The new game released by Firaxis is exactly what the fans wanted, a new X-Com game, but is that all there truly is to it?
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XCOM: Long War Online
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Chapter 1
New
Krogan_hunter
Know what you're doing yet?
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- Jan 8, 2024
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Today is the day! The long-awaited release of the Full Dive Virtual Reality MMO Shooter, X-Com: Long War Online. Firaxis Games teamed up with Pavonis Interactive, the minds behind the Long War mods for X-Com Enemy Unknown/Within and X-Com 2/War of The Chosen, and the insane genius behind the creation of the NerveGear, Akihiko Kayaba. The work and effort put into the game is just insane, players could take up roles as either a Combatant, Scientist, Engineer, Mission Control, hell even the Pilots that shoot down UFO's are also player controlled.
I had managed to get a chance to play the beta and tried my hand at both ground combat as the various classes, and air combat. Flying took the longest to get into though, on account of the absolutely insane and in depth flight controls that required a manual to learn, in fact you have to read the manual otherwise you aren't allowed in the cockpit in the first place.
After the fun in the beta I was restless for the full release. But the time had come, it had only just been released in stores 2 hours ago and servers would be live in just 20 short minutes, most likely done that way to maximise the amount of available players on day one.
Taking one last check to make sure everything was in order, the NerveGear plugged into both an outlet and ethernet cable. Once that was done I laid down on my bed and put the headset on, and the clock in the corner of the headset told me that it was 2:46pm, less than 15 minutes until the servers go live.
"Let's do this."
The console started up and a kaleidoscope of colours washed over my vision momentarily. Once the loading was done, I found myself standing in a white void.
[Please Enter Login Details]
The words appeared in a black window in front of me, a keyboard floating beneath it.Stepping forward I brought my hands up only to find that they were a solid gray, looking at the rest of my body revealed the same. Guess its a placeholder until it calibrates me or until after character creation then.
Continuing forward, I typed my username and password into the required sections and tapped next. The window closed momentarily before a new one opened in its place with a bunch of sliders and colour pallets for character creation. There was also a default gray character model standing just past the window too.
Placing a finger against one of the sliders and dragging it along, I watched as the skin on the model went from its gray, to an albino white and shifted through all skin tones until the end of the slider revealed a skin tone dark enough to be difficult to actually spot at night. Shaking off the racism that thought made me feel, I settled on the caucasian skin tone that I had in reality, fitting my half Japanese half Australian skin tone.
Another few minutes fiddling with the sliders and colour pickers I finally finished my character creation. Black hair with some red highlights in the fringe, red eyes that looked desaturated in the shade. Standing at a height of 5 foot 7 inches, knowing that I would have to use my real height to prevent any body dysmorphia that would likely be felt, remembering a post on the forums during the beta of a player complaining about that very problem.
[Confirm Selection?]
Hitting the 'yes' underneath the window caused a new window to show up with a few selections ready to choose.
[Please Select A Role]
[Soldier][Scientist][Engineer][Pilot][Base Staff]
I thought about what each role would entail. Soldier is obvious in what it entails, I would be one of those who would be taking the Skyranger to missions, whether they be UFO assaults or Terror Missions. Scientists would require me to work for days on end researching what the combat teams bring back, and Engineers would be in charge of manufacturing what the scientists think up.
Pilots are obvious, they were in charge of either piloting the Skyrangers that would ferry squads to and from conflict zones, or they would be the ones in the Ravens, meant to shoot down UFO's for the combat teams to engage. Base Staff were those that would be in either Mission Control and in charge of the global scale of things, from gathering reports to looking over satellite footage, or they would be Base Security, the people who were first in line for any breach of the AntHills defenses.
Making my choice, I tap on it.
[You have selected: Soldier]
[Are you sure?]
Tapping yes once more caused everything to go dark. I guess this is the temporary loading screen while waiting for others to join or something.
I had managed to get a chance to play the beta and tried my hand at both ground combat as the various classes, and air combat. Flying took the longest to get into though, on account of the absolutely insane and in depth flight controls that required a manual to learn, in fact you have to read the manual otherwise you aren't allowed in the cockpit in the first place.
After the fun in the beta I was restless for the full release. But the time had come, it had only just been released in stores 2 hours ago and servers would be live in just 20 short minutes, most likely done that way to maximise the amount of available players on day one.
Taking one last check to make sure everything was in order, the NerveGear plugged into both an outlet and ethernet cable. Once that was done I laid down on my bed and put the headset on, and the clock in the corner of the headset told me that it was 2:46pm, less than 15 minutes until the servers go live.
"Let's do this."
The console started up and a kaleidoscope of colours washed over my vision momentarily. Once the loading was done, I found myself standing in a white void.
[Please Enter Login Details]
The words appeared in a black window in front of me, a keyboard floating beneath it.Stepping forward I brought my hands up only to find that they were a solid gray, looking at the rest of my body revealed the same. Guess its a placeholder until it calibrates me or until after character creation then.
Continuing forward, I typed my username and password into the required sections and tapped next. The window closed momentarily before a new one opened in its place with a bunch of sliders and colour pallets for character creation. There was also a default gray character model standing just past the window too.
Placing a finger against one of the sliders and dragging it along, I watched as the skin on the model went from its gray, to an albino white and shifted through all skin tones until the end of the slider revealed a skin tone dark enough to be difficult to actually spot at night. Shaking off the racism that thought made me feel, I settled on the caucasian skin tone that I had in reality, fitting my half Japanese half Australian skin tone.
Another few minutes fiddling with the sliders and colour pickers I finally finished my character creation. Black hair with some red highlights in the fringe, red eyes that looked desaturated in the shade. Standing at a height of 5 foot 7 inches, knowing that I would have to use my real height to prevent any body dysmorphia that would likely be felt, remembering a post on the forums during the beta of a player complaining about that very problem.
[Confirm Selection?]
Hitting the 'yes' underneath the window caused a new window to show up with a few selections ready to choose.
[Please Select A Role]
[Soldier][Scientist][Engineer][Pilot][Base Staff]
I thought about what each role would entail. Soldier is obvious in what it entails, I would be one of those who would be taking the Skyranger to missions, whether they be UFO assaults or Terror Missions. Scientists would require me to work for days on end researching what the combat teams bring back, and Engineers would be in charge of manufacturing what the scientists think up.
Pilots are obvious, they were in charge of either piloting the Skyrangers that would ferry squads to and from conflict zones, or they would be the ones in the Ravens, meant to shoot down UFO's for the combat teams to engage. Base Staff were those that would be in either Mission Control and in charge of the global scale of things, from gathering reports to looking over satellite footage, or they would be Base Security, the people who were first in line for any breach of the AntHills defenses.
Making my choice, I tap on it.
[You have selected: Soldier]
[Are you sure?]
Tapping yes once more caused everything to go dark. I guess this is the temporary loading screen while waiting for others to join or something.
Chapter 2
New
Krogan_hunter
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2024
- Messages
- 139
- Likes received
- 1,908
The black in my vision faded away to reveal the back of a Skyranger, going from standing up to suddenly sitting down felt weird, but I shrugged it off momentarily. Looking around showed that the seats for other players were taken by grayed out player models, waiting for someone to load in and take their place.
