. She had to do something. The war went badly. But dared she to call upon all her resources?

And dared she not to?

She tossed and turned that night, again, like every time, nightmares vivid and unbidden. She smelled the exhaust of the Gründer drones racing towards her. She heard the crashing metal that had cost Tabloid his life. She saw the stupid little girl listening to the wrong military advisors. She felt the burning beam of death that had sunk the Gullfaxi turn her skin to ashes. After two hours, she gave up, fighting herself out of the far too comfy bed in the Farbanti palace and went to the computer. In the aftermath of the satellite rain, intercontinental communications were still a blind gamble; but thankfully, this time, the person she wanted to call was in Usea. After all, there was only one person she could trust with her crazy idea; and if it were too insane, she would call Cosette out.

"Ionela? I am sorry to call at this late an hour, but I have a request...."

Osea, Viridian Plains, three days later
It had been difficult to leave both her grandfather and her little sister behind. But Ionela A. Shillage had been accustomed to hard decisions during the war. Doubt ravaged her mind on that fool's errand Cosette had sent her, especially with only two men as helpers/bodyguards. The Erusean secret service had kept an eye on Dr. Schröder, even after the government had released him, and thankfully he had moved out of Belka shortly before they announced their alliance with the aliens.

Now she was standing here, in Bumfuck Nowhere, Osea, on open plains of farmland. The next city was fifty kilometers away; she could see nothing but long, straight streets and the small farm that was her target. For a homestead, it remarkably lacked any, well, farming; a small vegetable garden was the most horticulture she had seen. It seemed excessive to have three large steel barns.

Ionela turned to the agent on her left: "And we are sure that Dr. Schröder is here?"
The man nodded wordlessly. Gathering her breath, she straightened herself and strode purposefully towards the door to the main building.

She rang the bell - one that played a custom melody - and waited patiently. After half a minute, an older woman of Asian descent went out, wearing a faded pilot's jacket of some airline over a sundress:

"Yes, dear? What can I do for you? And for those two strapping young government men?"
"My name is Ionela A. Shilage, ma'am. I am looking for Dr. Schröder."
The woman laughed: "Ma'am? Do I look that old? Call me Edge. And the doc's in the hangar, together with the rest of the squadron."

The woman - Edge? - led them to the first of the large steel barns. A hangar? Ionela couldn't see a runway. Why call it a hangar?
The Asian nestled on a remote, and the high gates swung open wide. Inside, she could see four men and.. was that an F-16, painted in a distinctive pattern of red and white? Yes, it was. Disarmed, from what she could see, but that pattern reminded her of something.

"Dr. Schröder? You have a guest."

The Belkan man turned to her, blanched, but he came anyway, while their host went to take his place, muttering something about the cost of keeping that old bird flightworthy far away from civilization.

"Ionela?" he asked sheepishly. "What are you doing here?"

She did not know what exactly she felt as she saw the man that had given her so much grief. Pity? Hatred? Anger? All that, but in the end, Dr. Schröder had taken the right path. She had to use a gun for intimidation, but it was more than some had done.

"Princess Rosa Cossette D'Elise requests and requires your help with the defense of Erusea against the alien threat. We are still co-operating with the international efforts, but we need more. I do not have a country anymore, and no one has the endless skies. Will you help us?"

It had cost her something, Ionela was sure, to say these words. She didn't know what. But maybe she wasn't better than Cosette, or Dr. Schröder, anyway.

The Belkan man sighed: "Yes. I have been working on something, but.. it is not yet ready. Is Erusea using the flight data analyzers I provided during the la-" he cut off, ashamed.

"You'll have to ask the Princess. I just came here to take you."

He turned to the four people standing around, trying very intently not to look as if they were eavesdropping.
One of them - a man, roughly the same age as Edge, smiled broadly. "'Crafts on the street, people; out here, it's good tarmac. Edge? You up for piloting the old lady? Cargo for Erusea."

The woman laughed: "What, just because I was the one of us who kept flying professionally after the last war? But yeah, old geezer, I'll take the old lady. Dr. Schröder, pack your equipment."

The engineer nodded, hijacked Ionela's bodyguards, and vanished, while she asked: "So, Edge. What is your real name, then?"

"Kei Nagase. Yeah, like the astronaut; that's why I go by my TAC. Not that our fearless leader could ever remember another name", she said with a playful bit of scorn, pointing at the other man, who was now hurrying to the F-16 to work on some pre-flight checks.

It took a few hours, but then they were ready for departure. Ionela had learned why the barns had been so huge; besides the equipment of Dr. Schröder, they had housed three old, if still serviceable, F-16C and a transport plane. Edge had led her to it, watching as Dr. Schröder and the agents tied down the last pieces of equipment.

"Aren't you a fighter pilot as well?" Ionela asked.

Kei smiled: "Yes, but my plane's appropriately stored. In fact, I had this C1 mothballed before some crazed Belkan had knocked on my door and asked me to get in touch with my old squadron. Took me a day or two to get the old lady running again, but she isn't as fussy as a high-performance fighter."

She motioned Ionela to move to the rear compartment as she began her start-up ritual, re-checking her flight plan and starting the engines so she could taxi on the empty street.

Ionela sat down on the uncomfortable bench seat, strapping herself in. Schröder, flanked by an agent, sat opposite her and waited for her to finish her preparation before saying:

"Miss Shilage? If I work for Erusea again - would you be my assistant? I need one, and I need someone to stop me from going too far. I cannot trust myself with that."

She thought of her grandfather, of her sister. If she accepted his plea, she would probably not see them for the duration. But if she declined...

"Yes. That would be wise."

kilopi505 · Jun 5, 2020

Another omake!
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The moment he heard the word discussions, Larry Foulke suddenly had a flashback to the days when he talked with Joshua Bristow in secret and slowly, step by step, came into the welcoming arms of A World With No Borders and their dream of a world of peace.

"Well, the discussions about...actually, let's start with this first. Did you know the name 'A World Without Borders' has been recently appropriated by a new, rapidly growing online political movement of an international nature, Mr. Pixy?"

"...oh? Continue, Ms. Scarborough," Foulke said, taking a brief glance at his fellow X-Com pilots to see them all looking at him with closed lips and raised eyebrows.

'Alright Larry, act calm. Don't want them to think I'm reverting back to myself in the old days.'

"And the goal of this new 'A World Without Borders' movement is the establishment of a world government, in effect erasing all existing borders on this planet."

Larry Foulke silently blinked a few times, buying his mind time to digest the information.

"Alright," he managed to say after he managed to compose himself several seconds later. "How do they propose to meet that impossible and useless end goal?"

"By using the present war with the aliens to convince everyone except the Belkans that the only choice for the survival of the human race is to unite into one single world confederation."

'...mere survival? Nothing else?'

Foulke's entire world narrowed down onto Annie Scarborough as his mind started working on overdrive.

"Other than mere collective survival, what other benefits are these people touting their proposed confederation will bring about?"

"Well, they also say all existing trade barriers will go away when the planet confederates. With lower trade barriers come lower prices for everything."

"And the military? What did these people say they will do about the militaries of the world?"

