Ufopaedia

Ufopaedia

Ethereal Empire Hostiles

Sectoid

Strength: 1
Dexterity: 3
Constitution: 1
Intelligence: 3
Willpower: 4
Perception: 3

Dodge: 3
Guns: 3
Notice: 4
Psionic Assault: 2
Psionic Resistance: 4
Stealth: 4

Life Points: 18
Endurance Points: 23
Essence: 23
Armor: 15

Acute Sense: Sight

Common Weapons: Gauss Pistols, Gauss Rifles, Elerium Grenades, Stun Launchers

Live Specimen Analysis

Sectoids can most easily be described as idiot savants. They're extremely intelligent in very narrowly-defined ways, and outside of those purviews, they're completely incapable of engaging with a given subject. Generally their competencies center around theoretical sciences and mathematics, and actual applications are somewhat beyond them. This is not a species that conquers a planet on their own initiative, or even designs weapons and spacecraft on their own. There's clearly another intelligence, or a higher caste of sectoid, behind them.

Keeping them alive and docile in captivity turns out to be pretty simple, they consume a simple nutrient paste, excrete nothing, sleep rarely and can be kept entertained indefinitely with simple Sudoku puzzles. It might be different if we had one of the psionically capable specimens captive, but thankfully we don't.

They're also completely non-vocal, lacking telepathic communications, our only option is to communicate with them in writing. They occasionally make oblique references to some group named the Ethereals, who seem to hold a combination of roles as gods and superiors in their worldview, as being their rulers, but other than that we've had little luck getting useful information out of them.

Autopsy

The Dangerous Ungulates are the first to recover a mostly-whole Sectoid corpse, contributing considerably to our understanding of their biology. Our initial assessments is that they're physically weak, with low muscle and bone density, similar to what we'd expect from a human spending a long time in micro or zero gravity. Secondly, since we've found no signs of any reproductive organs, we have to assume that either they split like amoebae, or they're artificially cloned or vat-grown in some way. Another oddity is an extremely simplified digestive system, it's likely that they're incapable of digesting anything but very specific nutrient broths or pastes. Strangely enough, their lungs seem perfectly adapted to our atmospheric mix, either they come from a very similar world, or the Sectoids we've autopsied have been engineered to fight and work on our world.

If you encounter one in combat, expect them to be stealthy and agile, but extremely fragile, with strong eyesight but weak hearing.

Sectoid Commando

Strength: 1
Dexterity: 3
Constitution: 1
Intelligence: 3
Willpower: 4
Perception: 3

Dodge: 3
Guns: 5
Notice: 5
Psionic Assault: 5
Psionic Resistance: 4
Stealth: 5

Life Points: 18
Endurance Points: 23
Essence: 23
Armor: 20

Acute Sense: Sight

Common Weapons: Gauss Pistols, Gauss Rifles, Elerium Grenades, Stun Launchers

Live Specimen Analysis

Sectoid commandos are your friends, and when encountered, you should lower your weapons to indicate that you mean no harm. Approach the sectoid commando carefully, and allow him to place the muzzle of his weapon against-

Sorry about that, we had to pry the lead researcher away from the research specimen and tranquilize both of them considerably. Long story short, Sectoid Commandos are Sectoids, but better in almost every way. They're still fragile, but shoot more accurately, act more independently and creatively, are better at using their psionic powers and tend to wear more resilient body armor. We suggest taking them out from a distance or with explosive weaponry, so you're sure the little bastards die fast and hard. If given the chance, they'll stay hidden and attempt to mess with your brain rather than confronting you directly.

When we attempted to interrogate the captive specimen, he just deflected our questions and attempted to mind control us one by one into either attacking each other or letting him have a run of the base. Until we find a way to block his psionic emissions, leaving him in a state where he's capable of coherently answering questions, also means leaving him in a state where he'll eventually get us to shoot each other.

