The Cosmic Exchange: An XCOM AC

[Omega124]

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans. We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet." -Stephen Hawking​

March 1st, 2015.
Somewhere in the Congo

Humanity is no longer alone. The last week, strange objects feel from the cosmos, crash landing in major population centers across Earth. What emerged from the drop pods were aliens, and it was not a peaceful first contact. The lucky humans either escaped from the ground zeroes of the Earth, or were mercifully killed by the strange green weapons the greyish aliens carried. The unlucky ones were encased in an unknown green net, captured for unknown reasons. Law and military forces responded across the world, but it was too little too late. The aliens took off with their human loot or engaged with the humans, with them invariably coming out as the victors.

The UN was prepared for this exact emergency. Stored away in dormancy and secrecy is the XCOM project; an international task force of the best soldiers and brightest minds with the sole objective of ensuring humanity's survival in case of an alien invasion. In the 1950s, during the first fears of an alien invasion, the Belgian government sold a tract of land to the UN deep within the Congo Rainforest. The UN secretly oversaw the development of an underground bunker.

You are the first, and last, line of defense humanity have against the alien menace. What happens to Earth rests entirely in your hands. Fail, and humanity will just be another footnote in the history of the universe. Nothing in life could possibly prepare you for this task, but can not falter anyways!

Vigilo Confido
I am watchful, I am necessary

Hello and welcome to the next horrible excuse for a Omega AC! As the name implies, I am your host, Omega, and this AC hopefully will not end in a TPK this time. As the name suggests, The Cosmic Exchange takes place within the universe of the XCOM series. Don't fret, the two people on this website who never played XCOM, for this game will require no prior knowledge of the universe. Everything you need to know about the lore will be explained in-game.

Standard AC mod rules apply. I also want to keep this game in at least a semi-serious tone. At least. Fun is indeed fun, but this is not designed to be a comedy AC, as much as XCOM can be hilarious. I would like it if you respect this, and attempt to create characters grounded in reality. I will kick players who I find are disruptive to the tone of my game, though not without attempting to resolve the problem without a kick.

With that out of the way, time for the character app of doom!

Name:
Gender:
Nationality:
Age:
Appearance:
Bio:

Rank:
Class:
Weapon:
Items:
Armour:
Perks:
XP:
PSI:

Now, for the explanations!

Spoiler :

Name: What should we call your character? Extremly straightforward
Gender: Testes or Ovaries? Also pretty simple
Nationality: What country does your character hail from? Feel free to deviate from the list of nations in the game (List here), but also note those nations tend to be the ones who support XCOM the most. Also, to make life simple, we'll assume that the borders of 2015 match the ones of 2013, with the game-created exception of an independent Scottish republic set up in 2014.
Age: How long has it been since your char was in his or her mom's body? Keep it realistic to a soldier's age.
Appearance: Exactly how "special" is your character? And yes, everyone is considered "special"
Bio: What did your character do before joining XCOM? As long as its reasonable, I'll accept almost everything. Do not test me, however.

Rank: Everyone starts out as a Rookie. In order, the ranks are Rookie, Squaddie, Corporal, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captian, Major, and Colonel. The amount of XP required to get to rank to rank will be the same as in the game, Located here.
Class: Everyone once again starts as a Rookie. Once you reach Squaddie, you can choose between one of five classes: Assault, Heavy, Sniper, Support, and Flamer. This choice is permanent and can not be undone, so choose wisely
Weapon: Everyone starts with a basic Assault Rifle and pistol. When you rank up, all classes but the Assault and Support lose the ability to use ARs, and instead start using a class specific weapon detailed below. Weapons also come in 3 grades: Ballistic, Laser, and Plasma. At the start, everyone uses ballistics, and your familiarity of ballistic weapons will help increase your morale and accuracy, and is "quieter" than all other weapons, even if the weapon is still loud and also very weak. You may see see usage of these weapons all the way to the end, as they may fill niches the superior weapons can not match

