XCOM Enemy Unknown Season 1: The Coming Storm
Screams in the distance. Gunshots that disturbed the peace of night. Automatic shots, slowing down in pace. Single shots. A return to peace. A single, solitary survivor was running away, blood flowing like a snake down his arm. She could barely see the VTOL transport past the dense darkness, her bruised mind not helping. Despite the bullet in her arm, her rapidly thinning blood, she ran as fast as she could, running out of breath fast, her heart beating twice as hard.
Screams. Screams in the darkness. Screams that no one had given before. Screams that came not from this Earth. The survivor ran, and against all odds, came within a yard of the transport. She had lost her sidearm without realising it. Her arms felt numb, her mind ready to sleep. Climbing aboard, as if climbing up a cliff, she laid on her back, finally allowing herself to rest, enjoying the safe embrace of calm... Falling asleep... Letting the troubles drift away...
Yet she stopped herself, and with great effort, stood herself up like the soldier she was. One step forward and another, she brought herself to the door leading into the VTOL craft's cockpit and knocked. No reply. She knocked again. Nothing. Finally growing impatient with the terror from beyond returning to her heart, the survivor grabbed ahold of the cockpit door's handle and pulled it open, realising vaguely through the thick fog of approaching unconsciousness that the door seemed too easy to open. It jammed halfway, broken.
And inside were two stiff men in their seats with gaping holes in their flight helmets, blood overflowing. A strange tree stood inside it, but when a lightning illuminated the cockpit briefly, the survivor saw that it was no tree, but something- someone tall, far too tall, far too wrong. Stumbling back, the survivor ran, having found renewed strength in the horror of her discovery. But she did not need to run for long, for soon a bullet had ripped through the cockpit door, the kevlar plate on her back and through her heart. Falling forward on the hard transport floor, she laid herself on her back one last time, the numbness in her arms spreading like cold fire, letting the troubles drift away.
Before she closed her eyes one last time, she was able to see her killer; a figure looming over her, the figure of the tree-like man, staring straight into her soul through his strange shades. Another lightning, and the survivor slept for the last time. A storm is coming.
In joining this RP, you must abide by the following rules and regulations:
(Note: You MUST read the SOP)
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Section 1 - Personal Conduct
- All RPers directly involved in this RP or visiting must maintain civil conduct.
- In case of extended absence, RPers involved must inform the GM, Co-GM or any other members to pass on the message to the GM or Co-GM.
- In case of extended absence, RPers must leave instructions as to what to do with their characters.
- However, if an RPer is found to have disappeared without leaving a message for up to a week, his/her characters will be converted to NPC and managed by the GM or Co-GM. Characters converted to NPC will have reduced impact and presence on the RP, and will not be immune to death.
- The disappeared RPer may return anytime after disappearing, but must explain his/her extended disappearance. Unreasonable explanation will result in anything between a warning to a ban. The consequence will be decided openly in OOC by the GM and Co-GM as well as every member willing to contribute to the decision-making.
- Members of the RP may discuss and debate with the GM and/or Co-GM regarding their decisions, but may not override their final decisions.
- Co-GMs and members of the RP given any measure of responsibility and power may be removed from duty if deemed corrupted/unfit for duty/tyrannical by the GM or if there is a unanimous agreement by the members of the RP (with the GM's approval).
- The GM may be removed from duty and/or replaced if he/she is found to be missing for more than two weeks. This can only be done if there is unanimous agreement amongst the members of the RP to do so (with the Co-GM/s' approval).
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Section 2 - Conflict Management
- Disputes will be settled openly in OOC with the GM and/or Co-GM acting as a mediator and other members of the RP willing to step in to contribute.
- If an agreement cannot be reached, the GM and Co-GM will attempt to devise the best compromise possible. Members of the RP may help with the decision making process.
- All parties, including the GM, Co-GM, members of the RP acting as advisors and jury, and especially the stakeholder parties must maintain civil conduct during a case and state their claim reasonably.
- Disputes, especially minor ones, may be settled in PM if the stakeholder parties wish to do so. One party may not drag another into a PM meeting if he/she doesn't want to.