Cyberdisc

Strength: 4
Dexterity: 4
Constitution: 4
Intelligence: 0
Willpower: 2
Perception: 2

Guns: 4
Psionic Resistance: 4
Notice: 4

Life Points: 200
Endurance Points: ?
Essence: 5
Armor: 50(Alien Alloy)

Common Armament: Plasma Lance(1d6*10, ignores half of standard human armor, no multiplier post-hit)

Description

Imagine a metal pizza that wants to kill you. That's a Cyberdisc. It generally hovers at head height, knows no fear, is heavily armoured, redundantly engineered to take heavy punishment and comes with a light plasma weapon that can toast most humans in one blast if it manages to catch you dead on. The only saving grace is that they're pretty wide, so they can't follow you everywhere, they're also very simplistically programmed and not exceptionally observant. Some agents have noted that electrical attacks, like those offered by stun prods and certain psionic powers, seem to bypass the Cyberdisc's hull and damage its interior systems directly.

The only problem with this strategy is that cyberdiscs appear to have a self-destruct mechanism which triggers when they're sufficiently damaged, so being in close combat with one when it goes down could potentially be fatal. Our suggested means of dealing with them would be either to avoid them, or to hit them with explosives and armour-piercing ammunition.

Generally these are deployed when Sectoids need some serious muscle behind their sub-par combat abilities.

Snakeman

Strength: 4
Dexterity: 2
Constitution: 6
Intelligence: 1
Willpower: 1
Perception: 3

Dodge: 4
Guns: 2
Notice: 3
Psionic Resistance: 1
Resistance: 4
Stealth: 4

Life Points: 54(108)
Endurance Points: 38
Essence: 9
Armor: Variable

Snakeman Regeneration: Only dies completely when reduced to -54 Life Points, otherwise will regenerate at a rate of 1 Life Point per minute until completely recovered.

Common Armament: Any human/gauss

Live Specimen Analysis

ADVISORY FOR ALL MERCENARY LIAISONS: Sending us any more live Snakeman specimens will result in immediate contractual penalties unless they have important tactical/strategical information.

So far we've accidentally acquired a dozen live Snakeman specimens, as a result of their regenerative abilities returning them to life during a transport flight where they woke up and almost overwhelmed the crew of the Skyranger transporting them. However, we were able to subdue them with no loss of life and return them to our labs for study.

Firstly, Snakemen are, depending on how you look at it, either all Snakewomen, or genderless. They appear to have only one gender and reproduce parthogenetically, with each of them being able to self-fertilize and lay eggs at will, up to over twenty a week. These eggs will then rapidly mature and hatch. Within a year, a newly-hatched Snakeman is the size of an adult human. The Snakemen so far encountered appear to be less than two years old, accounting for their immature and undisciplined behavior. According to interrogations, the older members of the species are the ones actually in charge, and regular survivors eventually graduate to more complicated duties. The ones we encountered in Barcelona all appear to have been merely deployed to cause chaos and property damage, being regarded as essentially disposable.

Secondly, their incredibly regenerative abilities. Research shows that with medical aid, a Snakeman reduced to less than 40% of its total body mass by injuries can be restored to full health in under a week, and Snakemen who've lost up to 30% of their total mass to injuries can be up and walking, even dangerous again, within a day, if they're well-fed. Speaking of, Snakemen redefine the term omnivorous. They appear to be able to derive nourishment from just about anything organic and some things that aren't. In a pinch, they'll eat hard plastic, drink acetone, metabolize methanol and even swallow pieces of wood, with no apparent long-term damage. Do not turn your back on an injured Snakeman unless you're absolutely confirmed that its dead, and expect them to bite in close combat. And by the way, their bites are poisonous like a snake's, even if their resemblance to Earth reptiles is superficial, and yes, those are venom sacs.

Culturally, they're about as advanced as you'd expect of two-year-olds. Clannish, loyal, and even then barely, only to their own siblings and species. While they don't show any particular capacity for abstract thought or scientific reasoning, they appear to have a savant-like knack for puzzling out how to operate or jury-rig just about any mechanical or electronic object they're presented with. Expect them to carry a wide range of looted or repurposed equipment if they're encountered again. Their strong regeneration also means that they don't appear to consider pain or injury a reason to hold a grudge, since it rarely results in a permanent disability.