Laser and Plasma weaponry will be introduced later. Lasers do not have to be reloaded and are stronger than ballistics, and are theoretically more accurate. However, soldiers will not be accustomed to these weapons, so expect an accuracy drop at first that will be mitigated over time. Plasmas need to be reloaded, but tend to be an improvement over lasers in every other aspect. However, do note they require even more training to properly use than laser weaponry.
Item: Everyone starts with either a frag grenade or a medkit. Other items will be issued out at intervals throughout the game, so keep your eyes peeled
Armour: Everyone starts with Body Armour. As the game goes on, new armours will be developed. These new armours have varied benefits, and thus will be explained individually when the time comes
Perks: Upon a promotion, a character will choose one perk from a choice of two, with the exception of the Squaddie and Major ranks, where only one option exists. See the class page for details. Also, if you're a psionic, your psionic perks go here as well, after your class ones
XP: XP will be gained in a similar way as it is in the video game. Subtle differences may exist here and there (I'll probably throw out the 20 XP for everyone surviving, and instead award people who post logs with XP instead), but use this as a rough guide
PSI: This will be zero at the game start for everyone, and for most people will stay zero. This number will in time represent the amount of psionic experience points a character may have. PSI points are gained independently from regular experience points, and will increase only on the successful usage of psionic attacks, and by resisting psionic attacks. DO NOT ASK TO BE A PSIONIC. When the time comes, who will be one and who won't be one will be randomly determined.

Note the lack of an HP stat. As a warning, I still believe in the Chunky Salsa Rule, people!

Anyways, the classes

Spoiler Assault :

Uses: Shotgun OR Assault Rifle, Pistol
Squaddie: Run and Gun (May Sprint and fire at the same turn. 2 Turn cooldown)
Corporal: Tactical Sense (Defensive bonus proportionate to enemies in range) OR Aggression (Critical chance bonus proportionate to enemies in range)
Sergeant: Lightning Reflexes (First reaction attack on you auto misses) OR Close and Personal (Critical chance bonus proportionate to proximity with target)
Lieutenant: Flush (Shot does less damage, but instantly causes target to move out of cover, ) OR Rapid Fire (Shoot twice, but at an accuracy penalty)
Captain: Close Quarter Combat Specialist (Free reaction shot at any enemy that moves within a yard) OR Bring 'Em On (Increased crit damage proportionate to number of enemies in range)
Major: Extra Conditioning (Increased resilience to damage based on armour worn)
Colonel: Resilience (Immune to crits) OR Killer Instinct (Increased crit damage during Run and Gun)

Spoiler Heavy :

Uses: LMG, Rocket Launcher
Squaddie: Fire Rocket (Have a rocket launcher instead of a pistol. Single use, and can not move before firing, but is extremely powerful)
Rookie: Bullet Swarm (Attack twice as long as you don't move an inch) OR Holo-Targeting (Until your next turn, everyone has an accuracy bonus against the unit you fired on)
Sergeant: Shredder Rocket (Decreases direct damage of rocket, but all units caught in the blast will take increased damage from other sources for four turns) OR Suppression (Suppresses a unit: Decrease the accuracy of the foe next turn and gives you a free reaction shot if they move)
Lieutenant: HEAT Ammo (Double damage on machines) OR Rapid Reaction (Free second reaction if first reaction shot hits; excludes free reaction shots)
Captain: Grenadier (Get two grenades if grenades are equipped) OR Danger Zone (Increase blast radius of rockets and allows Suppression to suppress nearby enemies)
Major: Will to Survive (Non crit-attacks do less damage to you)
Colonel: Rocketeer (Allow two rockets, normal or shredder, to be fired) OR Mayhem (Suppresion, grenades, and rockets deal more damage)

Spoiler Sniper :

Uses: Sniper Rifle, Pistol
Squaddie: Squadsight (You are considered to be in range of all enemies that another friendly unit has range on that you can see, but you may not fire your rifle after moving. Any enemy you are not in direct range with makes you suffer a accuracy malus if you fire upon them)
Corporal: Snapshot (Remove firing restriction for this turn, but suffer an accuracy bonus. 2 Turn Cooldown) OR Headshot (Increased chance and damage of a Critical hit, but does nothing special if attack fails to crit. 2 Turn Cooldown.)
Sergeant: Gunslinger (Pistols do more damage) OR Damn Good Ground (Accuracy and Defense bonuses to you if you fire on or are fired upon a unit at a significgantly lower elevation)
Lieutenant: Disabling Shot (Special shot which is less accurate and deals less damage but disable target's gun for one turn. 2 turn cooldown) OR Battle Scanner (Gives you two scanners which reveal enemy contacts for two turns)
Captain: Executioner (More accurate on severly wounded foes) OR Opportunist (Reaction shots are more accurate and can crit)
Major: Low Profile (Massive defense bonus if in cover)
Colonel: In the Zone (A kill gives you a free basic shot) OR Double Tap (Allow two attacks per turn, as long as no movement is made)

