Under normal circumstances, they're dying of a sort of immortality-cancer, and they need Humanity, or any other eligible species, to be turned into their meat puppets so they can continue living forever.
more.......they've reached the extreme end of Psi enhancements ability to extend their lives. And they need us because they were unable to break through anime style and become "ascended", whatever that means. For their failure, they're being hunted. And every meat-shield the can put in the hunters way while they work on self improvement is seized ruthlessly. If X3 ever comes out, the glowing fissure at the end of X2 was supposed to be the hunters arrival.
That's assuming the Intel on the early bits of the war isn't totally FUBAR already, considering the 'lids. Back the local soldiers up.
Your info isn't bad. Lids mulched Munich in Bradford's first mission. That he had 75% casualties when arriving
after the attack was already over is why he got replaced.
[ ] Dr. Lisa Jo. She received her first Doctorate in psychology, then transitioned to the harder sciences over the course of eleven years, picking up four more along the way, ending with two theses on seperate topics at once. She is a sponge, capable of studying anything without complaint, and offering what insights she can along the way. If there is somebody we can expect to understand whatever we put in front of them, Dr. Jo is that person. Unfortunately, she studies and researches all things for curiosity's sake, and while her work will no doubt be the backbone of any scientific breakthroughs, we must rely on either her support staff or the engineering team for most of the innovations that will turn her findings into usable technologies.
[ ] Dr. Moira Vahlen. She is an astrobiologist of the highest caliber, and is as ruthless as they come. She has stated clearly that her particular interests lie in finding ways to adapt alien technology to advance human scientific developments. To that end, there is little she won't do to ensure the XCOM Project's success, and she is certain to attach possible technologies to all of her reports. While she is certainly enthusiastic, there have been some questions regarding her ethical standing; she is brilliant, but if she goes unchecked, we aren't sure what the consequences might be, good or bad.
[ ] Dr. Naomi Hunter. Dr. Hunter is a gene therapist and has written groundbreaking reports on how DNA actually builds the human body, and how it can be altered and adapted to suit our needs. If there is a doctor on this Earth who will cure cancer, it's Dr. Naomi Hunter. It is expected that any autopsies performed or biological technologies studied will lead to new technologies in no time at all, and our medical labs are certain to be top of the line. The downside is that while our Science Team is equipped for all areas of study, Dr. Hunter has had a tendency to select medical doctors for the majority of her team, no doubt slowing any research outside of those fields until more scientists can be hired.
why are they all girls? WSOD is tingling.
Golden blood sprayed out of the little grey as I watched from a distance.
might want to collect that. it contains meld.
Do the implants we've found allow these creatures to perform their manipulations of this new form of energy, or is it something that they are capable of all on their own?
amps.
Dr. Vahlen just gave me an encouraging smile. "Even from our preliminary tests, we believe that much of our research will require live subjects, and more than just our first guest. While we're already looking at a way to knock out the aliens with an electroshock weapon, our earliest concepts are not promising; in order to deliver a sufficient shock without relying on fired electrodes, which would not function at all against the aliens' armor, our soldiers would need to operate at a dangerously close range to incapacitate an alien without killing it."
I never understood this part, personally. Why not a shotgun or grenade launcher to fire a charged sabbot? Or hell, the wire tazer isn't a bad idea, all told. That damned box barely worked on their armor anyway!
Though, hell, if they can made a magic sleep gun, that'll be fun!
I took the hallways at a light run, sprinting down the longer straightaways whenever I wasn't competing with other
soldiers or workers for space.
your image is broken.
The exo-suit has a micro rocket launcher on the left arm, and a grapnel hook on the right.)
could hook vahlens shock box up to the grapple.
Vipers/Thin Men freed from alien control: 1 Point
Floaters/Mutons freed from alien control: 1 Point
Sectoids freed from alien control: 1 Point
(Turning any aliens into slaves for humanity instead of the Ethereals, and/or failing to return some semblance of free will to the species in question, doesn't award Points).
Y'know, something about this one just worries me. Particularly the sectoids.