The captured Snakemen appear to have had no wider understanding or knowledge of the conflict they're in beyond their own, current mission. Keep an eye out for a chance to capture or interrogate higher-ranking snakemen, if their involvement is actually as mercenaries, they may be willing to turn on their employers and reveal sensitive information.

Snakeman Elite

Strength: 4
Dexterity: 2
Constitution: 6
Intelligence: 3
Willpower: 2
Perception: 4

Dodge: 4
Guns: 4
Notice: 3
Psionic Resistance: 3
Resistance: 4
Stealth: 4

Life Points: 54(108)
Endurance Points: 38
Essence: 9
Armor: 25

Snakeman Regeneration: Only dies completely when reduced to -54 Life Points, otherwise will regenerate at a rate of 1 Life Point per minute until completely recovered.

Common Armament: Gauss/Laser/Human Explosives

Soulless

Strength: 0
Dexterity: 1
Constitution: 1
Intelligence: 5
Willpower: 4
Perception: 5

Dodge: 0
Guns: 0
Notice: 3
Psionic Resistance: 8
Resistance: 0
Stealth: 3

Life Points: 16
Endurance Points: 20
Essence: 26
Armor: 0

Common Armament: None/Sectopods

Autopsy(?)

Several of our troopers report spotting a new alien during the fighting in Barcelona, but so far we only have spotty reports. They're apparently the size of a large dog, with a long lower torso body and a short raised torso, and dark green in colour, usually seen in the company of Sectoids and Sectopods, mostly near any sites where the aliens were engaged in technical tasks. As soon as fighting started, however, they immediately scrambled for cover and couldn't be found once the shooting was over. All our teams managed to find was a thick, pool of sludge of the same colour a short distance away or somewhere hidden in the area.

Our standing theory is that these creatures serve some sort of technical or leadership position, but are fanatical enough to kill themselves rather than be captured. Testing of the sludge confirms that it's essentially a liquefied alien creature, like the source creature rapidly decomposed.

If we're able to capture one of these creatures alive and without allowing it to commit suicide, we may be able to gain an advanced understanding of alien technology.

Sectopod Infantry

Strength: 4
Dexterity: 2
Constitution: 2
Intelligence: 0
Willpower: 0
Perception: 2

Dodge: 0
Guns: 6
Notice: 4
Psionic Resistance: 5
Resistance: 4
Stealth: 0

Life Points: 30
Endurance Points: 23
Essence: 2
Armor: 30

Common Armament: Laser Rifle

Autopsy?

So far all we've managed to secure are scorchmarks, melted components and first-hand combat reports. They appear to be roughly as capable as human infantry, with the main difference being that they're heavily armoured, explode when damaged and carry better weapons than we do. Being mass-produced, they're also easier to replace than a human agent or soldier, which shows the alien threat we face. If they're capable of deploying autonomous war machines, all they need is a sufficient supply of materials and they can win any war of attrition unless we develop a hard counter of some sort.

Sectopod Tank

Strength: 6
Dexterity: 2
Constitution: 2
Intelligence: 0
Willpower: 0
Perception: 2

Dodge: 0
Guns: 6
Melee: 4
Notice: 4
Psionic Resistance: 5
Resistance: 4
Stealth: 0

Life Points: 120
Endurance Points: 23
Essence: 2
Armor: 40

Common Armament: Heavy Laser, Power Armor Melee

Description

Bipedal and without arms, the Sectopod Tank is essentially a bear-sized assault mech mounting a Heavy Laser. If someone gets up close, it'll try to hit them with a devastating kick instead. Getting up close is ill-advised.

Chryssalid

Strength: 0
Dexterity: 5
Constitution: 0
Intelligence: 0
Willpower: 0
Perception: 0

Dodge: 5
Guns: 0
Notice: 0
Psionic Resistance: 0
Resistance: 0
Stealth: 0

Life Points: 1
Endurance Points: 1
Essence: 1
Armor: 0

Description

Looking a little like a flat, wrinkled, meat-coloured slug roughly the size of a human palm, Chryssalids have no obvious sensory organs or other distinguishing features. They can, however, move at a surprising clip of speed, which tends to be either a direct route to prey or away from danger. They "bite" by grinding into the victim's epidermis with two disc-shaped pieces of bony material, the only hard parts of the Chryssalid, for the purpose of creating an opening through which they can inject eggs. Infection by Chryssalid eggs is generally evident firstly by a fever that rapidly grows in intensity, bruising at and around the injection site and, eventually, catatonia as the Chryssalid spawn inside the victim consume more and more of their soft tissues.