- Once an agreement or compromise has been reached, the case will be closed and will not be brought up again unless for official purposes.
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Section 3 - Joining the RP
- For the moment, the RP is accepting a maximum of 10 roleplayers at the moment, excluding the GM. This rule is subject to change.
- RPers may use one of three character sheets to create their character/s: Free-Form, Simplified or Detailed.
- Roleplayers may begin posting only when their characters have been accepted by the GM/Co-GM. Other members of the RP may give input during the decision-making process.
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Section 4 - Roleplaying Format
- Both casual and advance roleplayers (or anyone in between) will be allowed to join this roleplay. As such, rules found in both styles will be incorporated.
- The basement number of allowed paragraphs will be one. However, if an RPer is posting in a bare-minimum, the paragraph in question must be substantial in some ways, including but not exclusively in terms of storytelling, technical language, character development.
- There will be no ceiling number of paragraphs/maximum length per post. However, do not spam.
- There must be no significant amount of mistakes be it grammatical, tense, vocabulary, etc unless intended as a writing style or part of a character's personality or development.
- Roleplayers may write about their characters acting, reacting, thinking, feeling or saying something, etc, but may not decide the results said character/s' actions.
- In the case of RPer-Rper interaction, members must have mutual agreement of the results. In other words, no power-playing or God-modding.
- In the case of RPer-NPC interactions, the GM/Co-GM will decide the results but members of the RP will get a say in things. Final decision, however, lies with the GM/Co-GM.
- Each member of the RP may control two characters maximum. This rule may be subject to change.
- Members of the RP may not keep posting should another member stopped posting. As with the above rule in section 1, members of the RP must wait for up to a week if one member stopped posting.
- Complementing the above rule, an RPer may post up to three times before waiting, but must not contradict any previous posts/plot developments/character interactions. Do not post just for the sake of posting.
- All posts are subject to approval by the GM and/or the Co-GM and the poster may be asked to edit it if found to be unacceptable in any way.
The World of XCOM Enemy Unknown
Lights in the sky. Strange markings in the ground. Before 2020, they were explained away rationally as phenomenons with terrestrial causes, often with the support of science and official sources. Anything that fell through the cracks were ignored, considered the territory of crackpots and paranoid conspiracy theorists who hung on so tightly on such 'evidences' of UFO activity.
When such occurences increased in recent years approaching the big 20, multiplying in scale and variety, humanity had thus far found it hard to shake off their previous understandings of such phenomenons, choosing instead to relegate them to the regions of entertainment, be it derived from art or the belittlement of others.
But when it became apparent to even the governments of the world and other huge organisations that something was happening, what with the reports they managed to scrounge up from scrambled aircrafts and surveillance anomalies, they were prompted to take bigger actions, actions beyond merely putting articles on the internet or holding press conferences.
Investigations involving multitudes of men and women across many organisations were begun. In the UN, as nations gathered, casting aside hostilities and paranoid suspicions of one another for the time being in the big room, they decided that the time is ideal for a new project to begin - a unified international response to the increasingly strange incidents that had gripped the world, causing panics and influencing cultures.
That project is the UNXIPU, or the United Nations Extraterrestrial Investigation and Policing Unit. Millions were spent on the project, setting up what was planned to be a sprawling complex on the northern coast of Africa, personnel from all over the world were flown in to start it from the ground up - scientists, engineers, civilians. As it was also an opportunity for multi-national military and police exercises to be conducted, security, police and military personnel were also flown in to provide protection and presence, especially in conflict zones and chaotic, lawless areas that happened to play host to extraterrestrial phenomenons.
Officially created in Q4 2019, The United Nations Extraterrestrial Investigation and Policing Unit is a new and fledging organisation founded to investigate the increasing number of incidents hinting at UFO and alien activity.
While it is largely a civilian organisation, a degree of police and military presence is also requisited by the project's director for the purpose of security and possible field investigative deployments into conflict zones and lawless areas.
UNXIPU doubles also as a testbed for experimental technology - such as the SR-73 Skyranger VTOL transport. The organisation has been afforded 4 such models for the purpose of transporting personnel to sites of investigation. UNXIPU has also been given a highly intuitive, integrated research and development system to manage its investigations.
