So, if you're here, you either like X-COM, or you've heard of X-COM. Chances are, you're also a LUEser...if you don't know what that is, don't worry about it, it's a GameFAQs thing. You may also be a member of LUElinks. If you don't know what that is, don't worry about it. We don't exist. Long story.

Anyway, to get right to the point, I started a new game of X-COM. But I wanted to do something different. Something challenging. So, I decided to take up the gauntlet and follow in the footsteps of a few other people who have done things like this recently on our respective boards, and I created a new X-COM game, using volunteers from the boards as the members of my squad, and enforcing some rules on myself to keep things fair and interesting. I also decided I would keep notes on each conflict that happened in my game, and write a fan-fiction of sorts, based upon what happened in the game.

For those of you who are interested, here are the limitations I set upon myself for the game:
- Saving allowed only at the beginning of combat. No reloading allowed, unless disaster strikes (power outage, etc). Of course, normal saving allowed on geoscape.
- Forum posters would be allowed to make decisions about their characters, which I would attempt to honor. To date, only Mokujin has made any sort of specific request (other than a name different from their forum name), which is to use a laser pistol instead of a heavy plasma.
- No "minmaxing" allowed. Soldiers were recruited, given the names of the forum posters, and played as-is. No shopping for better stats, or recruiting tons of people for 1 month in the psi-lab to get the juiciest candidates for psionic combat. This ended up making things much more challenging, as I'm not used to having my "final" squad capable of being controlled or panicked.

Before I begin, a few background notes:

- You may see terms or catch-phrases appear in this fan-fiction that make little or no sense to you. Just as a note, LUEshi is an ascii-art version of the box art for Super Mario World, which has been adopted as one of the many mascots for both LUE and LL (LUElinks). This makes him a perfect choice as the commander of the project. In general, if you don't get it, it's probably an inside joke, and you aren't missing much.
- There IS profanity, and while there is no outright sexual content, there may be an occasional innuendo or some strong terminology. Read at your own risk. If you don't want to see this trash, please hit the "Back" button on your browser now, as I will not edit for content.
- Some of the content on this site may not be my own. At least one of my "squaddies" has been posting occasional side-stories of his own, which I'll be including here, with his permission. These chapters are clearly designated.
- I have taken artistic license with some of the "chapters" of the story. Things may happen that could not possibly happen in the actual game. The actual events will be close to what is written, but some details may be unrealistic, in the name of drama, tension, or excitement.
- The text for the "chapters" is taken directly from my forum post on LUElinks, with only minor editing. Please forgive any grammatical errors, spelling errors, or confusion regarding tense (though there should be few)
- Kill counts have been figured by hand. I have noticed that, occasionally, the ingame kill count may drift from the actual number. I suspect this is due to aliens dying in secondary explosions, tripping over proximity grenades, and dying of fatal wounds (if such a thing is possible for an alien, I've never checked). As I am human, I may have made some minor mistakes, but be assured that my count is more accurate than the in-game count (I love using proximity grenades and secondary explosions).
- I do abuse the "access alien inventory" bug. It makes no sense to me that you cannot command an alien to prime a grenade if you can command it to fire a weapon.
- I claim no ownership of any terms, names, or any other intellectual property owned by the copyright holders of the game X-COM: UFO Defense, but I do claim ownership of the fan-fiction you are about to read (aside, of course, from contributions from the characters of the story). Reproduction, in whole or in part, for any purpose other than entertainment, or ANY reproduction for the purpose of gaining profit, is strictly prohibited. The only exception is that those who have contributed to the story may freely copy their own works, for any reason...they own it, after all!

The links below will take you to the "chapters" of the story. If a link doesn't work, I haven't gotten around to adding it yet.

Enjoy

-Nightdagger



Project LL - The Last Hope Of Humanity Against An Unspeakable Terror
Chapter 1 - Prelude
Chapter 2 - It Begins
Chapter 3 - Think Of It As a Hunting Trip
Chapter 4 - For Whom The Bell Tolls
Chapter 5 - A Hot Knife Through A Sectoid Skull
Chapter 6 - Know Peace, Our Friend
Chapter 7 - Overnight Camping Trip With Alien Scum
Chapter 8 - Chaos In Kinshasa
Chapter 9 - Terror In Tehran
Chapter 10 - This Is Getting Really Fucking Old
Chapter 11 - Finally, A Breather...
Chapter 12 - PROXIMITY ALERT! PROXIMITY ALERT! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!
Chapter 13 - Another Restless Night (by Ancisace)
Chapter 14 - Snakes On A Plane? Not Technically...
Chapter 15 - Strangely Out Of Place In A Time Like This
Chapter 16 - You Know You're Good When...
Chapter 17 - The Big One That Didn't Quite Get Away
Chapter 18 - Havoc In Hong Kong
Chapter 19 - The Wonders Of Technology
Chapter 20 - Takin' Care Of Business