Depending on the amount of bites suffered by a victim, death may be inevitable in a range anywhere from one to ten hours.

Eventually the victim will be reduced to nothing but a husk of skin, bones and writhing, mature Chryssalids. Usually the Chryssalids will cluster in the victim's remains until sensing more prey nearby, at which point they'll burst out to attack. If longer periods pass without sensing any prey, the Chryssalids will instead emerge from the prey's remains by themselves and scatter to seek out more.

In the early stages of infection, antiparasitics or surgical removal of the Chryssalid eggs/larvae may still be possible. In mid-stage infections, amputating infected limbs or extremities may be required. Late-stage infections currently have no counter.

Chryssalids appear to only react to human-sized or larger prey, meaning that many domesticated animals(e.g. cats, dogs, birds, etc.) won't be targeted unless they attack the Chryssalids first. But it does raise some worrying thoughts about what would happen if Chryssalids were unleashed on, say, a commercial farm.

Chryssalid Swarm

Strength: 0
Dexterity: 5
Constitution: 0
Intelligence: 0
Willpower: 0
Perception: 0

Dodge: 2
Guns: 0
Notice: 0
Psionic Resistance: 0
Resistance: 0
Stealth: 0

Life Points: 20
Endurance Points: 1
Essence: 1
Armor: 0

Description

Chryssalid swarms can number anywhere from a handful to hundreds of the creatures and will usually attempt to overwhelm, bear down and repeatedly bite any victims. Even armored soldiers wearing anything less than fully enclosed power armor are at threat as the Chryssalids will prevent movement and eventually find a hole in the victim's armor. Due to the number of bites sustained, death from a Chryssalid swarm infection is usually faster than when bitten by a single Chryssalid.

Chryssalid Aggregate

Strength: 5
Dexterity: 5
Constitution: 5
Intelligence: 0
Willpower: 0
Perception: 5

Dodge: 2
Melee: 5
Notice: 5
Psionic Resistance: 0
Resistance: 0
Stealth: 5

Life Points: 100
Endurance Points: 1
Essence: 1
Armor: 0

Description

Chryssalid Aggregates make use of the bones of their victims, or any other similar material, to create hunting forms. It's created when a Chryssalid Swarm detects prey that it can't simply bear down, at which point the swarm collects bones, usually from recent kills, and uses these as an improvised endoskeleton armed with various forms of bony spurs, and controlled by the swarm as a hole, latching together to function as muscle strands. They are remarkably fast, as strong as full-grown men and may be able to penetrate armor with sharpened pieces of bone. They don't seem any more intelligent than the others, but due to their lack of discrete organs, or other sensitive structures, putting them down may be difficult.

Current tactical recommendations are fire, explosives and hollow-point ammunition.

Note that Chryssalids don't care about the original biology of their hijacked bones. A human skeleton may be repurposed to form a snake-like ambush form, a chimpanzee-like assault body or stranger.

Chryssalid Titan

Description

No upper limit appears to have been found to the amount of Chryssalids that can form together into an aggregate as long as they have enough bones and similar material to support their structure and bind them together. The Chryssalid Titan is the theoretical point at which strict physics would cause the Aggregate to collapse and be unable to support itself. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest a monstrosity approximately the size of a blue whale.