Spoiler Support :

Uses: Assault Rifle, Pistol
Squaddie: Smoke Grenade (Gives Support a Smoke Grenade, independent of any other item you may have taken. Any unit in or behind the smoke are harder to hit)
Corporal: Sprinter (Move farther without sprinting) OR Covering Fire (Overwatch triggers on an enemy attack)
Sergeant: Field Medic (Gives three medkits if they are selected as an item) OR Smoke and Mirrors (Take 2, rather than 1, smoke grenades)
Lieutenant: Revive (Critically wounded soldiers that are stabilized by you can rejoin the fight) OR Rifle Suppression: (Allows you to suppress, see Heavy for details)
Captain: Dense Smoke (Increased evasion bonus of smokes) or Combat Drugs (Units inside Smoke clouds are healed slightly)
Major: Deep Pockets (Take two items)
Colonel: Savior (Increased medkit healing) OR Sentinel (Overwatch gives two reaction shots)

Spoiler Flamer :

Uses: Flamethrower, Pistol
Squaddie: Incendiary Grenades (Gives one free Incendiary Grenade, independent of other items taken. It does less damage than a frag, but causes all units inside and the terrain in the blast radius catch on fire)
Corporal: Compression Blast (Chance to deflect enemy grenades back at tosser) or Napalm Solution (Increases range and causes objects to light easier)
Sergeant: Dragon's Teeth (Incendiary has increased radius and does full grenade damage) OR Fire Bombs (2 Extra Incendiary Grenades, for a total of 3)
Lieutenant: Burning Presence (Decrease will and accuracy of all aliens in range) OR Thick Insulation (Become immune to fire)
Captain: Sea of Flames (Burn an area near you to serve a very light cover and deny movement) OR Chain Reaction (Fire has greater chance of spreading)
Major: Enriched Fuel Tanks (All sources of fire do increased damage)
Colonel: Devil's Heart (Flamethrower attacks cause target to panic, and may cause nearby enemies to panic) OR Burning Grace (Increase will of nearby soldiers)

 

[Omega124]

Le Reserve 1

 

[Omega124]

Das Reserve 2

 

[Omega124]

Final Reserve, here we go

YOU MAY NOW POST

 

[KaiserElectric]

Name: Simone Marianne Delacroix
Gender: Female (Haven't played a male for the last five ACs, why start now? )
Nationality: France
Age: 31
Appearance: Short black hair, light hazel eyes, and a little on the short side.
Bio: Simone Delacroix was orphaned at a young age and spent most of her time escaping from orphanages in a showy and bombastic manner, the last incident involving a box of Roman candles and copious amounts of property damage. She lied about her age to enlist in the army, showing prowess on the field but later being discharged after an incident involving a box of Roman candles and copious amounts of property damage. Undeterred, she joined GIGN at the request of a friend, and the lack of easy access to Roman candles meant she was able to serve a longer, more decorated career. Her outstanding combat skills, her ability to raise the morale of her fellow soldiers, and the record of her army career being lost in an accounting error made her a prime candidate for the XCOM project.

Just don't leave out any Roman Candles.


Rank: Squaddie
Class: Heavy
Weapon: LMG, Rocket Launcher
Items: Frag Grenade
Armor: Body Armor
Perks:
Fire Rocket
XP: 150
PSI: 0

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Name: Cassandra Anderson
Gender: Female
Nationality: American
Age: 26
Appearance: Long brown hair, piercing green eyes.
Bio: Born to a wealthy family, she went against their wishes and joined the army at age 18. She could never be seen without a book in her hand, and this curiosity, combined with outstanding performance in the field, led to her recruitment to X-COM

Rank: Squadie
Class: Sniper
Weapon: Sniper Rifle, Pistol
Items: Medkit
Armour: Body Armor
Perks: Squad Sight
XP: 120
PSI: 0

 

[Dem Taqat]

Name: Frederick Gerani
Gender: Male
Nationality: German
Age: 24
Appearance: 6'3 tall, with blue eyes and black hair
Bio: Frederick Gerani was born in Germany, and initially wanted to follow his fathers footsteps in the medical career. However, he proved to lack the required focus on his studies, and ended up being kicked off his course. Instead he decided to expand on his childhood hobby of martial arts, and joined the army. Almost as soon as he was out of training, Frederick was transfered from the proper army to the XCOM project, to deal with the alien incursion.