Civilian personnel numbers about two hundred, security and police about sixty, while military is expected to be around forty. In truth, the UN sees little value in creating UNXIPU solely for the purpose of investigations into UFO and alien phenomenon. Other than functioning as a testbed for cutting edge technology, it is also envisioned as a venue for international cooperation, as it is drawing personnel from every corner of the world.
In fact, it can even be argued that UFO and alien activity has been used as an excuse for its use in anything but its main purpose. The media has took notice of it, and derision, cynism followed, and UNXIPU has been called anything between an insincere gesture by the UN to an international joke. UN representatives and PR responded the best they could, drawing attention away from the 'Extraterrestrial' bit.
Its facilities on the northern coast of Africa is still under construction and renovation. Even its most essential rooms are only partially complete, with deadlines consistently missed due to logistic difficulties. New equipment and personnel are flown in regularly, but are similarly plagued by logistic issues. Quite notably, the security, police and military personnel at base are complaining that the only up-to-date equipment they have is their pistol. Heavier weaponry at the moment consists of obsolete placeholder surplus AR-15s and Mossberg 500s donated by African nations eager to clear their dusty old equipment and gain political clout at the same time.
Perhaps inspired by their African counterparts, other members of the UN has recently decided to send their representatives in UNXIPU packed with the best of local equipment. Some, however, were slower to react to this trend, and may have neglected to do so. Regardless, the UN and the world, as well as the director of UNXIPU expects military hardware to be unnecessary.
By 2020, the world is becoming increasingly tense. In Asia, the nations of ASEAN and Indochina are becoming closely knitted, united against China, which has overtaken the US as the world's superpower nation. Territorial disputes and border incidents are both cause and sparks for a potential war. India, Nepal and Bhutan has similar quarrels with China due to territorial claims. Japan, South Korea, North Korea are at each other's throats.
Europe is continuously plagued by economic recessions. The war between Russia and Ukraine is long over, with Russia gaining the Crimea even after UN interventions and negotiations - the only comfort they could have is that Russia did not annex the entire country. The Middle-East has stabilised, but is becoming increasingly isolationist and distrustful of the west. Iraq has largely secured its independence and sovereignty against the US and insurgents alike. Israel and its enemies have declared an armistice, though it means little, as the war is expected to continue anytime.
The US continues to weaken, with the US dollar sinking so hard that it has almost lost its place as an international currency. Poverty and unemployment has been increasing there, while civil disorder is becoming increasingly rife, especially following another hurricane and tsunami from the pacific. It was widely reported thousands of US soldiers had to be deployed in such places to keep the peace alongside several thousands more UN and EU peacekeeping forces. This is not to mention that Mexico has grown distrustful of the US while Canada is generally distancing itself from the rest of the continent. Mexico has significantly reduces the influence of the drug cartels, but it has been a long war, and has suffered as a result. Politically, it has isolated itself from the rest of the continent and Europe, as it saw them as the cause of its problems in the first place, becoming ever closer to Asia.
Yet there were some good news to be had, beyond the trickles above. Africa has stabilised alongside the Middle-East, with significantly fewer warlords and criminal syndicates left to quash. With the ascension of China and some say the various united entities such as ASEAN and the African Union comes new opportunities for the world's economy and power rebalance itself - with some commentators saying for the better in the long run.
And out of all this, increasingly frequent, possibly extraterrestrial phenomenons are being witnessed around the world. Some thought that the end of the world is coming, while others see the rebirth of humanity in those lights in the sky...
The UNXIPU recruits from every member of the UN. While there may be increased UFO phenomenon throughout the world, most if not all governments represented in the UN are not entirely serious about putting in personnel in the UNXIPU for the purpose of investigating the phenomenons. First and foremost, what little media coverage and official reports that surfaced indicate that some had organised their own UFO investigative units, past efforts notwithstanding, and are investing more funds and manpower in them instead. Secondly, UNXIPU is viewed as just another avenue of politics, with whatever funds, resources and personnel invested in it seen as a way for nations to gain recognition, reputation and the upper-hand in the UN.