Looking down at myself showed the bulky combat armor that I remembered from X-Com: Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within, coloured in red. It was honestly rather comfortable despite how heavy it looked. Laid in a slot in the seat next to me was a G36C locked in place via magnetic clamps, easy to pull out when I tried to.
Putting it back I looked around some more and found a helmet that also covered the face sitting in another slot just above my head, pulling it down and putting it on revealed a Heads Up Display, where my health counter sat, at 5/5 in the bottom middle of the display. In the bottom right corner was a representation of my gun with the ammo counter just underneath that with four icons that represented spare magazines.
Top left showed my username along with spaces for what I assume is where my squadmates would be placed. Top right was a blank square with the words 'GPS Disabled', which told me it was the minimap. And in the bottom left should be the abilities icons that should show up once a Promotion comes through and I get sorted into a class.
Looking to the ramp at the other end of the bay showed the mission briefing, but once I removed the helmet so too did my HUD and the mission brief, so I put it back on and began to read.
Operation: Blind Cougar 01/03/2015
Unknown bogeys discovered, reclassified as intelligent. Possibly extraterrestrial in origin, unexplained events at site. Japanese Self Defence Force sent to investigate MIA.
Objectives: 1. Investigate the Area and assess the situation
2. Engage any hostiles present
3.Secure the site for Relic Recovery Teams
The picture next to the information showed a quaint little fishing village taken from what looks to be a cellphone, an image that is clearly not up to date, I would put money on there being fires around the place.
"Fucking hell that feels weird!" A voice shouted, male and sounding younger than my own.
Looking over revealed a guy with messy green hair and a sharp looking face.
"Going from standing to sitting in the blink of an eye without doing it yourself?" I asked, knowing the likely answer.
"Yeah, man that was odd." The guy answered, shaking his head momentarily.
"I'm Gravanel, are you excited for this?" I introduced myself and asked in one.
"Raifujin, and yeah, though I don't understand how the turn-based tactics are going to work in this." He answered, sounding both excited and confused, and understandable sentiment.
Before I could answer another voice beat me to it.
"Because it's closer to a first person shooter like Call of Duty." The voice answered, clearly female.
Looking over I was met with a girl with long brunette hair in two ponytails with brown eyes and a scar over her left. She was also rather short and looked incredibly tiny in her armor, the bulky red padding making her look like a kid wearing their fathers clothes or something similar.
"KuoLy42, nice to meet ya." She gave a grin with her intro.
"Well how is the game supposed to work if it's a shooter." Raifujin asked, sounding petulant.
"Pretty simple actually. Your gun fires in bursts and depending on your accuracy will deal damage or miss. Damage ranges from weapon to weapon but at this stage it's typically around 3 to 4 damage. You can move around as you please but it is up to you physically to get somewhere, if you need to climb up something better hope you can do it cause there is no in-game assist for that." KuoLy answered, leaning forward in her seat.
I took over after that, "On the other hand, the aliens are also in the same spot as us, they can move freely, and shoot constantly if they wish. There are no turn-based actions here, but skills will be on a cooldown after use if you have one."
"Huh, sounds easy enough. You two Beta Testers or something?" Raifujin asked after nodding.
"Yeah, got the chance to try out a few of the classes and the piloting during the Beta." I answered.
"Same, though I mainly played ground combat and tried out the engineering, it didn't work out for me." KuoLy42 replied, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment, probably remembering an incident in engineering.
Some small discussion about inane topics later, the other three people for our squad showed up finally. The first was a guy about as tall as me from what I could guess with him sitting, white hair and green eyes, introducing himself as Lynx532. The second was a teen that was for sure younger than me, black hair that covered an eye, both of which were black and introduced himself as Kirito, seeming rather reserved like he wasn't used to people.
The last was a girl with gray hair and yellow eyes, introduced herself as TrashPanda in a voice that sounded like she was bored. Everyone however, was dressed in the same red armor as myself, with their own helmets in the alcove above their seats and their G36C's in their mag locks.
"This is Big Sky, we are arriving at the site now." A voice called over the intercom in the bay.
Everyone paused what they were doing for a moment before we all gathered ourselves and got ready. I put my helmet back on and stood from my seat while grabbing my rifle, holding it in one hand while grabbing a handrail above with my other.
"Your helmets are above your seats." I said to the others, noticing some looking a little lost.
"Thanks!" Raifujin said before grabbing his.
I felt the Skyranger descend and touch down on the ground, then the greenlight came on and the ramp began to drop. Looking at the others revealed they were all ready and rearing to go, KuoLy was tapping a foot from where she stood, confirming my thoughts about her height being rather small, and she sent me a rather nasty grin as though she knew what I was thinking.
Once the ramp fully opened each of us stepped out, TrashPanda, Lynx and Raifujin looking a little lost from what I could read of their body language. Kirito had immediately moved forwards to a wall for cover while KuoLy followed behind me, us two being in the back of the Skyranger.
"What now?" TrashPanda asked, her voice sounding lost over comms.
"Treat this like Ready or Not, or something like that. Go slow and steady, keep your eyes open and focused on places where you think you could hide, because it's likely that some aliens have hidden there too." I answered while moving past them.
Looking around, the little village we landed in was eerily quiet, the whistling of wind could be heard and the radio from nearby cars reached my ears through the helmet, their doors left open of civilians running away in a hurry. There was also a faint green glow in the distance, indicating the use of fogpods as they would come to be called.
Taking a peek at the minimap showed a general layout of the village, rather small area to go around and search. A green blip in the middle of the square indicated that it was me, while the four blue blips behind me and the one ahead of me told me that they were friendly units. An orange square was placed around one block, in the beta that meant it was suspected alien activity, so that was where we should head.
Kirito had pushed up further in the short time it took for us to get near him, standing behind a wall just outside the suspected activity area.
"Everyone is here." I said to him as I neared.
He just nodded in response while leaning out of cover.
"Anyone got any plans or ideas?" Lynx spoke up.
"Yeah, pair off with each other, less chance of being caught off guard that way." KuoLy answered.
"Take it slow, it's not a race to see who can kill the most." I also added.
"Sweep the streets and watch the windows." Kirito said, checking his G36C.
"Raifujin you're with me." I said pointing at him.
"Got it." He answered before jumping to my side.
"I'll take TrashPanda with me." KuoLy said.
"Sure." She replied before walking over.
"Guess you're stuck with me Kirito." Lynx said with a lazy smirk, stepping over to the quiet guy.
"Alright lets do this, have fun people." I said lazily before picking a street and walking.
Raifujin followed behind me, the two of us slouched forward with our guns ready to lift just a little further and fire if we came across anything. In the distance I could see a Fog Pod in the middle of a crossroad, cars abandoned around it and at least from what I could see, one body covered in a green substance reaching out, frozen in time.
Each step was taken with care, my eyes glancing around from windows and storefronts, to alleyways and even the minimap, seeing how everyone had paired off and was moving slowly as told. Passing by a car I paused and held a fist up to indicate for Raifujin to stop moving and listened.
A quiet chittering noise could be heard coming from the store next door. It was faint but I know what that sound meant, an alien was in that building.
"What is it?" Raifujin asked as he crouched next to me.
"Hear that chittering?" I asked and waited for a nod, "Means an alien is in that direction, go slow." I advised.