"They will unite all the militaries into one."

"And?"

"That's it."

"That's it? No mention of ending war? Or alleviating the misery of the world's less fortunate people?"

"...no. They are instead proposing...very scary things. So scary that...Mr. Pixy, please answer this first with complete honesty. What do you dream now, all these years after your interview with Brett Thompson?"

"...I dream of a world that has finally come to realize it does not need militaries. A world whose only use for borders was an aide to the delivery of goods and public services. A world whose only use for government was the maintenance of a commonly accepted unit of exchange, the provision of an adequate amount of education for the maintenance of civilization, and a forum that serves as the lubricant for the inevitable friction between the natural freedom of all individuals, businesses and communities."

"What was the difference from your dream during your time with the original A World Without Borders?"

"My dream from that time was that removing the borders of the world would bring about peace to the planet. The Usean coup d'etat and the Grey Men sure showed that borders are a small part of the problem of war."

It was in that moment Larry Foulke realized Annie Scarborough's face was uncomfortably close to his own while staring into his own eyes.

"Uh, Ms. Scarborough? Is leaning over the table like that not discomforting you?"

The kid blinked, and a moment later she was back in her seat with a visibly blushing face.

"...ok. This is so much better than I thought I will get for the game, Mr. Pixy," the kid said while hugging herself by the stomach.

"I'm getting a hint of why you said a biography of my life during the Belkan War masquerading as a game is timely, what with this new and fake A World Without Borders popping up on the Electrosphere. But will it sell during an alien invasion?"

"We'll find a way to do so if we want to start on step one of saving the Belkan people after this war ends, Mr. Pixy."

"...pardon? Saving us Belkans? From what?"

"From the Rational Solution proposed by this new 'A World Without Borders' as the answer to the Belkan Question and as the first act their future world confederation would do after it has been formed."
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Whew, did some reading of Josiah Warren's works as to have an idea for modern day Pixy's beliefs.

So, what do you think, @huhYeahGoodPoint?

kilopi505 · Jun 6, 2020

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The moment he heard the word discussions, Larry Foulke suddenly had a flashback to the days when he talked with Joshua Bristow in secret and slowly, step by step, came into the welcoming arms of A World Without Borders and their dream of a world of peace.

"When Belka announced their alliance with the aliens and declared their February 14 deadline, an online political movement of an international nature that, like, according to its own words had been hiding in the darkest and most vile depths of the Electrosphere ever since the defeat of the Grey Men, stopped hiding and went public with their...poison is like the only word to describe it, Mr. Pixy," Annie Scarborough stated with shudder filled with disgust.

"And how is this political movement related to the game about my life during Belkan War being timely?"

"The movement proudly named themselves, without any shame whatsoever, 'A World Without Borders.'"

Foulke spent the next few moments doing nothing but blinking in absentmindedness at what he just heard from Annie Scarborough.

He eventually managed to say something when his mind finally got back on track.

"Are they claiming to be the successors of my 'A World Without Borders?'"

"Oh no, Mr. Pixy. That is, like, just where their poison starts. They say that your A World Without Borders was nothing else but a fake group created and paid for by Belka to discredit the idea of a world government for their future advantage in a Second Belkan War. They refuse to allow Belka's...uhm...very offensive word to continue possessing the name A World Without Borders, apparently because that was step one to Belka's victory over the world. And to, like, ensure your A World Without Borders stops winning they will burn every book and video and movie that mentions your group, punish everyone that does not say what they say until no one knows what your group called themselves and they are the only A World Without Borders left in history."

Foulke spent a few moments staring at Scarborough before he managed to formulate his response.

"My time as a member of A World Without Borders was not one of the proudest moments of my life. But neither was it something I will allow to suddenly stop existing in history because..."

"Because, Mr. Pixy?"

"Because we, those of us who joined A World Without Borders...for the dream of a world at peace, free from the tyranny of borders and governments dragging innocents into war. We showed the world there is a line no nation should cross ever again, a line I believe was crossed only once, recently, in defense of more innocents against an enemy that refuses to even communicate properly with us. Erase that from history, erase us from history, and...more Waldreichs will happen. Just for that I'm going to do everything in my power to spite their plans. You need my body, Scarborough? Every moment I'm not fighting the aliens, or Belka, I'm yours."

As Scarborough suddenly leapt out of her chair and went around the table to give him a tight hug while squeaking thank you over and over again, Foulke stared at his fellow pilots while patting the teenager's head with one hand.

'Did they know? Were they keeping it secret from me?'

The older ones, like Old Popova? They looked back at him in the eyes, their faces looking troubled by Scarborough's news.

The younger ones, like Baker, Count and Huxian? They were staring transfixed at something on their smart phones, their faces twisting in disgust now and then.

"Anything you want to tell me, kids?" Foulke asked calmly.

"Mr. Pixy? Please don't try to know more about the goals of the new and fake 'A World Without Borders,'" Scarborough suddenly said while looking at Foulke's face. "The words they use to refer to Belkans, their arguments about how Belkans everywhere on the planet should be punished once the war with the aliens is over...it's better for your health if you don't try to know more about these poison filled monsters."

"She's right Pixy. I'm three paragraphs into their manifesto and they have made Matias 'kill one million people' Torres sound like a moderate and polite man," Count said as he pushed a button and then put his smart phone back into a pocket. "And these guys are gaining followers judging by the numbers of members."

"Oh? Don't know about that guy, but I was another person who tried to kill millions for a dream a long time ago. Whatever these fakers manifesto is, I can take reading a little bit of hate," Foulke boasted.

"Your funeral," Huxian said as she gave Foulke her smart phone. "Give it back to me after you're done reading."

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Several minutes later Foulke was forced to admit that they might be right.

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How's this, @huhYeahGoodPoint?

kilopi505 · Jun 11, 2020

Another omake!
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Osean Federation Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Criminal Justice Information Services Division

ANTI-BELKAN
CRIME
STATISTICS
2014

Uniform Crime Reports

Foreword

Since the diplomatic complaint by the Principality of Belka in 2011 regarding the plight of Osean Belkans...statements of support for Belka's concerns about Osean Belkans from the Republic of Ustio, the Kingdom of Gebet, the Republic of Recta and the Kingdom of Sapin, all countries with double digit percentage populations of Belkans...mandated FBI collection of hate crime data as part of the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program...

Contents

Introduction....
Methodology...
Section I...

Section I
Anti-Belkan Crime Statistics, 2014

During 2014, 13,902 Anti-Belkan criminal incidents had been reported...a steady increase of X percent from 2011, the year after the Circum-Pacific War...nine out of ten of the 18, 008 reported victims were individuals (people) while the remaining were businesses...the majority of the Anti-Belkan crime incidents occurred in/on residential properties...

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Osean Federation Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Criminal Justice Information Services Division

ANTI-BELKAN
CRIME
STATISTICS
2018

Uniform Crime Reports

Foreword

Since the diplomatic complaint by the Principality of Belka in 2011 regarding the plight of Osean Belkans...statements of support for Belka's concerns about Osean Belkans from the Republic of Ustio, the Kingdom of Gebet, the Republic of Recta and the Kingdom of Sapin, all countries with sizable populations of Belkans...mandated FBI collection of hate crime data as part of the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program...

