XCOM: The RPG

So who remembers X-Com? I never actually played it, but my friend Bruce did, and I sat there and chatted with him while he did. The game seemed to be pretty popular, so I figured it was a good name to use. Other than the basic idea, little of this will have basis in the world or game of X-Com. It also gives me a chance to throw my hat into the 2012 ring.

Premise

In the Spring of 2010 scientists detected a strange concentration of exotic radiation near the edge of the solar system. The world watched as a massive metallic object drifted closer to earth, taking weeks to arrive near Jupiter. The massive object drifted directly into the path of Ganymede, on a collision course, and the earths population collectively gasped as the giant satellite plowed into it, converting the mass to a mere lump on its equator.

The public watched, and waited, but nothing came, and eventually everyone forgot. Everyone except the scientists, that is. And the crackpots, they never forget anything.

But this time the crackpots were right.

The Brainy Boom

In early 2012 NASA, in joint cooperation with space agencies around the globe, completed and launched an exploratory, unmanned rocket probe specifically outfitted to land on and explore Ganymede called Trailblazer. It set out in early May, with a mid-December arrival date that ominously motivated conspiracy theorists the world over.

Simultaneously in May, NASA and China sent a joint mission to the Luna to set up a signal relay beacon and base, to not only monitor the incoming Trailblazer broadcasts, but also provide a low gravity training ground for astronauts.

The speculation about the energy and massive metallic object (colloquially called 'The Little Bang' and 'The Lump' respectively) led to a boom in the economy, which correspondingly created a spike in scientific funding and jobs. Time magazine dubbed it, The Brainy Boom.

December, 2012

With the impending end of the universe coming in the eyes of nutjobs everywhere, gun sales and membership in survivalist and apocalyptic cells multiplied. Religious cults as well as mainstream religions scrambled to rewrite their prophecies and dogma to conform to the empirical data. The end was near. Everyone knew it.

But they were wrong.

The Beginning

When Trailblazer achieved orbit of Ganymede the world sat glued to their HDTVs. Trailblazer launched its 35 sensor drones, and humanity wore out their thumbs switching between 36 channels of live video feed from a world months away at the fastest speeds man has ever achieved.

Probe VII was the first to achieve visual on the Lump, and shockingly it was exactly as pundits speculated: a machine-formed, angular, metallic dome. A light flashed what looked to be a countdown in some alien dialect, and after a few gasp-inducing seconds, a hatch opened. Probe VII went dead.

Within a few minutes all probes had ceased relaying data. Astronauts on the Sino-American Lunar base Solidarity scrambled to determine the cause, in full view on live tv. Fifteen minutes later, that feed also went dead.

Invasion

The nations of the world learned from 9-11. As soon as the first probe lost contact the United States scrambled fighters, and both the US and China prepared their nuclear arsenals. When ships entered the atmosphere both countries let loose a barrage capable of sublimating a continent, but it wasnt nearly enough to destroy all of the ships. Their superdense hulls repelled explosions exceedingly well, and though many ships were destroyed, many also continued.

Fighters and other attack craft were no match for alien designs. Pilots fought, and died, valiantly with little effect. Eventually the world was forced to let loose another atomic barrage, dangerously close to the earths surface.

The first wave was repulsed.