"Guys, there's an alien group near us. Be careful, once we start shooting they'll likely come out of the woodwork." I said over the radio.
"Understood." KuoLy's voice answered, followed shortly by Kirito in a quieter voice.
I swept my hand forward while moving, indicating for Raifujin to follow. There was a car parked in front of the storefront that held a big glass window, we took cover behind and peered inside.
Skittering about the storefront were three little grey men with big heads and huge black eyes. A wrist mounted plasma pistol glowed green on their arms as they pointed this way and that while their chittering went back and forth between them.
I lifted my rifle and placed it against the hood of the car while taking aim at one of them. Out of the corner of my eye I saw as Raifujin copied me, and he didn't just immediately shoot, thankfully.
"On my mark." I muttered, my voice carrying to him.
"Got it." He answered, taking a steadying breath.
Making sure that my ironsights were dead center of one of the Sectoids bulbous gray heads I wrapped my finger around the trigger.
"Mark."
Pulling the trigger, the gun in my hands barked out a short burst and pushed back into my shoulder. The bullets that left the barrel flew true, yellow-green blood sprayed out of the Sectoids head and splattered on the shelf behind it, the others let out screeches of surprise.
"Fuck." I heard muttered beside me as I saw bullet holes appear in the shelf nearest to the Sectoid I had mentally marked as #2.
Shifting my rifle to #3 I had to duck as I saw green plasma flying toward me. My head cleared the top of the car just in time for the plasma to miss, and I could swear I felt the heat even through the helmet. A scream of pain caused me to shoot a look over to where Raifujin was, a bolt of plasma caught him in the chest before he could get to cover fully, the health pips over his head dropped until there was only 2 left.
"Shit, stay down!" I shouted at him as I shot back up and began moving sideways and aiming.
#2 was in my sights immediately and a burst popped its head like a grape as it let out a dying shriek and collapsed. Sectoid #3 snapped its plasma pistol over to me and began to fire, the bolts of plasma just barely missing me once again as I ducked underneath and ran inside the store.
"Gravanel, what the hell are you doing?!" I heard Raifujin shout.
"Getting its attention split between us, take the shot!" I replied as I got behind some shelves to break line of sight.
"Fuck, got it." I heard him mutter and move about over the radio.
A burst of bullets came into the store and the Sectoid was hit, its shriek of pain being heard loud and clear. Before it could be felled I heard a swirling sound, something that is honestly a little hard to describe, and then heard heavy panicked breathing over the radio.
As I moved as quietly as I could to an angle where I could hit the Sectoid, its position not having changed judging by the minimap, I was interrupted by a burst of bullets that shredded through the shelf where I just was. Shit, that was a Psi Panic, Raifujin will keep firing in random directions until the Sectoid is killed and he is calmed.
Continuing to move forward I reached the end of the aisle and peered around the edge and saw the Sectoid looking around while its gun arm went this way and that, ready to fire. Raising my gun quickly I snapped off a burst of fire almost point blank, the rounds tearing into its body and dropping it to the floor.
Taking a moment to move to the register and hiding behind the counter I checked over the minimap and saw as the other four advanced down their streets carefully.
"Raifujin, you good?" I radioed.
"Y-yeah, I'm good. W-what the fuck was t-that?" He answered, stuttering with each breath.
"Psionics, aliens can use them for a variety of effects and so can we when a certain research project is completed and if you have the aptitude." I answered, glad to see that he was calming down.
"How long until we get access?" He asked, breathing much steadier.
"Gotta be a few months of in-game time, most spent on research and then building the Psionics Lab which is like 15 days or something." I answered, slowly getting up from behind the counter while ready to immediately drop back down just in case.
Catching sight of him, I saw that he was leaning up against the hood of a car, breathing still a little unsteady from how his shoulders shook every so often. Stepping over to him silently, I took a peek at the status of the others, their status was the same as before this engagement which only lasted less than a minute, their blips a little further down their chosen paths but still close enough to come running just in case.
"This group has been dealt with, if this is still like the beta then there should be at least two more pods left." I spoke over the radio.
"Got it, you guys good over there?" KuoLy answered first.
"Yeah now we are, Raifujin took a hit. Gonna take it slower." I responded.
"Have fun then." She responded, a smile obvious in her voice.
With a nod of my head Raifujin and I began to move down the road once again. I was in front of him so as to reduce the chances of him taking a hit and killing his character this early into the game. It would be a pain to have to go through the character creator again and wait for a squad to load up, or maybe he is just spawned in the Anthill like in the beta.
Steps were careful and measured, the silence after the gunfight unnerving and the adrenaline still in my system, or whatever the digital equivalent was in a game. Eyes darted left and right looking for any sign of Sectoids and their telltale green glow of their weapons, windows and alleyways were quickly but thoroughly scanned before moving on.
"Got a pod of Sectoids on us, engaging." Kirito's voice came through.
"Need any help?" I asked.
"Nah, we got this." Lynx's voice came through sounding cocky.
Gunshots could then be heard in the distance. Looking at the minimap I saw two blips just a street over fighting against three red ones, both sides moving in and out of cover by the way their blips moved side to side.
Raifujin and I pushed forward, hand signals from me directing us in Kirito's direction regardless of what he said. As we neared an alleyway to traverse through that would take us to just up the road from those two, it felt like everything went into slow motion as I saw four green lights barrel through the dark of the alley towards us.
Like watching a car crash in slow motion, I saw as they neared and felt my body drop behind a dumpster, the bolts travelling past my cover and to the other side of the street. A thumping noise caught my attention and I looked over to see Raifujin's body collapsed on the floor, head missing and sizzling.
Looking down at myself showed the bulky combat armor that I remembered from X-Com: Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within, coloured in red. It was honestly rather comfortable despite how heavy it looked. Laid in a slot in the seat next to me was a G36C locked in place via magnetic clamps, easy to pull out when I tried to.
Putting it back I looked around some more and found a helmet that also covered the face sitting in another slot just above my head, pulling it down and putting it on revealed a Heads Up Display, where my health counter sat, at 5/5 in the bottom middle of the display. In the bottom right corner was a representation of my gun with the ammo counter just underneath that with four icons that represented spare magazines.
Top left showed my username along with spaces for what I assume is where my squadmates would be placed. Top right was a blank square with the words 'GPS Disabled', which told me it was the minimap. And in the bottom left should be the abilities icons that should show up once a Promotion comes through and I get sorted into a class.
Looking to the ramp at the other end of the bay showed the mission briefing, but once I removed the helmet so too did my HUD and the mission brief, so I put it back on and began to read.
Operation: Blind Cougar 01/03/2015
Unknown bogeys discovered, reclassified as intelligent. Possibly extraterrestrial in origin, unexplained events at site. Japanese Self Defence Force sent to investigate MIA.
Objectives: 1. Investigate the Area and assess the situation
2. Engage any hostiles present
3.Secure the site for Relic Recovery Teams
The picture next to the information showed a quaint little fishing village taken from what looks to be a cellphone, an image that is clearly not up to date, I would put money on there being fires around the place.
"Fucking hell that feels weird!" A voice shouted, male and sounding younger than my own.
Looking over revealed a guy with messy green hair and a sharp looking face.