Contents

Introduction....
Methodology...
Section I...

Section I
Anti-Belkan Crime Statistics, 2018

During 2018, 5,900 Anti-Belkan criminal incidents had been reported...all of the reported 6,300 reported victims were individuals...the vast majority of the Anti-Belkan crime incidents occurred in/on highways/roads/alleys/streets...

Addendum:

The data presented in this report are suspected to be inaccurate, due to suspicions of underreporting and data manipulation from multiple police departments and/or city/town halls...

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A World Without Borders

Extremist Group Info:

Date Founded: 2020

Ideology: Radical Cosmopolitanism, Militarism, Transhumanism, Laissez-faire, Anti-Belkan

A World Without Borders is a political movement that has emerged from the depths of the Dark Sphere into the limelight in the wake of the announcement of the Principality of Belka's alliance with the aliens. The movement's self proclaimed goals was to unite the world under a world government and a world military, the elimination of all existing trade barriers and government regulations over economies, the usage of modern technology to give humankind immortality, and the extermination of all Belkans because of various irrational claims, the most peculiar among them was that the Belkans are a recently mutated, hyper aggressive human subspecies that will bring down the rest of the human species with them into self inflicted extinction as proven by the Waldreich Mountains Nuclear Detonations and the Grey Men Conspiracy.

Background:

Information about its history is limited, and is currently being investigated by the Anti-Poverty Law Center. But what is certain is that online membership is rapidly growing, with a worrying amount of members claiming to be currently serving military personnel, and no government censorship in sight as they are either too busy mobilizing for war or are actually using parts of A World Without Borders' rhetoric to help increase their mobilization.

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What you folks think?

hYGP · Jul 12, 2020

Right, I've left this alone for a while because my spreadsheets got a little wonky and there's a distinct possibility that we might lose a week of buildup or make other mistakes once I start getting back into this, but unfortunately we're just gonna have to roll with it. I also did promise to talk about the Raikalan Election Interference Incident, so let's actually talk about that "minor" "border" "skirmish". Credit for this goes to @S-159A1, who came to me with the core genesis of this war before this quest even began.

The Raikalan Election Interference event was a strange little conflict about fifteen years ago, starting just around the end of 2003. The primary combatants were Yuktobania and Sotoa, both of which have chosen to politely elide over this period - Yuktobania for the embarrassment of being forced to accept terms by a lesser power, Sotoa for nearly getting their democratic government overthrown by a group of radical militants hopped up on their anti-communist rhetoric. The secondary combatants, the now all-but-annexed nation of Raikala, Khasamar, Kaluga, and the Verusan Federation have not tried to brush it under the rug - but then again, their histories are not listened to quite as heavily, eh?

The core of the incident, as one might surmise, is a hotly contested election in Raikala. Raikala was a smaller nation attempting to establish its own democracies, pinned between the two relative giants of the Sotoan Treaty Organization and the Union of Yuktobanian Republics and in their zone of influences - both sides pushing for closer relations with them at the expense of the other. It comes down to the wire in 2003, with an unpopular government attempting to salvage their legitimacy by putting a referendum to the public on which side they should join. The vote is close, and staggered out over multiple weeks - a mistake, in retrospect, but Raikala was only haltingly modernized, and the government was not effective in the best of times. When the vote began swinging for the Yuktobanians, Sotoa got worried, and began to rumble vague noises about the illegitimacy of the elections. When Yuktobania began winning more and more decisively, Sotoa began arming the border troops.

As the date of the final election drew nearer, however, Sotoan-aligned elements inside the Sotoan military decided to call for Sotoan assistance in fixing the clearly sabotaged elections, and to overthrown the unpopular reigning government that was clearly not representing the people's will. The Sotoan military, given the opportunity, leapt forward into Raikalan territory and conducted a "peaceful" intervention to "restore" Raikalan democracy. Spearheading the charge was the Ikelos Squadron, pride and joy of the Sotoan military.

Dr. Shen has all sorts of opinions on just how peaceful the intervention was and how restored Raikalan democracy is right now, but, of course, no one would really know to bring it up with him.

In the aftermath of the intervention, huge portions of the surprised Raikalan military was destroyed, and Sotoa had all but stationed their troops right on the border of Khasamar, one of the affiliated Yuktobanian Republics that make up Yuktobania. Yuktobania took one look at the military intervention that Sotoa had just conducted in Raikala and screamed "DEFCON 2 DEFCON 2 DEFCON 2", immediately scrambling all available assets to the Khasamarian bases on and behind the Khasamarian border.

Sotoan military planners then compared the size of the intervention they were staring down - since Yuktobania fundamentally had far more people, far larger production, and a far larger military - and decided that since backing down to the dirty communist Yuktobanian aggression was not politically feasible, the best move would be to strike hard, strike fast, and strike early.

So while the Yuktobanians were still mobilizing, Sotoa declared war on Khasamar and the Yuktobanian Union. With Ikelos Squadron leading the charge, they struck deep into Khasamarian territory and smashed the Khasamarian staging points and bases before Yuktobania could mobilize their armed forces. As the surviving Khasamarian Air Force and Yuktobania's reinforcements began streaming in, the Sotoans played one of their trump cards - the YB-3AL, a heavy airborne strategic laser system mounted to supersized bomber forces. The Sotoan superweapon scoured the skies over Khasamar and crushed the remaining Khasamarian Air Forces, along with the first wave of Yuktobanian reinforcements. Following up on their success, the Sotoan military pushed through Khasamar, seizing their capital and then prepared to strike into more core Yuktobanian territories.

Kaluga, always closer to Sotoa and with a frosty relationship with Yuktobania at best, decided to join the war on the Sotoan's side, as Yuktobania continued withdrawing its forces for a proper spring offensive. Sotoa, keenly aware that their success against Yuktobania was riding the razor's edge, decided to keep pushing through the winter. They launched deep strike packages to hit all sundry military targets they could find and raided Yuktobanian supply caches for the ability to keep their war machine moving as fast as possible, alarming their now-eastern neighbors, the Verusan Federation.

Sotoa then proceeded to blow approximately all of their international credibility with one incredibly short-sighted military operation - a commando strike on a Yuktobanian supply depot and boneyard, by Sotoa's own accounting.

Yuktobania reported it was one of their internationally recognized nuclear materiel decommissioning plants, and the Sotoans had just stolen the nuclear materials.

In the wake of this announcement, the Verusan Federation decided that Verusa's continued survival as a nation would depend on rapidly putting down the rabidly aggressive Sotoan threat, who had gone so far as to seize nuclear material for their own use. The Osean Federation promptly stopped talking about settling grievances in order to prevent another Belkan War in Raikala, as memories of nuclear weapons immediately brought the Belkan War to mind. Pulling on the freshly signed treaty with Osea, the Yuktobanians, Verusans, Oseans, and even Emmerians pooled forces to create the Allied Forces. With all their might and materiel accumulated, the Allied Forces manage to stall the Sotoan offensives to the north and east, even with the YB-3ALs continuing to impose themselves on the airspace.