As such, while the UNXIPU calls for the most experienced and talented personnel available to be recruited from willing, participating UN member nations, the international organisation will likely receive personnel that are anything but the best and brightest, with only some that actually fits the vision of the organisation's recruitment program. This system, however, would at least set the bar a measure above the average person, as it will ensure that the manpower it receives would at least look like the best on paper. It certainly did not help that UNXIPU is generally not expected to enter combat in any way whatsoever, with the military division of the program projected to do little more than simple patrol and on-site security duties.
Newly-trained soldiers who topped their unit or officers with straight A results could be sent to UNXIPU even if they had little true experience in combat. Conversely, soldiers who had been on the field enough times that may or may not be considered 'the best' could easily be bolstered with exaggerated credentials given by their superiors before being shipped off to UNXIPU. But sometimes, UNXIPU would be blessed with soldiers who are actually as good as their record and recommendations claimed - after all, as the goal of most countries involved is to dominate the political frontier, it would be counterproductive to send in the inept and incompetent.
THe UNXIPU calls for not just military personnel, but police and paramilitary personnel as well, as it is an international organisation due to pursue investigations around the world, therefore requiring a diverse pool of talents.
(Character Sheets Below)
UNXIPU Enlistment Form Section 1 - Personal Particulars A
First Name/Given Name:
Surname/Family Name/Last Name:
Age:
Birthdate:
Gender:
Sexual Orientation(Optional):
Blood-Type:
Race:
Height:
Weight:
Appearance/Description:
UNXIPU Enlistment Form Section 2 - Personal Particulars B
Nationality:
City/Town/Village of Origin:
Educational Background:
Political Background:
Interests/Hobbies:
Personality:
Biography:
UNXIPU Enlistment Form Section 3 - Service Record
Previous Service Affiliation/s:
Previous Unit/s:
Current Vocation/Specialisation:
Previous Vocation/s/Specialisation/s:
Current Native Rank:
Previous Native Rank/s:
Years of Security/Police/Military Service:
History of Active Combat Deployments:
Awards/Medals/Certificates/Citations Achieved:
Others:
UNXIPU Enlistment Form Section 4 - Packing List
Uniforms/Clothing Manifest:
Protective Gear Manifest:
Field Equipment Manifest:
Weapons/Ammunitions Manifest:
Others:
UNXIPU Enlistment Form Section 1 - Personal Particulars A
First Name/Given Name:
Surname/Family Name/Last Name:
Age:
Birthdate:
Gender:
Sexual Orientation(Optional):
Blood-Type:
Race:
Height:
Weight:
Appearance/Description:
UNXIPU Enlistment Form Section 2 - Personal Particulars B
Nationality:
City/Town/Village of Origin:
Educational Background:
Political Background:
Interests/Hobbies:
Personality:
Biography:
UNXIPU Enlistment Form Section 3 - Service Record
Previous Service Affiliation/s:
Previous Unit/s:
Current Vocation/Specialisation:
Previous Vocation/s/Specialisation/s:
Formal Training & Skills Attained:
Informally Recognised Skills Attained:
Current Native Rank:
Previous Native Rank/s:
Years of Security/Police/Military Service:
History of Active Combat Deployments:
Awards/Medals/Certificates/Citations Achieved:
Others:
UNXIPU Enlistment Form Section 4 - Packing List
Uniforms/Clothing Manifest:
Protective Gear Manifest:
Field Equipment Manifest:
Weapons/Ammunitions Manifest:
Others:
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Appearance/Description:
Personality:
Biography:
Service Record:
Weapons: (That your character's parent service deigns to provide you with)
Equipment: (That your character's parent service deigns to provide you with)
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Appearance/Description:
Personality:
Biography:
Service Record:
Skills:
Weapons: (That your character's parent service deigns to provide you with)
Equipment: (That your character's parent service deigns to provide you with)
Official Message Billboard:
14/07/2014: IC posting will only begin once I've posted an initial IC post. However, I'll only make the first post once all characters has been looked through and accepted. If you guys have any questions or suggestions, feel free to post them. Cheers! :)
16/07/2014: Added V2 of each CSes which contains field/s for skills.