XP: 120
PSI: 0

Rank: Squaddie
Class: Assault

Perks: Run and Gun

Weapon:
Ballistic Assualt Rifle
Ballistic Pistol

Items: Medkit

Armour: Body Armour

DT

 

[Lighthearter]

Name: Kaimana "Manō" Bradley
Gender: Female
Nationality: American Hawai'ian
Age: 22
Appearance: Auburn hair and beautiful sea-green eyes, a soft face with just the right pattern of freckles, and standing five feet and ten inches tall. Has a strange yet passionate love for D&D. Can sometimes be found hula dancing, and has painted a Hawai'ian flag over the American flag on her armor. Despite reprimands, she continues to refuse to change the flag back, and is very vocal about Hawai'i's right to independence, especially after Scotland.
Bio: L8r

Rank: Squaddie
Class: Assault
Weapon: Shotgun, Pistol
Items: Frag Grenade
Armour: Body Armor
Perks:

• Run And Gun

XP: 180
PSI: 0

Noticed that out of 3 full signups thus far, all are women. Will switch to a male character if this doesn't get balanced out within the next 4 or 5 signups.

-L

 

[SamSniped]

Vigilo Confido
I am watchful, I am necessary

Name: Marcus "Deadeye" O'Keane
Gender: Male
Nationality: Irish
Age: 26
Appearance: 5'11", brown hair, dark green eyes. Slightly muscular.
Bio: Always a fighter, Marcus was born to an average family in Dublin. His father was a retired soldier, his mother a teacher, and he was their only son. Ever since he was young, he always had an obsession with guns, and when his father took him to the shooting range for the first time, he soon showed his accuracy with a gun. At 21, Marcus joined the army, and after five years, he had captivated everyone with his amazing accuracy, earning the name "Deadeye" in the process. XCOM found out, and he was soon signed up to help their cause.

Rank: Rookie
Class: Sniper
Weapon: Assault Rifle, Pistol
Items: Grenade
Armour: Body Armor
Perks: N/A
XP: 0
PSI: 0

 

[Kinich-Ahau]

Name: Dr. Steven Wefer
Gender: Male
Nationality: American
Age: 36
Appearance: Causasian; Blondish hair with a Beard & a Moustache. Average height.
Bio:

Spoiler :

Throughout his entire life, Steven Wefer wanted nothing more than to help people; to this end, he desired to be a doctor, and when he finally graduated from University, he thought his life would be fulfilling at last.
It wasn't.
Dr. Wefer soon found that, though he had enjoyed medicine in school, in practice, the corruption exhibited by those in the profession & the fact that even the best doctors needed to deal with lawyers frequently was causing him untold amounts of stress, & sapping his will to live. In desperation, he turned to mercenary work, where he found that his knowledge of medicine could be used to kill as effectively as it could be used to heal. After a string of successful missions, he founded the mercenary organization known as the Wefer Clan, & from there his fame & success only grew.
A few days after first contact, the Wefer Clan was contracted out to XCOM permanently, and now Wefer finds not only his life, but his professional reputation on the line as well.

Rank: Rookie
Class: Rookie
Weapon:

• Assault Rifle
• Pistol

Items:

• Medkit

Armor: Body Armor
Perks: N/A
XP: 0
PSI: 0

 

[Red_Spy]

Name: Father Jesus "Urban" Romero y Asturias
Gender: Male
Nationality: Vatican City / Spain
Age: 33
Appearance: Wears a rosary. Rest later.
Bio: Spanish priest in XCOM. Working on the rest.

Rank: Squaddie
Class: Support
Perks:

• Smoke Grenade

Weapon: Assault Rifle and Pistol
Item: Medkit
Armour: Body Armour
Perks: NA
XP: 150
PSI: 0

 

[arya126]

Name: Andrew Nantz
Gender: Male
Nationality: French-American
Age: 36
Appearance: Average height at 5'11, build stockily with heavy muscle showing. Close cut black hair, usually wears/has black glasses that look like sunglasses but in actuality are miniaturized heavy armor protection for his eyes with a built in HUD alerting him to important aspects of his environment.
Bio: A son of a French father and an American Mother, he has spent his life being active in both countries. Recently he was among the higher ranked in an attempt at a transatlantic rebellion in France and America against the growing Socialism in both governments, however this was put down violently, and Nantz, like many 'Free Americans' and 'Free French' was on the run afterwards. That is, until Moscow 2015 when he was one of those on the scene when the aliens invaded. A witness and one of the first to fight the aliens, he barely escaped with his life, gravely wounded, and one night in the hospital an XCOM agent secretly visited him to hear what happened from a soldier's eyes. A week later he was kidnapped, taken to XCOM HQ, and given the chance to join the organization. He accepted.