Enter the Ratatosk.

A series of Yuktobanian missile trains, each train could hide inside mountains during the day to evade YB-3AL notice, and then at night could spring out and launch burst missiles in retaliation. Their first deployment into the war splashed one of the feared Yuktobanian YB-3ALs, tearing a hole into Sotoa's defensive net of superweapons. With one of the feared YB-3ALs shot down, the Allied Forces immediately redoubled the pressure on the northern front, and forced the Sotoans into retreat.

In response, Ikelos Squadron deployed to destroy the Ratatosk trains, and with good intelligence from undisclosed sources, clever use of bunker busters, and the sheer madness to attack a Ratatosk train through the mountain tunnels, the Ratatosk were effectively crippled as a threat - but not before it had achieved the primary goal of successfully creating an opening for a Yuktobanian counteroffensive.

Worse, when the Ikelos Squadron is deployed to destroy the Ratatosk, an Allied strike force is, ironically enough, launched on a deep strike against the YB-3ALs. In one daring dawn raid, they destroy all but two of the YB-3ALs - and those two were off reinforcing the southeastern front. Shabhaz One, the Verusan ace of the day and man of the hour, claims the title the Sun Fighter in direct homage to this Operation Dawnbreaker.

With the airborne lasers undergirding the northern offensive destroyed, the fronts demanding more than Sotoa can naturally supply, and meeting sterner and sterner resistance as the Allied Forces grew steadily stronger, Sotoan military command promptly realized they were desperately overstretched and promptly began a retreat on all fronts, covered in turn by the remaining YB-3ALs, the Ikelos Squadron, and Sotoa's occasional harrasing deep strikes to disrupt the Allied Forces' supply.

This order to retreat comes at first too slowly and then breaks down too quickly for some of Sotoan Treaty Organization's forces along the southeastern front, who are promptly encircled and forced to surrender as the Allied Forces advance into Kalugan territory.

Kaluga's current opinion towards anybody, everybody, and especially Yuktobania should make it quite clear exactly how kind and gentle the Allied Force's advance was.

Regardless of the Allied Forces' behavior in Kaluga, the northern front was still being pushed back just as hard, with Allied Forces now pushing deep into Khasamar as Sotoa begins pulling its forces back just as far. Quietly, the Sotoan government began negotiations to end the war, seeing the distinctly unfavorable turn that the war had taken. The Allied Forces, however, reject the proffered status quo White Peace - as they see it, they're winning the war now.

The Sotoan Air Force redeploys the Ikelos squadron in response, piloting a strange aircraft in the lead. Almost overnight, the Verusan third and seventh army corps are tactically broken as a force, and the southern advance grinds to a halt. Sweeping north, the unidentified combat aircraft cuts a swathe through the Allied Forces, halting their advance just long enough for Sotoan armed forces to regroup and to fortify the Salient. The Salient was a region of rough terrain and the defensive works to take advantage of that terrain that Khasamar had initially abandoned during Sotoa's initial lightning advance, which Sotoa was now using for its own defense, ironically enough. Here, the unidentified combat aircraft heading the Ikelos Squadron stays behind long enough to be identified conclusively as the "Spiral 7", an aircraft that takes the ludicrous maneuverability of the F-22 and decides to crank it up beyond all bounds of reason and sanity, while also equipping it with a prototype COFFIN system to take full advantage of that maneuverability.

Against unfathomable odds, the Ikelos Squadron and the Spiral 7 sortie nearly daily in order to hold back the Allied Forces from simply crushing their way through the Salient, until finally, just as the Sotoan armed forces are about to completely collapse, the Sotoan government manages to get the Allied Forces to agree to a white peace and the cessation of all territorial gains in exchange for a promise to not interfere with future elections, and to ensure the free and fair elections in the states of Raikala and Khasamar. Kaluga's interests, naturally, are never mentioned, and neither is any mention of recompense for the wronged states of Raikala, Khasamar, and the other Yuktobanian provinces.

With the ceasefire agreement seemingly in place, the Sotoan military begins withdrawing from the Raikalan front.

However, before they can truly commit to the retreat, a radical group of Sotoan officers launches a coup against the government. Self-styling themselves as the Forgotten Army, they rapidly attempt to seize the YB-3ALs and Spiral 7s in preparation for their suicidal mission: "to destroy the corporatist and communist threat once and for all." They successfully manage to seize Sotoa's nuclear weapons, YB-3ALs, and the capital - at least, before Ikelos Squadron fully commits to the loyalist forces and pushes the Forgotten Army out of the Sotoan capital.

However, the Ikelos Squadron are barely given any time to rest before the Forgotten Army begins its real ploy - a deep strike mission into Yuktobania, headed by the characteristic Sotoan supersonic bombers and aided by third-party drone technology controlled from a heavily modified YB-3AL frame. With the assistance of the Allied Forces, the loyalist Ikelos Squadron clashes against first the YB-3AL, and then the true controller of the drone fleet, a modified Spiral 7, styling itself the Spiral 8.

Upon its successful neutralization, the bombers of the Forgotten Army either return to loyalist Sotoan control or are promptly shot down. With the Forgotten Army thus neutered, and cooperation between the loyalists and the Allied Forces established, the hotly negotiated peace begins to settle in - brimming with tensions, and stoking the nationalist vigor of all the respective countries, but the peace, at least, sets in.

Strangely, the radical designs the Sotoans seem to have put out do not seem to have propagated - in fact, many astute observers noted that the designs that Sotoa released after the Raikalan Election Interference Incident were all markedly worse than their iterations in the war, as if decades of research had all been erased shortly after the conclusion of the civil war. Unfortunately, given the state of worldwide intelligence, no one knows what the real reason is, and the close distraction of the Circum-Pacific War and its aftermath will rapidly overshadow this "little" war.

hYGP · Sep 23, 2020

Sounds pretty decisive. We're going to be lowering the difficulty down to Normal.

I feel like I should also add a disclaimer: I have been heavily inspired by Three Body Problem in recent times.

Upon the tarmac, two fighters faced each other for the first time in twenty-five years. There were others there, but to the legends of their era, they were as worthy of attention as specks of sand from ten thousand meters above. Even the sky cleared itself for their meeting, allowing the starry lights to stand in attendance.

They stood still, gazes measuring. The bond between them surpassed love; their vitriol surpassed hatred; their relationship surpassed destiny itself. Distance mattered not, time mattered not. No words sufficed, and infinite words would never hope to express the emotions each felt.

"Pixy," Cipher finally spoke, cool and level.

"Cipher," Pixy nodded, gaze and tone measuring.

"Did you find it?" Cipher asked.

The reason why humanity had to destroy itself in great bonfires of hatred. The reason for the Belkan War. The reason why the wars just never seemed to stop. The reason why no amount of human violence was ever enough to sate the bloodlust of humanity.

"I did," Pixy smiled sardonically.

"You did?" Cipher asked sharply.

Pixy glanced at Cipher's watchdogs, the fingers of the great undying system of systems that murdered all of its children. They were blameless, and yet each of them wielded the great iron cross welded to their backs.