Muton

Strength: 4
Dexterity: 4
Constitution: 6
Intelligence: 5
Willpower: 5
Perception: 4

Dodge: 3
Guns: 4
Notice: 3
Psionic Resistance: 3
Resistance: 4
Stealth: 4

Life Points: 54
Endurance Points: 38
Essence: 9
Armor: 30

Common Armament: Laser/Plasma

Archeotech Hostiles

Femtotech Defense Swarm

Strength: ?
Dexterity: 5
Constitution: ?
Intelligence: ?
Willpower: ?
Perception: 10

Dodge: 5
Guns: 0
Melee: 5
Notice: 10
Psionic Resistance: ?
Resistance: 0
Stealth: 5

Life Points: Special
Endurance Points: ?
Essence: ?
Armor: Special

Common Armament: Femtotech Dissolver

Observation Report

Discovered under the Stonehenge Archeotech Site, the Femtotech Swarms appear to be site maintenance machines pressed into a site defense role when it was breached by the aliens. So far they've been observed completely ignoring all humans, while aggressively attacking alien invaders and attempting to dissolve them. Projectiles have no effect, either being dissolved mid-flight to fuel the swarm or simply passing through. Lasers appear to make the swarm recoil, buying time. Plasma grenades appear to instantly deactivate the swarm. More conventional explosives may also have an effect on them, or EMP weapons.

Within the complex they appear to be wired into a sensor system that gives them near omniscience, and they can fade to near-invisibility pretty much at will. Our main suggestion would be to run if you should anger them, since anywhere there's one, there's likely to be more. When destroyed, they seem to turn to inert, metal-grey dust. In this state the only danger they pose is inhalation, so try not to get lung cancer from them.

In appearance, they look more or less like a self-organizing, mobile dust cloud, briefly thickening and darkening when interacting with something, for instance when they dismantle a threat.

They seem to draw power from the site itself, so it's unlikely they're even capable of leaving it.

Maintenance Drone

Non-Alien Hostiles

DSR Cyborg

Strength: 10
Dexterity: 7
Constitution: 7
Intelligence: 2
Willpower: 1
Perception: 4

Dodge: 5
Guns: 3
Melee: 5
Notice: 4
Psionic Resistance: 2
Resistance: 4
Stealth: 5

Life Points: 72
Endurance Points: 59
Essence: 11
Armor: 30

Berserker Circuits: The cyborg can choose to go into berserker mode, dismissing any attempts at psionic control or influence and in turn giving up all self-control. Increases Initiative by 5, increases max and current Life Points by 30, drains 10 points of Endurance per round, halves multiple-action penalties(round up). Berserker mode ends when the cyborg is out of Endurance, or when he succeeds at a Willpower+Willpower roll. During berserker mode, the cyborg must attack someone or attempt to close to attack range every round. Any sort of armed character or machine counts as a viable target. During rounds where no targets are within view, the cyborg gains a +3 to his roll to voluntarily end berserker mode. If the cyborg's life points drop to less than zero when berserker mode ends, he's out of commission until he's received medical or mechanical attention.
Flash Reaction Upgrade: The Cyborg gains near-instantaneous reaction speeds, but at a high cost to his system. He can spend 10 Endurance and 5 Life Points(from literally overheating his own brain) to add a +10 bonus to his initiative roll OR to act during an enemy's surprise round.
Self-Destruct Implant: If the DSR cyborg should ever betray his masters, they can remotely disable him. And by disable, we mean kill.

Common Armament: Vibrosword, Autocannon

Combat Report

The DSR has the Earth's most advanced cybernetics technology next to X-COM's, and with considerably less moral scruples. DSR cyborgs are never intended to return to civilian life, rather their brains are rewired to make them amoral, high-ego killers. Their cybernetics will tend to be extremely obvious and their sociopathic tendencies will likely make them gloat and posture before entering combat. Use this chance to prepare for combat or escape.

Alien Technology

Alien Alloys

Alien alloys represent a new category of materials that are extremely resistant to heating and shearing, and are hard to bend out of shape, but which become malleable when subjected to the correct magnetic fields. Once we've finished understanding how they're made, we may be able to immediately use the alloys for new weapons and armor.

Alien Reactors

Mostly what we know about alien reactors so far is that they don't respond well to high-explosives. We recommend against hitting them in future encounters, as they could potentially be fatal to everyone in the immediate area.