Rank: Rookie
Class: None yet.
Weapon: Assault Rifle/Pistol
Items: Frag Grenade
Armour: Body Armor
Perks: None yet.
XP: 0
PSI: 0

 

[Omega124]

After discussing with LH about times, I am pleased to announce our first and only mission will be tommorow at the standard 5 PM EST. Get your butts over there. Also, everyone here is accepted right now.

Kinich: A tad issue with the backstory: XCOM would have no soldiers on their payroll until after the invasion started. Since it happened a week ago, he could not have been with them "a few years ago". Otherwise fine

Arya: XCOM does not believe in human trafficking. It would be highly unlikely anyone would kidnap you to join. Otherwise you're fine.

 

[Patchy]

Name: Felipe Uribe
Gender: Male
Nationality: Colombian
Age: 29
Appearance: Tanned skin and dark brown hair and eyes, of mestizo descent
Bio: A veteran of the Colombian drug wars, Felipe Uribe has had years of experience fighting in both urban and rural areas with a civilian presence. Due to his impressive service record and his wide array of experience in many different environments he was quickly recruited into XCOM

Rank: Squaddie
Class: Flamer
Weapon: Flamethrower, Pistol
Item: Medkit, Incendiary Grenades
Armor: Body Armor
Perks: Incendiary Grenades
XP: 120
PSI: 0

 

[Celticfury]

Name: Emma Dewitt
Gender: Female
Nationality: Dutch
Age: 25
Appearance:

Spoiler :

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/631909509203367313/4337EF9793D1DEB6E78856BC9669D49B54122905/

Bio: Will add later.

Rank: Rookie
Class: N/A
Weapon: Assault Rifle/Pistol
Items: Frag Grenade
Armour: Body Armor
Perks: N/A
XP: 0
PSI: N/A

 

[mechaerik]

Name: Irina Marikova
Gender: Female
Nationality: Russian
Age: 23
Appearance: White as the driven snow. Blue eyed.
Bio: Irina was born at 7:32 P.M on December 25th. 1991, just as the Soviet flag was being lowered over the Kremlin. Enlisted in the Russian Ground Forces, and has served admirably. Shortly after first contact, the army went to her unit to ask for volunteers for a dangerous assignment. She volunteered and was transferred to XCOM.


Rank: Rookie
Class: Rookie

Weapon: Assault Rifle, Pistol

Item: Frag Grenade
Armor: Body Armor
Perks: None
XP: 0
PSI: 0

 

[Ravus_Sol]

Name: Russell Sharp
Gender: Male
Nationality: Canadian
Age: 31
Appearance: Stocky medium height, blonde hair and dark eyes. Twitchy.
Bio:

Spoiler :

Russel was just a soldier, his first and last thoughts were on the mission and protecting the men beside him. He was one of the original men in the Wefer Clan and when the mercenary group got contracted out he got dragged along for the ride.

With his ingrained need to always protect his teammates he could be in for a breakdown if things go wrong.

Rank: Rookie
Class: Rookie
Weapon:

• Assault Rifle
• Pistol

Items:

• Grenade

Armor: Body Armor
Perks: N/A
XP: 0
PSI: 0

 

[arya126]

Quitting.

 

[Dem Taqat]

XCOM: Mission 1

This project certainly doesn't waste time in the early stages; we'd barely been introduced to the rest of the squad before they hauled us onto their 'skyranger' to run an operation. We were looking into alien movements in Cairo, and we certainly found some. It wasn't a big group, but it was certainly scary for it's size. Their weapons fired some sort of bright green substance, which went right through one of our troops body armour. He was out for the rest of the fight, and barely made it back. We found and recovered one of these cubes, which are apparently how they get around, although it didn't look much like a ship to me.

This is going to take a lot of getting used to I fear.

DT

 

[Omega124]

Against all odds, logic, and reason, there will be a second mission. Thursday at 5. I will end up regretting this.