His smirk grew sharper.

"I've had years to think," Pixy said, voice lowering just enough to be dangerous. "See, you can figure it out from three basic principles," he said, holding up his closed fist.

A finger juts out. "One. Every group of people that survives must adopt a specialized organization that helps them survive."

A second finger unfurls the banner of revolt. "The second follows from the first. Every group of people that survives is member of an organization whose foundational purpose is violence. Without exception. When these violent organizations get large enough, these warmongers start calling themselves 'states'."

The others bristled. Pixy knew he was stepping right over the line which they had all drawn for themselves, that echoed too dangerously of the anarchist radicals going all the way back to AWWNB. But he was not going to censor the greatest and most dangerous AWWNB member out of concern for their fear.

Cipher gestured to continue.

Pixy nodded and snapped out his third finger. "Finally, three: All organizations with violence as a central tenet are forced by its own members to retaliate when their members are attacked. When state formation requires violence, violence begets violence. So it goes, in an endless spiral straight to hell."

"So did AWWNB have the right idea?" Cipher pointedly asked. The others seemed to be quietly talking on the radio, but that was none of the old revolutionary's concern.

Pixy decisively shook his head.

"AWWNB never could have," Pixy scornfully laughed. "We were too naïve. If all states are founded in violence, AWWNB would have been founded in the greatest act of violence the world has ever known. And," Pixy sighed, "it would have all been for nothing."

"Nothing?" Cipher slowly said.

"Nothing," Pixy agreed, the exhaustion of the endless age of industrialized war catching up to his frame. "Even when all a people have are ashes, give them the fear that their neighbors will come get them, and even those coated in ashes will reach for a gun before they reach out to their neighbors. It matters not that many choose to reach out – enough people reach for guns, and misunderstandings happen. Armed misunderstandings turn into blood, blood turns into hatred, and the fires of war take once more.

"So its gone, so it will go," he said, quietly. "Humanity will never be able to overcome war so long as humanity's own hatred and fear remains so much more powerful than humanity's willingness to believe."

Cipher smiled a twisted smile.

"Twenty-five years, and that's all?" he said, voice tinged with bitterness. "I could have told you that."

Then his eyes sharpened, and Pixy knew that Cipher had seen it.

"But something's changed, hasn't it?"

Pixy smirked and pointed up. "A great storm is about to come over all of humanity, and it's all thanks to them."

He looked up at the starry sky, and wondered again if others in the universe had managed to overcome their own hatred themselves.

"Humanity might be able to change after all," he quietly whispered.

As if in answer, the stars vanished from view.

hYGP · Sep 28, 2020

"There's actually one other thing we would like to bring up, sir," Shen said.

Pulford raised an eyebrow, glancing at Long Caster and back at the two of them. Dr. Shen didn't budge, but Dr. Vahlen winced.

"As you may or may not be aware, our technologies, much like the rest of our facilities, are straddling the line between closed campus and open secret," Dr. Shen said.

"You didn't choose to be cautious about military secrets?" Bradford said, warning edge to his voice.

Dr. Vahlen winced again. Dr. Shen shrugged. "If I may be blunt, certain 'secrets'," he air-quoted, "Are impossible to hide. You cannot hide a project about standardizing building construction practices from your building companies, and you cannot hide the fact that we've flown in two jets of engineers and multiple cargo loads into Stonehenge."

"This sounds like you're asking for more, Dr. Shen," Bradford said.

"Well, as a matter of fact," Dr. Vahlen said, "Yes, we are."

"And what brought this on?" Bradford said.

"An old coworker passed me a message saying that unofficially, some of the Commonwealth universities would be willing to host us and our scientists in their state-of-the-art biological research labs for a short while," Dr. Vahlen said. She hesitated a moment before she clasped her hands together. "Sir, I realize this may be a security risk, but please, allow us to take them up on their offer. We could conduct our biological studies of the aliens in much greater depth there!"

Dr. Shen sighed minutely, and Pulford cocked his head in response.

"It's not just that one offer, Commander," Dr. Shen carefully said. "If we could release our technology out into the public sphere, I suspect we could accelerate all of our research by leaps and bounds. Researchers across the world leap a mountain range in order to get access to a fraction of our research notes, let alone the vast majority. The public researchers can all contribute to our defense, if only we allow them to," Shen passionately said. "Even if we have to constrain the technology to limited cooperation with even one nation, we could leverage an incredible amount of intellectual prowess!"

"At the cost of revealing all of our technology both to our enemies and enemy actors," Pulford said sharply.

"Respectfully, sir, we do not have the luxury of pretending that we have secrets in reserve when our enemy outclasses us technologically by such a large degree," Shen tartly responded. "I had hoped that you might all see my point in this regard. Commander Long Caster?"

Pulford's eyes tightened as he looked at you.

[] [Sec] Side with Vahlen, and agree to a limited collaboration with the Commonwealth. Technologies will be considered [Military Secret] by default unless otherwise specified.
[] [Sec] Side with Shen, and agree to a mostly unlimited cooperation with the public sphere. Technologies will be considered [Open for Research] by default unless otherwise specified.
[] [Sec] Defer to Commander Pulford. You guess that he will reflexively classify everything and deny the request.

We're reaching a point in the quest where you have fascinating technologies on offer that you could really use some big cutting-edge infrastructure for - as well as projects so big you need appreciable fractions of the world's research powers. You already have a collection of the world's finest minds, but if you so choose, you will be able to boost your own research speed by collaborating with outside researchers and institutions from certain Regions. All nations are Regions - some nations have Regions within them. (Some organizations are or will be Regions in their own right, but those are special exceptions)

Regions can contribute additional research based on population, Standard of Living, and their own special features - for example, the Commonwealth of Usean States boasts a state of the art biochemical lab and a slightly les state of the art particle accelerator. Of course, the cost is that you will be responsible not only for the usage of the special features, but that secrecy on the technology will be all but impossible to maintain within the Region - you should assume that any technology you are cooperating with a Region on will be granted to the Region, if not the entire world.

If you choose to open things up, you can simply append them to the Research votes you want to collaborate with.

Future technologies and policies may be able to boost the amount of Research you obtain from Regional collaborations - or make security on the technologies better.

When Long Caster comes into the room, he saw Charlie Burns and Jasper Rhodes sitting quietly in the same room. He also noticed that they were on literally opposite ends of the central conference room table, studiously silent. This presented an awkward dilemma: where to sit?

Charlie Burns responded first.

"Commander," he saluted. "We have a progress report on our mutual projects."

"Respectfully, sir, we're both stuck," Jasper finished.

"Stuck how?" Long Caster asked.

"Our tactical analysis can't complete our doctrine of fighting with broken information links without actually testing it in the field -" Jasper began.

"- and the F-35D can't actually be considered a finished design until we allocate resources to building it," Charlie finished, coolly staring down Jasper. "Considering that we both need the resources and a mission request -"

"- we decided we would ask you to approve the allocation of resources and a mission, sir," Jasper rushed out.

Long Caster quietly wondered how much he was paying Adam to deal with this.