Elerium-117

As far as we can tell, this element shouldn't be stable in any way, but somehow it is. It's an amber-coloured, crystalline substance which maintains a constant temperature of approximately 5 degrees centigrade no matter the exterior conditions. It's the central element in all alien power sources, including the batteries powering their Gauss and Laser weapons, and their mechanical troops like the Cyberdiscs. It's also the element that powers the reactors aboard their UFO's. While Elerium-117 itself is remarkably stable, once a reactor is tapping its energy, damage to the reactor can turn the energy tap into a chain reaction rather than a constant flow of power.

In short, shoot at Elerium-powered devices at your own risk, and from a safe distance.

Elerium does not appear to produce any sort of radioactive particles that we can detect, neither in its "natural" state or when it's producing energy in a reactor or battery.

Gauss Weapons

Preliminary investigations of the intact alien weapon found with the Sectoid reveals that it isn't too different from ours. It fires a magnetized projectile along at energies similar to our own weapons, but with a considerably higher magazine capacity due to the absence of a conventional propellant. Once we've figured out how they're able to make gauss weapons considerably more efficient than similar Earth models, we're confident we'll find a way to deploy Gauss weapons to our front line agents and mercenaries. Finding us more examples of this technology would go a long way towards it.

Laser Weapons

However exactly they do it, alien lasers are magnitudes more powerful than human lasers of similar size, being able to deploy powerful pulses of flesh-melting energy without burning themselves out. Unfortunately(or fortunately, when facing aliens with laser weapons), lasers are easily neutralized by smoke or sometimes even a sufficiently heavy mist. Considering this, we advise any agents expecting to face aliens with lasers to bring smoke grenades, and likewise any agents with their own laser weapons(once they enter mass production) to bring backup projectile weaponry, to avoid being rendered useless by environmental conditions.

As far as we can tell, all alien laser weapons use a compact Elerium power source, like a miniature reactor, rather than a battery. This means that all laser weapons are fundamentally unstable if damage to them should destabilize their Elerium power source. Aiming at alien handheld laser weapons may be a way to both disarm them and do considerable damage to the wielder if they're too heavily armoured to easily damage otherwise. It would, of course, also deny us important salvage, but the survival of our agents is more important.

Psionic Transmitter

What you found in Barcelona appears to be a sort of transmitter that hooks into psionic wavelengths. So far we're unclear whether it simply makes humans in the area very susceptible to psionic influence, or if it's a relay of sorts that allows aliens at a large distance to employ their powers against crowds in a radius around the transmitter. The one you found half-constructed was apparently intended to be hidden under the floor of the church once it was done, with a self-sufficient power supply that would have let it operate for years undetected. Thanks to your discovery, we managed to find several others already concealed in various places, under roads or inside walls. Though God only knows how many we haven't found, reports from Barcelona already indicate an increase in Church of Sirius membership and mental illness, far beyond anything we could have expected as a reaction to the violence and damage, so it's fair to assume we missed some.

Beware of devices like this if you're ever in an area aliens have passed through before you, you don't want half your team suddenly plugging a magazine of gauss flechettes into your spine because they can now see the invaders' side of things.

Stun Launcher

These unusual grenade launchers appear to be used to subdue targets non-lethally with an EMP blast designed to temporarily short-circuit the mammalian nervous system. Presumably this is used by the aliens when abducting humans.

Organizations

Yuridicheskiye Predpriyatiya(Legitimate Enterprises)

This shady organization is managed by a man known only as "Boris," and has no permanent contracts, only temporary leases. Their teams consist of soldiers and ex-soldiers from most of the former Soviet sphere of influence, and tend to be contracted by the same former sphere of influence on a regular basis. Mostly they undertake operations that require only a brief presence: Assassinations, abductions, rapid and violent thefts and similar missions. Rarely they'll be involved in escort and protection duty, but tend to take a pro-active approach to these jobs, and often their escort targets will find their enemies dead before they're even within ten miles. Legitimate Enterprises operates no heavy machinery except for the helicopters and planes required to get their men and women into position. Primarily their equipment is human standard, but leaning towards high calibers and heavy explosives.