The Vipers/thinmen were noted to be intelligent, loyal without domination, and eloquent, but XCOM2 makes me seriously doubt that.
The Mutons/floaters are, for all intents and purposes, Krogan...
but meaner. Trust me, you don't want that spreading across YOUR planet.
The Sectoids were noted as cowardly, petty and cruel. Goblins, essentially. Combine those racial traits with Psionics and that's a bad end.
Basically, achieving these bonuses without also conquering/teraforming 1-3 new worlds are really more a detriment than a boon.
Although.......if you make Oniel cylinders for them and set them orbiting/floating in Jupiter... or further.
Humanity future-proofed against future alien threats: 1 Point
-Working Psionics program built: 1 Point
-Energy Crisis resolved/Elerium needs met: 1 Point
No bonuses for MELD research?
Splicing alone would be MASSIVELY beneficial to making humanity alien proof. Even if you ignored all alien dna and only used earth creatures. Or even just other humans. Norse DNA for easy 2000lbs deadlift bodybuilding, a bit of kenyan for supermarathon, some Polynesian to balance stamina and add breath, take the few thousand people with IQ160 and make that the new Joe Motorpool, fish through all of humanity's digestive systems so that humans can eat literally anything without worrying about food toxins making them depressed sick or anaphylactic.
Granted the amputation and loss of Psionics makes MECT rather unfortunate, but honestly, what sort of idiot wouldn't try to smack those problems out of shens head? Assisted Cyberkinesis would make humanities fighter pilots capable of handling the alien ships without half of the firestorm upgrades, never mind WITH them. And there's nothing that says COOL quite like a
jaeger.
The wrong man in the right place can make all the difference in the world. Wake up Mr Freeman, wake up and smell the ashes. ~ The G-Man.
For the want of a nail, the war was lost. ~ Various, about the french 100 years war. Also attributed to Kowal about American revolution.
Several days passed. I trained my Psionics, still spending my evenings in the Science Labs so they could run passive scans on me while I slept.
You really should just try to make a Psychic choir. It'd unlock alot of people AND help you practice. Imagine being able to perfectly coordinate on the battlefield, COMMANDER or no COMMANDER. Or what sort of Hyjinx the Science and engineering teams could get up to if they could share info and theories without the speed of speech and presentations in the way.
"You're gonna have to get me copies of your show, for whenever I can get a few moments of downtime,"
You could actually do it while working on projects like this. A minor entertaining distraction like that is great for my and many of my coworkers concentration. Like listening to music while you work.
Of course...there are some who work worse with such...
South Africa may be one of the most prosperous and peaceful nations of Sub-Saharan Africa,
not anymore.
[X] All that Psionics training had led to this.
-[X] My Telekinetic Field would divert the incoming enemy fire, allowing the team to focus on the threats coming in up close and personal.
-[x] Ceathya took a hit. There's no time to ask permission; I needed to Mind Merge her, healing her and getting her back in the game, pronto.
Chryssalid claws do a minimum of 6 damage (max 11).
Wearing Chryssalid armor only gives you a bonus of 4. Titan armor with its thick alien alloy plates give you 10.
Those long bladed claws should also be pretty light. I doubt the whole chryssalid weighs even half as much as those pipes he was juggling earlier.
Minigun does 4 damage with a max of 10 on crit.
With our telekinesis we may have been better served throwing around chryssalid legs like javelins and buzz saws. It should also be harder to miss when you can change the trajectory of your projectile to match their dodge.
That's not even getting into how ridiculously effective swords are in X2.
DC 75, roll d100
ROLL d100: 70+25 (Charmed Life)=95
Success
This magical healer thing is a pretty interesting direction. Just...try not to tell them about Soul Steal.
She took one final breath and grit her teeth. "Am I going to be Agent Smith's guinea pig while he puts me back together, then?"
Bradford's head jerked back, and his mouth slightly open while he tried to form words. She'd caught him off guard, she could tell, which wasn't the reaction she'd been expecting.
This is rather funny for more reasons than her totally misjudging bradford. If she did it, she'd probably get her own Psychic powers before the therapy was complete.
Probably better that she doesn't.