"Mission to where?" Long Caster tiredly asked.

"Yinshi Valley would be the best candidate," Jasper said. "Weather forecast projects that there will be heavy thunderstorms over the valley starting late in the week - if we can spare three squadrons, preferably one ace squadron with them, we can definitively complete the Spiderweb Doctrine. I realize that this is quite a lot of our air assets, and we can make do with less - but if we want to be certain about it we'll have to do things this way."

Standardized Construction Processes completed!

"So, what do these designs entail, Dr. Shen?" Long Caster asks.

"Mostly a modularization and standardization of accepted building types - it's nothing that building companies are unfamiliar with," Dr. Shen said. "In fact, I have reason to suspect that most companies and governments already employ similar systems. We were simply unable to take advantage of all the latent capability until we had our own house in order, so to speak."

"I feel like you're making a rather sharp point," Long Caster drily remarked.

"Think what you will," Dr. Shen shrugged.

Build times reduced! Engineering Team C will continue work on Project Dove.

Stonehenge Technical Specifications Overdrafting II complete.

"Alright, Scrap Queen," Long Caster said. "What do you have for me now?"

Avril winced.

"Well, Long Caster, do you want the news or the bad news?"

"No good news?"

Avril shook her head.

"There's only so much streamlining we can do with the tools we have, sir. If good news is cutting off more of the cost of Stonehenge, we're not going to be able to do that," she said. "If you want Stonehenge to happen, you're going to need to commit to staggering amounts of money and time."

"I see. Is that the bad news?" Long Caster asked.

Avril nodded.

"Then, the news?"

"The news is that some railguns are in worse shape than others, like we previously said - which means that we can actually take Stonehenge reconstruction gun by gun. Each gun is going to be more expensive than the last, but if you just want a few guns working..."

"I see what you mean," Long Caster nodded. "Good work, Avril."

Engineering Projects
[] [Engineering] Improved Manufacturing
"We've got some ideas for improving manufacturing practices with cutting edge tech - with your permission, we'll try to implement them."
[] [Engineering] Electrothermal Chemical Cannons
"Some of us have some experience with the cutting edge military tech, which includes a proposed miniaturization of the Stonehenge gun starter. Should improve our tank and artillery designs, if we ever roll those out."
[] [Engineering] Experimental Ammunition
"Some of our engineers, pilots, and scientists have gotten to talking in their free time, and they've come up with a couple specialty bullet types that Alien Alloy might enable us to manufacture. Provided, of course, that we manage to figure out Alien Alloy fabrication."
[] [Engineering] Expanded Automation
"I'll be honest - working with robots still gives me the shivers, just a little bit. The new engineers do have a point, though - ultimately, the robots are just bigger and better tools, and every mechanic knows the value of better tools."

Stonehenge construction stages revealed:

Stonehenge Base
In order to reconstruct Stonehenge, you need roads for the materials, housing for the construction workers, actual runways greatly preferred, the works. Military engineers can only work so many miracles, you know.
5,000 IC required to even start the rest of Stonehenge. IC investment this minimal was the running assumption of previous cost estimates.
35,000 IC buys more developed infrastructure. Actual barracks, smoothed runways, road markers, and the revival of the old train network leading to Stonehenge. This level of IC investment will reduce the IC costs of later stages by 20% from sticker price.
75,000 IC buys very developed infrastructure. SAM networks, radar control tower, a second set of train tracks, loading docks, paved runways, and even some specialty onsite maintenance facilities. This level of IC reduces the sticker IC price of later stages by an additional 20% from sticker price.

Stonehenge Gun #8
Stonehenge Gun #8 was the one that Officer Deanna McOnie managed to fire in the Lighthouse War, and while it immediately broke down after the first shot, it's still the gun with the least external and internal damage. 15,000 IC to repair.
The primary damage to this gun is internal electronics or ultimately cosmetic, considering the advancements in material science since its construction - as such, Alien Alloy will not be able to reduce the cost of this gun.

Stonehenge Guns #3, #5
Stonehenge Guns #3 and #5 fortunately went offline very shortly during ISAF's attack on the Stonehenge site, and consequently suffered the least damage among the guns that Mobius One destroyed. Still, they were subject to missile impacts and bomb blasts all over - some structural supports will likely need to be replaced or reinforced, and the gun barrel looks dangerously warped. Both guns will require 40,000 IC apiece to repair. Up to 10 Alien Alloy can be allocated for each gun, which will reduce IC costs by 600 IC per Alien Alloy dedicated.

Stonehenge Guns #2, #4, #6
Stonehenge Guns 2,4, and 6 were not so lucky. They have suffered severe internal and external damage, warping structural supports, the turret joints, and many firing rails simply need to be replaced wholesale. Each of these guns will require 80,000 IC to repair. Up to 40 Alien Alloy can be allocated per gun, which will reduce IC costs by 800 IC for each piece of Alien Alloy.

Stonehenge Guns #1, #7
Somehow, Mobius One managed to drop bunker buster bombs directly down the gun barrel of guns 1 and 7. It's the only explanation for the sheer degree of internal damage to these guns. Make no mistake - the amount of investment required to repair these guns is almost enough to directly build another Stonehenge gun in their place - but only slightly. Each gun will cost 120,000 IC to repair, and can have up to 80 Alien Alloy dedicated to its repair. Each Alien Alloy will reduce costs by 1200 IC.

"Dr. Vahlen, do I, uh, want to know why a bunch of scientists are in all black with casts and bringing flowers? Is there a funeral I should be aware of?"

Dr. Vahlen, dressed in her typical white lab coat, winced, and Long Caster felt the urge to cringe with her. "Ah, Commander, you saw. I should have mentioned it to you ahead of time, but unfortunately in all the chaos I suppose it just slipped my head," she said, rubbing her temples.

"Dr. Vahlen, are you...alright?" Long Caster asked. "You've been a little...sensitive to sudden outbursts, a little more than usual."

She grimaced. "Ah, you noticed too. Yes, I suppose my senses are just a little bit oversensitive right now - but not enough for me to stop working."

Long Caster narrowed his eyes, before Dr. Vahlen put up a hand.

"Before you ask, I checked my bloodstream for stimulants and drugs, and found nothing of the sort. We didn't find anything like that in all the other volunteers, although we're still waiting on more advanced blood testing to be available if we have permission."

"Dr. Vahlen, what - ?"

"We found out what the machinery around the Sectoid in the Bulb Ship does - it enhances psionic senses and increases psionic transmission power," she said. Long Caster could almost feel the relief.

"Wait," Long Caster interrupted. "Are you - ?"

"Yes, I am getting impressions, no, it's no more mind-reading than being able to see body language makes you more able to discern someone's mood than their voice," Dr. Vahlen quickly said. "It is an...odd piece of machinery, but in some sense it is a validation and a brand new direction for science to advance," she said, staring into the middle distance contemplatively.

"For all of human history, humanity has looked outwards for their survival and for their own gain. Only occasionally did humanity look inwards to see what about themselves could be improved. This technology, I believe, will perhaps be one of the greatest strides in the latter field," she said. "But insofar as the potential to improve oneself exists, is it a coincidence that it responds so strongly to the outstanding?"