Waterwell LLC

Operating out of the state of Virginia in the continental US, Waterwell LLC is one of the world's foremost PMC's and has troops present on every continent, including Antarctica. While it keeps its operational details quiet, X-COM intel suggests that Waterwell LLC has a five-digit number of active combat personnel, with greater resources to pull on if need be. Waterwell LLC elite teams have occasionally assisted X-COM during operations requiring large amounts of manpower, like the alien Terror raid on Barcelona. However, for the most part, Waterwell works with and for nation state actors, putting them at odds with X-COM. Be aware that you may encounter Waterwell troops if you're pitted against a major nation state or their interests, and that they've been known to deploy everything up to and including air strikes, main battle tanks, drones, psionics and heavily augmented troops. They also have a small supply of alien alloy armor and gauss weapons which are used by their elite troops.

Waterwell primarily does business with Western governments.

Known Waterwell Elite Squads

Jade Shield: Participated in the Barcelona Terror mission, owes the Dangerous Ungulates.

X-COM

Motto: Pacem ex virtute

We've been aware of the aliens even before their recent, obvious assaults on Earth and their attempts to subvert our governments. Now, we're forced into the open to counter them, and we need your help to do it. Our funding comes through a number of deniable operations, rich interests that support our cause and from the nations that choose to ally with us. We have to be swift and stealthy when operating in non-allied territory, but even if we had all the resources of Earth at our disposal, our mission still wouldn't be easily completed. We must identify the alien objectives, figure out where they're coming from, and put a stop to them at their source. Until then, the best we can do is to limit the damage they cause and drain their supplies of equipment, weaponry and… alienpower? Xenopower? You know what we mean.

Don't let us down, mercenaries.

Alien Psychology/Tactics

Abduction Mission

Some UFO's appear to be outfitted specifically for abducting livestock or humans and keeping them in suspended animation for transport elsewhere. From what we can gather, the livestock is intended as a food source, the abducted humans for some other purpose. Most abducted humans appear to be returned at a later date, with little to no memory of what happened to them, but usually bearing subtle marks of surgical intervention or sample-taking. Some abductees also appear to have deep-planted mental triggers that make them alien sleeper agents, all abductees are to be considered potential hazards to X-COM personnel or auxiliaries.

Infiltration Mission

Occasionally an alien mission will be launched purely for the purpose of getting into contact with susceptible members of a human organization or government. Investigations so far suggest that the initial target is isolated and psionically paralyzed in most cases, to prevent them from panicking and giving away the aliens who will be using this chance to display that they're in charge of the situation. Highly susceptible targets will be coerced with telepathic contact, suggesting what they could earn for cooperation… and the penalties for not cooperating. Non-cooperative targets will usually be spirited away to an alien vessel or facility, where they will be re-programmed through a combination of telepathy, psychology and torture, into becoming machines serving the alien cause. These reprogrammed humans will tend to be highly self-destructive and are generally used for assassination purposes, rather than propaganda.

Psychological Analysis

Interrogations of captured aliens(Snakemen and Sectoids so far) show that the aliens, despite having multiple species in their hierarchy, have several similarities across all encountered types so far. These involve a rigidly structured hierarchy where underlings are considered to be disposable resources, either permanently(in the case of Sectoids which seem to be mass-produced) or until they cross an arbitrary thresholds of experience and displayed competence(in the case of the Snakemen). Conversations with captured Sectoids indicate that they're being lead by someone, or something, which isn't a Sectoid, while the Snakemen appear to be lead by older members of their own species.

The main takeaway from this is how vital it is that we capture higher-ranking aliens, since they're the only ones likely to have access to important information, as well as the fact that in a mixed-rank encounter, taking out high-ranking aliens may leave the low ranks confused or acting counter to their own mission, as they won't have been trained for high degrees of independent thought and action. Aliens should also not be expected to have a great sense of self-preservation or to be prone to breaking and panicking, except in the most dire of circumstances.

Unexpectedly, some aliens, like the Snakemen, appear to have a relatively human-like psychology and can be bargained or negotiated with in some situations.

Scouting Mission

So far, all we can determine is that the aliens are looking for something, but not what. Their scouting efforts appear to be focused on areas where they've recently clashed with X-COM, or areas of archeological interest. We assume the former is an attempt to locate X-COM bases, and as for the latter, we are currently working on theories to explain the aliens' behavior. So far none of them offer any comforting answers.