"Going from standing to sitting in the blink of an eye without doing it yourself?" I asked, knowing the likely answer.
"Yeah, man that was odd." The guy answered, shaking his head momentarily.
"I'm Gravanel, are you excited for this?" I introduced myself and asked in one.
"Raifujin, and yeah, though I don't understand how the turn-based tactics are going to work in this." He answered, sounding both excited and confused, and understandable sentiment.
Before I could answer another voice beat me to it.
"Because it's closer to a first person shooter like Call of Duty." The voice answered, clearly female.
Looking over I was met with a girl with long brunette hair in two ponytails with brown eyes and a scar over her left. She was also rather short and looked incredibly tiny in her armor, the bulky red padding making her look like a kid wearing their fathers clothes or something similar.
"KuoLy42, nice to meet ya." She gave a grin with her intro.
"Well how is the game supposed to work if it's a shooter." Raifujin asked, sounding petulant.
"Pretty simple actually. Your gun fires in bursts and depending on your accuracy will deal damage or miss. Damage ranges from weapon to weapon but at this stage it's typically around 3 to 4 damage. You can move around as you please but it is up to you physically to get somewhere, if you need to climb up something better hope you can do it cause there is no in-game assist for that." KuoLy answered, leaning forward in her seat.
I took over after that, "On the other hand, the aliens are also in the same spot as us, they can move freely, and shoot constantly if they wish. There are no turn-based actions here, but skills will be on a cooldown after use if you have one."
"Huh, sounds easy enough. You two Beta Testers or something?" Raifujin asked after nodding.
"Yeah, got the chance to try out a few of the classes and the piloting during the Beta." I answered.
"Same, though I mainly played ground combat and tried out the engineering, it didn't work out for me." KuoLy42 replied, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment, probably remembering an incident in engineering.
Some small discussion about inane topics later, the other three people for our squad showed up finally. The first was a guy about as tall as me from what I could guess with him sitting, white hair and green eyes, introducing himself as Lynx532. The second was a teen that was for sure younger than me, black hair that covered an eye, both of which were black and introduced himself as Kirito, seeming rather reserved like he wasn't used to people.
The last was a girl with gray hair and yellow eyes, introduced herself as TrashPanda in a voice that sounded like she was bored. Everyone however, was dressed in the same red armor as myself, with their own helmets in the alcove above their seats and their G36C's in their mag locks.
"This is Big Sky, we are arriving at the site now." A voice called over the intercom in the bay.
Everyone paused what they were doing for a moment before we all gathered ourselves and got ready. I put my helmet back on and stood from my seat while grabbing my rifle, holding it in one hand while grabbing a handrail above with my other.
"Your helmets are above your seats." I said to the others, noticing some looking a little lost.
"Thanks!" Raifujin said before grabbing his.
I felt the Skyranger descend and touch down on the ground, then the greenlight came on and the ramp began to drop. Looking at the others revealed they were all ready and rearing to go, KuoLy was tapping a foot from where she stood, confirming my thoughts about her height being rather small, and she sent me a rather nasty grin as though she knew what I was thinking.
Once the ramp fully opened each of us stepped out, TrashPanda, Lynx and Raifujin looking a little lost from what I could read of their body language. Kirito had immediately moved forwards to a wall for cover while KuoLy followed behind me, us two being in the back of the Skyranger.
"What now?" TrashPanda asked, her voice sounding lost over comms.
"Treat this like Ready or Not, or something like that. Go slow and steady, keep your eyes open and focused on places where you think you could hide, because it's likely that some aliens have hidden there too." I answered while moving past them.
Looking around, the little village we landed in was eerily quiet, the whistling of wind could be heard and the radio from nearby cars reached my ears through the helmet, their doors left open of civilians running away in a hurry. There was also a faint green glow in the distance, indicating the use of fogpods as they would come to be called.
Taking a peek at the minimap showed a general layout of the village, rather small area to go around and search. A green blip in the middle of the square indicated that it was me, while the four blue blips behind me and the one ahead of me told me that they were friendly units. An orange square was placed around one block, in the beta that meant it was suspected alien activity, so that was where we should head.
Kirito had pushed up further in the short time it took for us to get near him, standing behind a wall just outside the suspected activity area.
"Everyone is here." I said to him as I neared.
He just nodded in response while leaning out of cover.
"Anyone got any plans or ideas?" Lynx spoke up.
"Yeah, pair off with each other, less chance of being caught off guard that way." KuoLy answered.
"Take it slow, it's not a race to see who can kill the most." I also added.
"Sweep the streets and watch the windows." Kirito said, checking his G36C.
"Raifujin you're with me." I said pointing at him.
"Got it." He answered before jumping to my side.
"I'll take TrashPanda with me." KuoLy said.
"Sure." She replied before walking over.
"Guess you're stuck with me Kirito." Lynx said with a lazy smirk, stepping over to the quiet guy.
"Alright lets do this, have fun people." I said lazily before picking a street and walking.
Raifujin followed behind me, the two of us slouched forward with our guns ready to lift just a little further and fire if we came across anything. In the distance I could see a Fog Pod in the middle of a crossroad, cars abandoned around it and at least from what I could see, one body covered in a green substance reaching out, frozen in time.
Each step was taken with care, my eyes glancing around from windows and storefronts, to alleyways and even the minimap, seeing how everyone had paired off and was moving slowly as told. Passing by a car I paused and held a fist up to indicate for Raifujin to stop moving and listened.
A quiet chittering noise could be heard coming from the store next door. It was faint but I know what that sound meant, an alien was in that building.
"What is it?" Raifujin asked as he crouched next to me.
"Hear that chittering?" I asked and waited for a nod, "Means an alien is in that direction, go slow." I advised.
"Guys, there's an alien group near us. Be careful, once we start shooting they'll likely come out of the woodwork." I said over the radio.
"Understood." KuoLy's voice answered, followed shortly by Kirito in a quieter voice.
I swept my hand forward while moving, indicating for Raifujin to follow. There was a car parked in front of the storefront that held a big glass window, we took cover behind and peered inside.
Skittering about the storefront were three little grey men with big heads and huge black eyes. A wrist mounted plasma pistol glowed green on their arms as they pointed this way and that while their chittering went back and forth between them.
I lifted my rifle and placed it against the hood of the car while taking aim at one of them. Out of the corner of my eye I saw as Raifujin copied me, and he didn't just immediately shoot, thankfully.
"On my mark." I muttered, my voice carrying to him.
"Got it." He answered, taking a steadying breath.
Making sure that my ironsights were dead center of one of the Sectoids bulbous gray heads I wrapped my finger around the trigger.
"Mark."
Pulling the trigger, the gun in my hands barked out a short burst and pushed back into my shoulder. The bullets that left the barrel flew true, yellow-green blood sprayed out of the Sectoids head and splattered on the shelf behind it, the others let out screeches of surprise.
"Fuck." I heard muttered beside me as I saw bullet holes appear in the shelf nearest to the Sectoid I had mentally marked as #2.
Shifting my rifle to #3 I had to duck as I saw green plasma flying toward me. My head cleared the top of the car just in time for the plasma to miss, and I could swear I felt the heat even through the helmet. A scream of pain caused me to shoot a look over to where Raifujin was, a bolt of plasma caught him in the chest before he could get to cover fully, the health pips over his head dropped until there was only 2 left.