Long Caster decided to leave the contemplative silence alone, thinking along with Dr. Vahlen. He hadn't taken much philosophy classes in military academy - his focus was on the officer schools so that he could earn money for his own student debts. He was sort of wishing he had, now.

The silence seemed to echo, letting Long Caster hear the final "Amen."

"Oh, right," Dr. Vahlen said, as if awakening from a trance. "I forgot to explain that. As we were testing the Sectoid Framework, one of our first thoughts was put Alfie the sectoid captive into the Sectoid Framework. Obviously we took a while to prepare the subject and make sure that they were still alive, which took us almost as long as reconstructing the Sectoid Framework. By the time we finished, you were already coming back from the mission.

"Finally, we put Alfie in the Sectoid Framework, but we hadn't expected a certain response to Trigger passing by the area. As best we can tell...the experimental subject lashed out using the full strength of the Sectoid Framework against Trigger, but Trigger just looked back annoyed. Some scientists were reporting that his eyes were glowing then. We're not entirely sure what happened next, but, well, for lack of a better word, the experimental subject's head exploded. We've been busy, ah, cleaning the machinery and preparing the body ever since - we'll be sure to ask Trigger to try the machine out when he's less tired."

She paused a moment.

"Also, when we have our experimental Psi-Pod under better security. He, ah, rapidly disassembled it well ahead of our testing schedule."

"I see," Long Caster said.

Then he thought the statements through slightly more.

"Wait," Long Caster said. "You mean - "

"Yes," Dr. Vahlen airily said. "We did use the Sectoid Framework on ourselves first. We were...mostly confident it would not cause brain damage, and our hunch was proven right."

"I see," Long Caster grimaced.

Sectoid Framework Complete! Rudimentary Psi-Lab unlocked!

[][ResearchA] Fighter Alien Analysis [0/???]
"Commander, we would like to examine the genetic structure of the aliens in the fighter jets. Due to the lack of an intact specimen, we suspect this would be quite difficult; however, given the possible value we could discover by analyzing their remains, we feel obligated to at least mention the possibility."
[][ResearchA] Strange Machinery [0/???]
"Commander, we've picked up the notes from Burns, and we concur; this behavior is very strange, and we would like to investigate why the magnetic fields seem much stronger than they should be."
[][ResearchA] Toroidal Energy Storage [0/??]
"Commander, with the properties of these alien alloys, we would like to explore a potential application for incredible amounts of energy storage."
[][ResearchA] Alien Alloy Fabrication [20/160]
"Commander, frankly, I would feel remiss not putting this option up there. We have such an incredible surfeit of Alien Alloy that it is a travesty that we very nearly cannot use any of it due to our inability to shape it to our needs. With your permission, sir, our research team can rectify that."

"Commander," Audrey nodded. "We've completed our research notes on the long range manipulation of particle orbits."

"That's good, I take it?"

"Yes, it puts us only a step behind Grunder Industries and a few steps behind Aurelian science," she proudly boasted. "We'll only need a little bit more time before we can create our own APS, or...never mind."

"Aurelian secret?" Long Caster asked.

"Yes, one we'd like to keep out of Leasathian hands, if at all possible. Honestly," she said, shaking her head, "I don't know what possessed you, just giving back the authoritarian regime's superfighter that they built with literal kidnapped scientists. I would have thought that that alone would have been cause enough for the international community to shun them as pariahs, let alone using Aurelian aid money to fund said efforts."

"Noted," Long Caster said.

He had learned from Pulford - when questioned, say little.

Cyclonic Accelerators complete! Cyclonic Accelerator Research Facility unlocked!

[][ResearchG] Toroidal Energy Storage [0/??]
"It's a simple application of known science with admittedly new materials. We have enough talent to go through this quickly."
[][ResearchG] Superconductive Accelerators [0/???]
"Many of the cutting-edge particle accelerators are limited by their materials. We have better materials now."
[][ResearchG] Cyclone Shielding [0/???]
"I figure you might want to go for this - having shielding on our side for once would be a great benefit. Just...be aware that this will only be available at first in large sizes and with incredible energy draws during operation."
[][ResearchG] Safe Energy Transmission [0/???]
"The research that's gone into the long-range particle transmission probably shows how the Lighthouse's signature long range energy transfers are happening without creating orbital death lasers and enabling a energy to be transmitted through APS - with your permission, we'd like to explore this concept further."

One more note: You can write-in to have the Research Groups pick up the researches on each other's list - it's just that I thought it'd be easier to split based on specialties. This will also probably be the last Debriefing - the next update will probably be Deployments for Feburary 15th through 22nd.

hYGP · Oct 27, 2020

The war didn't end with the declaration of peace, either.

We came back to a leveled home in the middle of a leveled street. The apartment block had collapsed in on itself, pockmarked rubble showing where the rising tank shells kissed the falling precision bombs. All we did was have the misfortune of believing in the future and believing in the welcoming Emmerians.

That's the reason we settled in Gracemeria. Why my parents accepted the conditions they did - because they thought I would have a better chance there.

That was not a good enough reason for the furious Emmerians who lived near us.

It didn't matter that my parents had lost everyone in Estovakia. It didn't matter that my parents loudly hated the Eastern Front with all their hearts.

What did matter was that my dad was Estovakian and that he was right there.

He can't walk or dress himself. I suppose I should count myself that lucky.

Of course, nothing ever happened to those angry men. Who could even remember their faces? Who would even care?

That's why I decided that no matter what, I had to get away from Anea. Away from the nonsensical rules, the meaningless anger, and the generation of ugliness that could only breed more ugliness.

I thought then the stars would be a refuge from humanity's darkness. That's why I went halfway around the world, a snow angel headed straight into the Comona tropics to gaze at the same stars.

I should have been less surprised that not even the stars would prove to be above such ugliness.

"So in the end, the aliens are no different. What a travesty. They possess a method of communication unlike anything we've ever seen, and all they use it for is to bellow a pointless declaration of war."

"Of course the universe would turn out like this. Only soldiers could be asked to die for nothing across a distance so vast they'd never see home."

"Hm. That can't be all, Van Doorn. There must be someone among them who speaks for them, the being that can declare what the outcome of the war is. If they're there, maybe we can reach an accord-"

"Is this the famed optimism of youth? What have you even seen of war, anyway, Dr. Schroeder?"

"Enough, sir, to realize that maybe this storm cloud's silver lining might just be what we need to finally achieve peace."

"Twenty-five years, and we're fighting the same war over Directus."

"That's just how it goes."

"...Is that so?"

"A rigid evaluation would mark this last week's performance as middling to disappointing. A frank evaluation is that you have achieved a miracle that I can neither in good conscience penalize nor praise you for."

Commander Pulford sighed, and the mask of disciplined middle-age slipped off the ancient career soldier.

"Should we just call it a wash, sir?" Commander Long Caster asked.

Commander Pulford sat in stony silence, firming up his facial expression. Long Caster could almost see the beginnings of tears.