Terror Mission

These missions are executed purely for the purpose of intimidating Earth's governments, convincing them that only submission to the aliens will guarantee their safety, and that neither their own militaries or X-COM can defend their towns and cities from alien assault. Responding to these assaults is a primary objective for X-COM, a failed response to a Terror Mission could result in a nation ceasing to oppose the aliens.

Historical Archives

1947

First confirmed alien contact. Sectoid-manned scout UFO crashes at Roswell, New Mexico. All crew confirmed dead, most technology utterly destroyed in the crash. Research continues at low intensity until 1962, several advances in materials science are attributed to study of alien alloys.

1962

At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the UFO's dormant, presumed destroyed, devices, activates itself. It transmits a powerful telepathic message that permanently renders the attendant science and technical crew insane, they spend the remainder of their lives ranting about the "end of days" and beautiful, godlike creatures. A few days later, a lower-intensity message summons diplomats from the US, Soviet Russia and Communist China. The details of what happen in the room with the transmitter and the diplomats are never revealed, but together they produce a quadri-lingual legal treaty. It compels the US, China and Soviet Russia to ban mining and property development in several dozen remote and semi-remote locations around the Earth, to commit to the long-term disarmament of nuclear weapons and to the eventual creation of a one-world government. The other entity, identifying themselves as the Ethereal Empire, would reciprocate by not glassing Earth from orbit, and by assisting Earth's technological growth when it proved stable enough not to abuse the knowledge given.

A footnote related to water fluoridation indicates that the DSR isn't responsible for it, and that as far as they can find out, it doesn't seem to be part of any mind control plots.

Cold War Files

During the Cold War, communications with the aliens was regular, but no physical contact ever occurred. It seems that elected governments were rarely made aware of their existence, and instead the knowledge was kept to, and acted upon, by a technocratic enclaves within major Earth governments in order to prevent leaks. The group that eventually became the DSR was the US enclave. Eventually most of the EU, South Africa and Japan were also drawn into the pact. Highly volatile states were intentionally excluded.

1992

Sensing a period of low conflict, the aliens make themselves physically known. Sectoid ambassadors are dispatched to the STO(Stellar Treaty Organizations) to help coordinate their work, a different form of ambassador was dispatched to the Japanese STO, apparently a superior intended to coordinate the Sectoids in their work. The DSR apparently considered themselves patriots above all, and desperately attempted to uncover more information about the Japanese ambassador creature, simply known as the Ambassador, but failed to reveal anything. Their long-term goals appear to have been establishing the US as the reigning party in a One World Government and, failing that, to allow the US to acquire the technology through alien contact to simply subjugate the rest of the world. Close legal study of the Stellar Treaty(as the 1962 legal document came to be known) showed that technically, conquering the rest of the Earth would satisfy the "one-world-government"-clause of the treaty.

2012

During the 2010's, the Ethereal Empire began a targeted campaign of human abductions. When questioned on it, replies to the STO were that humans were being captured for the purpose of training as ambassadors once the aliens made open contact with Earth, to be trained in the cultures and languages of both parties. The disappearance of the SV Christopher Columbus does not appear to have been caused by the Ethereal Empire, though the sectoid ambassadors appear to have been highly evasive in answering any questions about it. They confirm it's been caused by alien technology, but not their alien technology.

A list of abductees confirms Camille's father on the list.

DSR notes suggest that the aliens may not be entirely candid about their intentions, and that some of the abductees may instead be for biological research. Further research into the SV Christopher Columbus incident starts uncovering a number of historical anomalies, prompting a lot of theories about time travel and alternate time lines. Other DSR researchers simply insist it's a matter of poor record keeping, after all, why would a timeline paradox result in the creation of mass, surplus amounts of denim?

2019

Radio telescopes detect an extremely high-energy event at the edge of the solar system, some distance beyond the orbit of Pluto. It looks much too energetic to simply be a matter of asteroid or cometary impact, and the DSR questions their local Sectoid ambassador about it, but are stonewalled for a response. Inter-enclave communiques suggest that it's the same across the STO, ambassadors are jumpy, worried and seem to suddenly be expecting danger of some sort.

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