"Shit, stay down!" I shouted at him as I shot back up and began moving sideways and aiming.
#2 was in my sights immediately and a burst popped its head like a grape as it let out a dying shriek and collapsed. Sectoid #3 snapped its plasma pistol over to me and began to fire, the bolts of plasma just barely missing me once again as I ducked underneath and ran inside the store.
"Gravanel, what the hell are you doing?!" I heard Raifujin shout.
"Getting its attention split between us, take the shot!" I replied as I got behind some shelves to break line of sight.
"Fuck, got it." I heard him mutter and move about over the radio.
A burst of bullets came into the store and the Sectoid was hit, its shriek of pain being heard loud and clear. Before it could be felled I heard a swirling sound, something that is honestly a little hard to describe, and then heard heavy panicked breathing over the radio.
As I moved as quietly as I could to an angle where I could hit the Sectoid, its position not having changed judging by the minimap, I was interrupted by a burst of bullets that shredded through the shelf where I just was. Shit, that was a Psi Panic, Raifujin will keep firing in random directions until the Sectoid is killed and he is calmed.
Continuing to move forward I reached the end of the aisle and peered around the edge and saw the Sectoid looking around while its gun arm went this way and that, ready to fire. Raising my gun quickly I snapped off a burst of fire almost point blank, the rounds tearing into its body and dropping it to the floor.
Taking a moment to move to the register and hiding behind the counter I checked over the minimap and saw as the other four advanced down their streets carefully.
"Raifujin, you good?" I radioed.
"Y-yeah, I'm good. W-what the fuck was t-that?" He answered, stuttering with each breath.
"Psionics, aliens can use them for a variety of effects and so can we when a certain research project is completed and if you have the aptitude." I answered, glad to see that he was calming down.
"How long until we get access?" He asked, breathing much steadier.
"Gotta be a few months of in-game time, most spent on research and then building the Psionics Lab which is like 15 days or something." I answered, slowly getting up from behind the counter while ready to immediately drop back down just in case.
Catching sight of him, I saw that he was leaning up against the hood of a car, breathing still a little unsteady from how his shoulders shook every so often. Stepping over to him silently, I took a peek at the status of the others, their status was the same as before this engagement which only lasted less than a minute, their blips a little further down their chosen paths but still close enough to come running just in case.
"This group has been dealt with, if this is still like the beta then there should be at least two more pods left." I spoke over the radio.
"Got it, you guys good over there?" KuoLy answered first.
"Yeah now we are, Raifujin took a hit. Gonna take it slower." I responded.
"Have fun then." She responded, a smile obvious in her voice.
With a nod of my head Raifujin and I began to move down the road once again. I was in front of him so as to reduce the chances of him taking a hit and killing his character this early into the game. It would be a pain to have to go through the character creator again and wait for a squad to load up, or maybe he is just spawned in the Anthill like in the beta.
Steps were careful and measured, the silence after the gunfight unnerving and the adrenaline still in my system, or whatever the digital equivalent was in a game. Eyes darted left and right looking for any sign of Sectoids and their telltale green glow of their weapons, windows and alleyways were quickly but thoroughly scanned before moving on.
"Got a pod of Sectoids on us, engaging." Kirito's voice came through.
"Need any help?" I asked.
"Nah, we got this." Lynx's voice came through sounding cocky.
Gunshots could then be heard in the distance. Looking at the minimap I saw two blips just a street over fighting against three red ones, both sides moving in and out of cover by the way their blips moved side to side.
Raifujin and I pushed forward, hand signals from me directing us in Kirito's direction regardless of what he said. As we neared an alleyway to traverse through that would take us to just up the road from those two, it felt like everything went into slow motion as I saw four green lights barrel through the dark of the alley towards us.
Like watching a car crash in slow motion, I saw as they neared and felt my body drop behind a dumpster, the bolts travelling past my cover and to the other side of the street. A thumping noise caught my attention and I looked over to see Raifujin's body collapsed on the floor, head missing and sizzling.
Chapter 3
New
Krogan_hunter
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2024
- Messages
- 139
- Likes received
- 1,908
The body on the ground didn't despawn like one would expect from some games, it just stayed there, blood pooling out of the stump that was his neck with the smell of burned meat hitting my nostrils even through the helmet.
"Fuck, shit. Raifujin is dead!" I shouted, my voice carrying over comms.
"We are on our way!" KuoLy replied in turn, her blip and TrashPanda's moving towards me.
Swapping out the empty mag with a fresh one, I leaned out from behind the dumpster to try and spot the Sectoids. The four were scattered at different points in the alleyway, too far apart from each other for a grenade. There was a purple swirl around the head of the closest Sectoid, trailing from #3, clear signs of a Mind Merge.
Swinging my rifle around I took aim at that bastard, and snapped off a burst before I was forced back into cover. I heard a scream from it but no body dropped, just an increase in plasma fire directed my way.
Leaning up against the dumpster as I was, I could see the entrance to the alleyway just a few meters ahead of me. It would offer much more solid cover than the flimsy metal of the dumpster while also putting me in a much better position.
Swiping my hand downwards to bring up the menu, I quickly navigated to the inventory and tapped on the grenade icon causing an AP grenade to appear in the air just above my palm. Snatching it quickly I brought it close, my finger slipping into the ring and giving a sharp tug removing it.
Shifting my weight forwards so I could run, I tossed the grenade around the side of the dumpster and the moment I heard the Sectoids start screeching in panic I ran. My feet pounded against the concrete, rushing to make it to the entrance of the alley, and the grenade went off, the sound deafening in its loudness.
Judging by the death scream I could hear one of the Sectoids died just as I got to the corner and stepped aside, just in time too as they began firing once more. The splash of plasma brought with it heat that I could swear wasn't this severe in the beta, but thankfully backup arrived.
I saw as KuoLy took cover on the opposite side of the alley from me while TrashPanda sat behind the front of a car that was left near the entrance to the alley.
"Got here as fast as we could." She spoke over the plasma fire.
"Took you long enough!" I shouted back, glad for some reinforcements.
"You ready to fight back or are you just gonna sit there and look pretty?" She retorted, and I could tell she was smiling under that helmet.
"Oh dunno, thought I would get out the nail polish real quick!" I joked.
"If you two are done flirting maybe we should actually shoot the aliens who are getting closer?" I heard TrashPanda say.
Taking a look at my minimap showed she was right, three red blips were advancing through the alleyway towards us and be upon us in a few seconds judging by their speed. Raising my gun I saw as KuoLy went through the same hand motions that I did, and an AP grenade appeared in her hand while TrashPanda settled her gun on the hood of the car, ready to fire.
Right when the grenade left her hand TrashPanda and I opened fire down the alleyway. Bullet tracers lit the alleyway as did the plasma fired by the Sectoids. The grenade joined in a blink and you'll miss it moment as it caught the Sectoid furthest back, killing it and damaging the next.
The bullets sprayed from TashPanda caught the closest Sectoid in the head, dealing a critical hit and killing it. While it was a tossup between myself and KuoLy on who killed the last two Sectoids, my grenade from earlier obviously damaged the one that TrashPanda managed to kill.