"Yes, we should," Pulford says, flat voice tinged with a slight wobble. "Your standing assignments remain the same as ever. Continue your work to combat the alien threat. Begin establishing an intelligence network. Should I need you to do something special, I will notify you. Dismissed."

Long Caster nods, and gets up as quickly as possible.

"Wait!" Pulford barks out, and Long Caster pauses.

The two men still, awaiting Pulford's final decision. His hands are trembling slightly, so slightly Long Caster thinks it's almost just breathing.

"No, forget I said anything. Dismissed."

Long Caster leaves the room. He carefully doesn't think about the soft whimpering he can hear through the door.

Something's wrong when Long Caster checks in with Daniel. It's not Daniel - he actually looks better than usual, for all that he's only known him for a couple of weeks. It's not quite the sound either, although after the last mission it is distinctly more muted. Now that Long Caster is paying attention, it's not his uniform that's bugging him, even though now that he's paying attention Daniel is actually wearing a uniform.

Long Caster's nose twitches, and suddenly he realizes it's that the ever-present smell of coffee is gone.

"No coffee, Daniel?"

Daniel jerks slightly, and then slowly turns around from his workstation.

"Don't think I'll need it right now," Daniel shrugs contentedly. "Do me a favor and tell Adam thanks, will you? I dunno whether I'll get a chance to tell him in person. Still got a fuckload of work to do," he says, mind split between the conversation and his work. He winces slightly when he realizes he's slipped up again - but Long Caster doesn't comment on it. "Anyway, what's the order this week?"

You have 106600 IC available, plus 9600 [Planes] IC. The front page is currently updated; please vote by plan. Personally, Daniel is suggesting that he doesn't urgently need more hands to perform basic functions, but if you want to expand logistical capabilities he will likely need more people when you decide what personnel you're looking to recruit this week.

Please vote by plan, and tag me if there's something you think I've forgotten.

Buildings

Command Center: 1000 IC (1 Slot). Necessary for a base. The bigger the Command Center, the more Slots and areas that can be coordinated at once.

Airfield (3 Slots): 25000 IC (can vary based on local conditions). Necessary for Jet Aircraft to takeoff/land.

Barracks (1 Slot). 25 IC. Can house up to 1000 people.

Hangars (1 Slot). 25 IC. Houses up to 4 Aircraft. Directly on runway, enables immediately launch.

Storage (1 Slot). 25 IC. Houses up to 6 Aircraft. Away from runway, aircraft stored here must wait for Active Duty launches. Storage can also store Large Aircraft, but each Large Aircraft counts for 6 Aircraft.

Research Labs. (1 Slot) 1000/2000/4000 IC. Each level of Research Lab increases weekly output for each scientist by 1.

Aircraft Skunkworks (4 Slots) 10000 IC. Halves all aircraft related research times.

Engineering Bays. (1 Slot) 1000/2000/4000 IC. Each level of Engineering Bay is increases each engineer's weekly output by 1. More engineers will reduce IC expenditures.

Factory (1 Slot) 1000 IC. Generic Industrial Capacity that can only be used by XCOM.

Aircraft Factories. (1 Slot). 2000-2500 IC. Produces [Invested IC] in IC that can only be spent for planes.

Defenses (1 Slot). 4000 IC per slot. Improves Defensibility.

Bunker: (1 Slot) 1000 IC. Improves Defensibility. Medium Damage Resistance.

Docks: 1/2/4 Slots. 25000 IC where available. Enables warship and cargo ship docking, reducing IC costs by 15/30/50% for each Docks.

Trainyard: 1/2/4 Slots. 10000 IC where available. Enables Train Connections, reducing IC costs by 5/10/15%.

New Building!

The most rudimentary Psi-lab. 1000 IC. Enables only the most basic sort of...what we are calling psionic testing. Only one person can be tested for each Psi-lab, and each one requires an Alien Psi-Framework.

Improvements

Structual Hardening: 200 IC per slot. Confers Light Damage Resistance.

Repair Costs

Repairing Docks: 25000 IC

Repairing Defenses: 4000 IC

Research
Certain technologies require some IC investment, and may produce disproportionate results with extra investment.
Alien Alloy Fabrication: Minimum 500 IC, produces scaling rewards up to 1500 IC invested.
F-35D Lightning III Development: 10000 IC required to develop prototype squadron.
Expanded Automation requires 1000 IC and does not scale with extra IC.

The list has stayed largely the same since the Jan 1: for convenience, I have included the easy ones to look for.
CFA-44 Nosferatu: 150000 IC (warning: no planes immediately available, construction will take at least three weeks under ideal circumstances)
F-14X XCOM Hellcat II: 2400 IC
F-35C Lightning II: 3000 IC
EML: 2000 IC (1 Alien Alloy reduces costs by 600 IC)
ADMM: 50 IC per round (note: you still have a standing order of 70 ADMM rounds - the next shipment should be coming in soon.)

Psi-Jammer Pod: 10 IC per unit

Airfleet Maintenance: 2500 IC.
F-14X repairs: 32400 IC(F-14Xs, uh, take some pretty significant damage firing the EMLs.)

Dashau Resurgence Plan: 8000/40,000 IC invested.
Stonehenge Base Construction: 5000/35000/75000 IC
Stonehenge Gun Construction: listed here.

Selfish Gamer · Dec 5, 2020

SD-1: The decisive swarm bomber
The SD-1 is a drone bomber that is designed by and used by the Belkan Air Force to be cheap and easily mass produced so that it can be sortied in the amount that is required to saturate anti-air. This means that battles involving these drones will always cost the enemy more in munitions to attack the drones and units being destroyed by the bombing. The drone is capable of carrying 2 ugb's under its wings ,with each bomb having the power to destroy a line of tanks and crater enemy runways. The plane also has the ability to take off from unpaved runways to accommodate the takeoff and landing of the swarms of these drones.

SD-1: The bomber with AI
To greatly reduce the amount micromanaging that is required by the drone operators and to prevent jamming from automatically destroying the swarm of SD-1 drones, the drones have some AI software installed onto the aircraft. This Means the plane is able to uses its array of sensors to navigate to its destination, Identification of enemies and is able to bomb them accurately from the cruising altitude of 10 km. The SD-1 uses the same systems to return to the runway it toke off from. Drone operators can it also give the swarm of drones new orders in the case that the target has moved or that priorities have changed, which can be done from the ground or in a me-963 AWACS plane.

The SD-1 has been involved in one mission and has been successful at it objective with of 67% of drones sortied returning to the airbase after completing its part of mission.

Retrieved in a Text-only Format from https://Belkan-Air-Force/Aircraft/SD-1 on 21-02-2020 11:13 pm

Author notes:
I decided to have this omake about the the SD-1 drone to read like propaganda from the Belkan air force, which the strengths of plane are highlighted and the downsides are downplayed, only implied or not mentioned at all. Most of the downsides of the drone are the result of compromises of having the drone be cheap in the extreme to make, One example is that SD-1 uses a Propeller to propel the plane, which means the plane is much slower. Since this the first omake (and I don't know much in way of how planes work) that I have typed, I expect it to be full of flaws.

Ace Combat XCOM: Enemy Skies

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