Once the area was clear I took a moment for a breather, still shocked by how quick that turned around on me.
"You good down there?"
I looked up to see KuoLy standing above me kicking one of my feet.
"Yeah, just a bit of an adrenaline crash. Fuck almost lost my character there." I said with a little laugh.
"Imagine that, a beta tester losing their character in their second fight ever." She snickered at the thought.
"Looks like the other two are done." TrashPanda spoke up.
A peek at my minimap revealed the truth, Kirito was on the move towards us. Though something was off, there was only one blip heading towards us, my eyes darted to the top left of my visor and saw how there was a red flatline next to Lynx's username, all his health pips missing.
"Good work out there Strike-One." A man's voice suddenly spoke over the radio.
"No other alien activity is detected in the AO and Relic Recovery Teams are en route. You are free to return to base."
Grabbing onto KuoLy's outstretched hand I pulled myself up just as Kirito exited the alleyway. With a nod at each of us he began to walk away towards the Skyranger, after a moment the three of us followed.
The silence that followed us was comfortable, like it wasn't at all weird to be in this scenario. Swiping my hand down allowed me to browse the menu while we walked, the inventory screen showed as a silhouette of my body in the middle with squares on either side, in each of those squares was either a piece of the armor I was wearing or a weapon I had equipped to my person or something like spare mags or grenades in another cluster of squares in a 4x4 box.
Backing out of the inventory I ducked into the settings and saw that each of the settings that could have been changed in the beta, things like BGM, Master Volume and Voice Volume were gone, along with others like Colour Blind filters for those who needed them. Hell even the logout button was just blank, nothing there and tapping at it produced nothing.
"Hey guys, does the logout button work for you?" I asked as we got closer to the Skyranger.
I watched as the others went through the motions of opening the menu and pausing momentarily.
"For me it's just blank." Krirto spoke up from ahead of us.
"Same here." TrashPanda added.
"Got the same issue, weird that it happened to all of us, maybe the devs are looking to fix the issue as we speak?" KuoLy said as we all got on board the Skyranger.
"Maybe, just hope it's fixed quickly, rather not worry anyone." I said while taking my seat.
As everyone sat down the ramp began to lift and the engines of the Skyranger started up, the wind blowing from the engine wash being seen from the rear as the ramp closed. With my gun placed back in the mag lock I pulled my helmet off and relaxed in my seat.
"Eh it'll be fine, we haven't even been playing for 30 minutes yet." KuoLy said.
"On another note, what class do you guys hope to be sorted into?" I asked everyone.
"Assault, the Run & Gun ability would help greatly with how I play." Kirito answered first.
"Scout maybe, it has skills that would help out a squad with accuracy and stuff like that." KuoLy said, relaxing in her seat.
"I dont know what there is, so I guess I'll take what the game gives me. We can change class later anyway right?" TrashPanda asked.
"Ehh, sorta." I said, my hand rocking back and forth, "You would need to either lose your current character, create a new one, or hope that a Tactics School gets built to respec your points."
"How about you?" TrashPanda asked me, her head tilted in askance.
"Probably Medic or Sniper, those were the two I mainly played in the beta and the most comfortable with for me." I answered.
After that the bay fell silent, everyone lost in their thoughts while we travelled back to XCOM HQ. It was honestly a cool way to have loading screens, making the player feel like they were really travelling to and from combat zones.
I closed my eyes to rest for a moment, head leaned back, arms crossed and legs kicked out. Comfortable while the loading screen played out.
"Fuck, shit. Raifujin is dead!" I shouted, my voice carrying over comms.
"We are on our way!" KuoLy replied in turn, her blip and TrashPanda's moving towards me.
Swapping out the empty mag with a fresh one, I leaned out from behind the dumpster to try and spot the Sectoids. The four were scattered at different points in the alleyway, too far apart from each other for a grenade. There was a purple swirl around the head of the closest Sectoid, trailing from #3, clear signs of a Mind Merge.
Swinging my rifle around I took aim at that bastard, and snapped off a burst before I was forced back into cover. I heard a scream from it but no body dropped, just an increase in plasma fire directed my way.
Leaning up against the dumpster as I was, I could see the entrance to the alleyway just a few meters ahead of me. It would offer much more solid cover than the flimsy metal of the dumpster while also putting me in a much better position.
Swiping my hand downwards to bring up the menu, I quickly navigated to the inventory and tapped on the grenade icon causing an AP grenade to appear in the air just above my palm. Snatching it quickly I brought it close, my finger slipping into the ring and giving a sharp tug removing it.
Shifting my weight forwards so I could run, I tossed the grenade around the side of the dumpster and the moment I heard the Sectoids start screeching in panic I ran. My feet pounded against the concrete, rushing to make it to the entrance of the alley, and the grenade went off, the sound deafening in its loudness.
Judging by the death scream I could hear one of the Sectoids died just as I got to the corner and stepped aside, just in time too as they began firing once more. The splash of plasma brought with it heat that I could swear wasn't this severe in the beta, but thankfully backup arrived.
I saw as KuoLy took cover on the opposite side of the alley from me while TrashPanda sat behind the front of a car that was left near the entrance to the alley.
"Got here as fast as we could." She spoke over the plasma fire.
"Took you long enough!" I shouted back, glad for some reinforcements.
"You ready to fight back or are you just gonna sit there and look pretty?" She retorted, and I could tell she was smiling under that helmet.
"Oh dunno, thought I would get out the nail polish real quick!" I joked.
"If you two are done flirting maybe we should actually shoot the aliens who are getting closer?" I heard TrashPanda say.
Taking a look at my minimap showed she was right, three red blips were advancing through the alleyway towards us and be upon us in a few seconds judging by their speed. Raising my gun I saw as KuoLy went through the same hand motions that I did, and an AP grenade appeared in her hand while TrashPanda settled her gun on the hood of the car, ready to fire.
Right when the grenade left her hand TrashPanda and I opened fire down the alleyway. Bullet tracers lit the alleyway as did the plasma fired by the Sectoids. The grenade joined in a blink and you'll miss it moment as it caught the Sectoid furthest back, killing it and damaging the next.
The bullets sprayed from TashPanda caught the closest Sectoid in the head, dealing a critical hit and killing it. While it was a tossup between myself and KuoLy on who killed the last two Sectoids, my grenade from earlier obviously damaged the one that TrashPanda managed to kill.
Once the area was clear I took a moment for a breather, still shocked by how quick that turned around on me.
"You good down there?"
I looked up to see KuoLy standing above me kicking one of my feet.
"Yeah, just a bit of an adrenaline crash. Fuck almost lost my character there." I said with a little laugh.
"Imagine that, a beta tester losing their character in their second fight ever." She snickered at the thought.
"Looks like the other two are done." TrashPanda spoke up.
A peek at my minimap revealed the truth, Kirito was on the move towards us. Though something was off, there was only one blip heading towards us, my eyes darted to the top left of my visor and saw how there was a red flatline next to Lynx's username, all his health pips missing.
"Good work out there Strike-One." A man's voice suddenly spoke over the radio.
"No other alien activity is detected in the AO and Relic Recovery Teams are en route. You are free to return to base."
Grabbing onto KuoLy's outstretched hand I pulled myself up just as Kirito exited the alleyway. With a nod at each of us he began to walk away towards the Skyranger, after a moment the three of us followed.
The silence that followed us was comfortable, like it wasn't at all weird to be in this scenario. Swiping my hand down allowed me to browse the menu while we walked, the inventory screen showed as a silhouette of my body in the middle with squares on either side, in each of those squares was either a piece of the armor I was wearing or a weapon I had equipped to my person or something like spare mags or grenades in another cluster of squares in a 4x4 box.
Backing out of the inventory I ducked into the settings and saw that each of the settings that could have been changed in the beta, things like BGM, Master Volume and Voice Volume were gone, along with others like Colour Blind filters for those who needed them. Hell even the logout button was just blank, nothing there and tapping at it produced nothing.
"Hey guys, does the logout button work for you?" I asked as we got closer to the Skyranger.
I watched as the others went through the motions of opening the menu and pausing momentarily.
"For me it's just blank." Krirto spoke up from ahead of us.
"Same here." TrashPanda added.
"Got the same issue, weird that it happened to all of us, maybe the devs are looking to fix the issue as we speak?" KuoLy said as we all got on board the Skyranger.
"Maybe, just hope it's fixed quickly, rather not worry anyone." I said while taking my seat.
As everyone sat down the ramp began to lift and the engines of the Skyranger started up, the wind blowing from the engine wash being seen from the rear as the ramp closed. With my gun placed back in the mag lock I pulled my helmet off and relaxed in my seat.
"Eh it'll be fine, we haven't even been playing for 30 minutes yet." KuoLy said.
"On another note, what class do you guys hope to be sorted into?" I asked everyone.
"Assault, the Run & Gun ability would help greatly with how I play." Kirito answered first.
"Scout maybe, it has skills that would help out a squad with accuracy and stuff like that." KuoLy said, relaxing in her seat.
"I dont know what there is, so I guess I'll take what the game gives me. We can change class later anyway right?" TrashPanda asked.
"Ehh, sorta." I said, my hand rocking back and forth, "You would need to either lose your current character, create a new one, or hope that a Tactics School gets built to respec your points."
"How about you?" TrashPanda asked me, her head tilted in askance.
"Probably Medic or Sniper, those were the two I mainly played in the beta and the most comfortable with for me." I answered.
After that the bay fell silent, everyone lost in their thoughts while we travelled back to XCOM HQ. It was honestly a cool way to have loading screens, making the player feel like they were really travelling to and from combat zones.
I closed my eyes to rest for a moment, head leaned back, arms crossed and legs kicked out. Comfortable while the loading screen played out.
Chapter 4
New
Krogan_hunter
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2024
- Messages
- 139
- Likes received
- 1,908
After a few minutes of flight, which felt rather long for a loading screen that wasn't anywhere near this long in the beta, we finally arrived at base. I felt as the Skyranger went from a stable forwards motion to a less than stable stop in mid air where it proceeded to feel like my stomach was trying to come out my mouth as we descended.
"Finally, that loading screen felt way too long." I heard from across from me, KuoLy.
"I know right? Was it that long in the beta?" TrashPanda asked.
"No, nowhere near as long, like maybe a minute at its longest, if that." I answered.
"Think it's a change from the beta?" KuoLy asked.
"Could be that the servers are struggling to keep up with the player count." I offered, wondering how much power would be needed to keep everyone connected the way we were.
"Maybe, but wouldn't they have thought of this?" TrashPanda added.
"Probably, but I've seen games with a rather bad connection to online servers on their launch days." Kirito said from his seat.
Soon enough the Skyranger touched down and the back opened up, revealing the large hangar where squads gathered to initiate missions and pilots stayed at the ready for UFO sightings. Getting up from my seat I made my way to the exit, the others following behind me a few steps.
As I stepped off the ramp and onto the large elevator that would lift the Skyranger into a liftoff position, I heard a little chime, like a little bell ringing in my ear that I remembered from the beta. Swiping my hand down with a smile I saw the notification for what it was.
Tapping on the notification a flash of light covered me momentarily before fading away revealing white armor with a red cross on each shoulder. I smiled at the role I got, Medic, a favorite of mine which would allow me to pick perks that would help with friendlies and their recovery times.
A trio of flashes from behind caught my attention and upon turning around I saw their armor and coloration change to their respective classes. Kirito had ended up dressed in the blue sleeveless armor of the Assault class, his rifle would be exchanged for a shotgun and his ability to shoot while on the move would become much easier than any other class.
TrashPanda was covered in the olive drab of the Gunner class, and would receive a Light Machine Gun in return. KuoLy was dressed in the black armor and yellow under armor of the Scout class, giving her the starting ability of Lightning Reflexes, meaning shots against her while moving will have a lower chance to hit her.
"Seems like you two got the classes you wanted." I said, catching their attention.
KuoLy smirked and said, "So did you, Medic huh?"
"Seems so." I replied with a smile.
Before any more words could be shared a ping was heard in my ear, recognising the sound as the one the devs used to indicate something with the game during the beta I opened my menu. The screen hovered just in front of me, four white squares, one for settings, one for logging out, another for the inventory and the last for the abilities tab. The inventory tab was flashing yellow, all but begging for it to be pressed.
Doing so led to the inventory screen where one of the squares in the 4x4, that now expanded to a 5x5, held a tablet-like device within. The border was also pulsing yellow indicating that it was a developer thing, so I tapped on it and saw as the other three did the same, TrashPanda doing so after some direction from KuoLy.
In my hands was a 14" display, flipping it over showed it had the XCOM logo stamped on the back. Looking around showed that everyone in the Hangar Bay was also holding one, everyone in here a player.
After a moment of waiting, the XCOM logo appeared on the screen spinning for a few seconds before a hooded figure appeared on the screen. I remembered the one time that I saw one of these developer interaction things, and realised that this was Kayaba Akihiko, his red hooded avatar being the same from the beta.
"Hello players and welcome to XCOM: Long War Online." He started, his voice sounding grandiose.
"Now some of you may have noticed that the Logout button isn't working. That isn't a bug, it's a feature."
"The only way for you to be able to escape this game is to beat back the Alien Invasion. But be careful, if you die in the game you die in real life. The NerveGear will fry your brain if it receives confirmation that your character has died, and don't worry about anyone trying to take off your NerveGear either, as it will fry your brain before they even get it off." Kayaba continued.
For proof of his claims, windows with news reports started to pop up on the tablet. All of them showing some variation of the same thing, and that was the deaths of players of this now accursed game with ambulances wheeling them out.
"Now then, your objective is once again, to beat back the Alien Invasion before either you all die, or the countries that are part of the XCOM Project pull their funding. Oh it's going to be so fun to see how this goes." He said, a smile audible in his tone of voice at the end.
"Oh, and two more things. Your character data is going to be overwritten with your real information and appearance. Have fun~"
The tablet in my hands shut off, the XCOM logo slowly rotating in place of where Kayaba was. A moment later a bright flash of light covered my and everyone else's bodies, causing some of them to scream or shout in a panic.
Once the light dissipated I caught sight of myself in the darkened reflection of the tablet. Instead of the red eyes and red fringe that was expected, I instead saw blue eyes and dark brown hair, my face had changed to that which I had on the outside of this game. I guess everyone now has their real appearance too.
I looked up and saw that KuoLy looked rather similar, just that a scar was missing from her face. TrashPanda was the most drastic change, gone was the grey hair and golden eyes, in its place was black hair and dark eyes, typical for a Japanese person, her hair still reached her mid back and her face was rather sharp in shape.
Kirito was also the most drastic of changes, he had shrunk a few inches, his hair shortened to ear length and the colours stayed the same, but his face held more baby fat now than the sharp almost adult-like features from before. Before anything else could have happened someone let out a scream, which triggered others to join in and soon enough the base was filled with the screams of panic at the thought of death.
After letting the hand that held the tablet drop to my side, something came to the forefront of my mind. Raifujin, his dead body pooling blood from a missing head on the floor of an alleyway. He was dead because of me, his death wouldn't have happened if I didn't try to force the issue of pushing as fast as we could towards Kirito.
I felt my body move on autopilot, taking steps through the base as it filled with the sounds of screams and panic, things being thrown around. The only thing on my mind being Raifuijns corpse and how I could have done something more than what I did to save him, his death was on my hands.
Stepping through Mission Control it was the same as the Hangar, people screaming and panicking yet I paid it no mind, just walking through the chaos with a blank stare ahead. Once I reached the barracks and collapsed on the bed I felt myself slide unconscious from the stress, that red armored body still visible in my vision.
"Finally, that loading screen felt way too long." I heard from across from me, KuoLy.
"I know right? Was it that long in the beta?" TrashPanda asked.
"No, nowhere near as long, like maybe a minute at its longest, if that." I answered.
"Think it's a change from the beta?" KuoLy asked.
"Could be that the servers are struggling to keep up with the player count." I offered, wondering how much power would be needed to keep everyone connected the way we were.
"Maybe, but wouldn't they have thought of this?" TrashPanda added.
"Probably, but I've seen games with a rather bad connection to online servers on their launch days." Kirito said from his seat.
Soon enough the Skyranger touched down and the back opened up, revealing the large hangar where squads gathered to initiate missions and pilots stayed at the ready for UFO sightings. Getting up from my seat I made my way to the exit, the others following behind me a few steps.
As I stepped off the ramp and onto the large elevator that would lift the Skyranger into a liftoff position, I heard a little chime, like a little bell ringing in my ear that I remembered from the beta. Swiping my hand down with a smile I saw the notification for what it was.
[Promotion Available!]
Tapping on the notification a flash of light covered me momentarily before fading away revealing white armor with a red cross on each shoulder. I smiled at the role I got, Medic, a favorite of mine which would allow me to pick perks that would help with friendlies and their recovery times.
A trio of flashes from behind caught my attention and upon turning around I saw their armor and coloration change to their respective classes. Kirito had ended up dressed in the blue sleeveless armor of the Assault class, his rifle would be exchanged for a shotgun and his ability to shoot while on the move would become much easier than any other class.
TrashPanda was covered in the olive drab of the Gunner class, and would receive a Light Machine Gun in return. KuoLy was dressed in the black armor and yellow under armor of the Scout class, giving her the starting ability of Lightning Reflexes, meaning shots against her while moving will have a lower chance to hit her.
"Seems like you two got the classes you wanted." I said, catching their attention.
KuoLy smirked and said, "So did you, Medic huh?"
"Seems so." I replied with a smile.
Before any more words could be shared a ping was heard in my ear, recognising the sound as the one the devs used to indicate something with the game during the beta I opened my menu. The screen hovered just in front of me, four white squares, one for settings, one for logging out, another for the inventory and the last for the abilities tab. The inventory tab was flashing yellow, all but begging for it to be pressed.
Doing so led to the inventory screen where one of the squares in the 4x4, that now expanded to a 5x5, held a tablet-like device within. The border was also pulsing yellow indicating that it was a developer thing, so I tapped on it and saw as the other three did the same, TrashPanda doing so after some direction from KuoLy.
In my hands was a 14" display, flipping it over showed it had the XCOM logo stamped on the back. Looking around showed that everyone in the Hangar Bay was also holding one, everyone in here a player.
After a moment of waiting, the XCOM logo appeared on the screen spinning for a few seconds before a hooded figure appeared on the screen. I remembered the one time that I saw one of these developer interaction things, and realised that this was Kayaba Akihiko, his red hooded avatar being the same from the beta.
"Hello players and welcome to XCOM: Long War Online." He started, his voice sounding grandiose.
"Now some of you may have noticed that the Logout button isn't working. That isn't a bug, it's a feature."
"The only way for you to be able to escape this game is to beat back the Alien Invasion. But be careful, if you die in the game you die in real life. The NerveGear will fry your brain if it receives confirmation that your character has died, and don't worry about anyone trying to take off your NerveGear either, as it will fry your brain before they even get it off." Kayaba continued.
For proof of his claims, windows with news reports started to pop up on the tablet. All of them showing some variation of the same thing, and that was the deaths of players of this now accursed game with ambulances wheeling them out.
"Now then, your objective is once again, to beat back the Alien Invasion before either you all die, or the countries that are part of the XCOM Project pull their funding. Oh it's going to be so fun to see how this goes." He said, a smile audible in his tone of voice at the end.
"Oh, and two more things. Your character data is going to be overwritten with your real information and appearance. Have fun~"
The tablet in my hands shut off, the XCOM logo slowly rotating in place of where Kayaba was. A moment later a bright flash of light covered my and everyone else's bodies, causing some of them to scream or shout in a panic.
Once the light dissipated I caught sight of myself in the darkened reflection of the tablet. Instead of the red eyes and red fringe that was expected, I instead saw blue eyes and dark brown hair, my face had changed to that which I had on the outside of this game. I guess everyone now has their real appearance too.
I looked up and saw that KuoLy looked rather similar, just that a scar was missing from her face. TrashPanda was the most drastic change, gone was the grey hair and golden eyes, in its place was black hair and dark eyes, typical for a Japanese person, her hair still reached her mid back and her face was rather sharp in shape.
Kirito was also the most drastic of changes, he had shrunk a few inches, his hair shortened to ear length and the colours stayed the same, but his face held more baby fat now than the sharp almost adult-like features from before. Before anything else could have happened someone let out a scream, which triggered others to join in and soon enough the base was filled with the screams of panic at the thought of death.
After letting the hand that held the tablet drop to my side, something came to the forefront of my mind. Raifujin, his dead body pooling blood from a missing head on the floor of an alleyway. He was dead because of me, his death wouldn't have happened if I didn't try to force the issue of pushing as fast as we could towards Kirito.
I felt my body move on autopilot, taking steps through the base as it filled with the sounds of screams and panic, things being thrown around. The only thing on my mind being Raifuijns corpse and how I could have done something more than what I did to save him, his death was on my hands.
Stepping through Mission Control it was the same as the Hangar, people screaming and panicking yet I paid it no mind, just walking through the chaos with a blank stare ahead. Once I reached the barracks and collapsed on the bed I felt myself slide unconscious from the stress, that red armored body still visible in my vision.
Sorry if this one felt weird to read, I was struggling to properly write this one out for a while. This story may end up going into a temporary Hiatus due to work obligations coming up and also a muse that is refusing to sit still.
Thanks for reading though!
Thanks for reading though!