The X-scrolls., Eat plasma, Daedra. Options

[jack cloudy]

Here's the new one. It isn't TES yet, and I actually don't have a clue what I really want to do. All I wanted was to get an X-COM soldier into Tamriel. No better way to do that than with the biggest Elerium explosion in history. Hey, if it can create anti-gravity fields, hot plasma and big explosions it might just be able to make a rip into another dimension.



Prologue: Cydonia or bust.

Yet another bolt of superheated plasma flew past him at almost the speed of light. He came out of hiding and ran over to another row of chairs, firing of a few shots over his shoulder as he went. He skidded to a halt and dove behind the chairs. How long had this been going on? Twenty seconds?

,,Way too long for a single firefight. We’ve got to finish this one before the bugs creep up our back.” He thought when the chair in front of him was vaporized.
,,Damn! Terence, cut the playing and just vapo the whole room with a Blaster Bomb!” He shouted as he got up and fired at the two robed figures on the other end of the room. At least he managed to sent one of the aliens on a single trip to the afterlife. He didn’t got the chance to target the next one because the now empty clip popped out of his weapon.

He dropped the Heavy Plasma and aimed his much smaller but still powerful pistol.
,,Terence, what’s taking you so long?!” A quick glance showed him that Terence would never finish his job. His head had been cleanly blown away by a Plasma blast.
,,Damn, I’m the only one left.”He managed to kill the remaining alien more with luck than skill and lowered his pistol.

The room had been pretty much wasted from the plasma flying back and forth but the big thing that took up the far end of the room still seemed to be in good shape. He walked over to what was left of Terence and picked up the huge tube-like launcher.
,,If that big thing over there controls every bug in the system, I might as well make sure I take it out by using the biggest explosive ever seen.” He muttered to himself as he slipped one of the silvery football-shaped (American-style) Blaster Bombs into the launcher and began to type in the waypoints.

,,Why do you want to do that? It will only result in your death as well as mine. Don’t shoot me. There are better options.” The voice in his head was very convincing and he noticed that his hand moved on its own and cancelled all the waypoints.
,,No, the Avenger was blown up just after landing. I’ll be stuck on Mars till I run out of air anyway. We knew it was a suicide mission even before we left Earth. I’d rather go out in a big bang and take you monsters with me.” He told himself and his shaking hand typed in another set of waypoints.
,,Hasta la vista, baby. ” He spoke with a smirk and pressed the firing button.

The elerium-powered bomb shot out of the tube and raced towards the big alien thing at the end of the room. Just before reaching it, it stopped in mid-air and slid to the left in a manoeuvre that only anti-gravity propulsion could do. It then slammed into the wall and exploded.

What the man didn’t know was that there was a large number of Elerium Powercores standing right behind that wall. The Elerium inside those was also added to the already titanic explosion. The Explosion spread outward and completely vaporized the Alien device but began to change as it spread. It turned pinkish and then golden. The explosion was far different than every other explosion he’d ever seen. He didn’t get a chance to wonder about what happened for the explosion smacked into him like a giant skyscraper falling on top of him. He lost consciousness from the blow.

[DarkHunter]

And the blast blow him straight to hel... Oblivion!

[The Metal Mallet]

It will be intruiging to see how this man from a futuristic realm interacts with the somewhat "medieval" theme of The Elder Scrolls. Looking forward to seeing how that goes.

[treydog]

Cool start, sir. Somehow, I missed out on X-Com, but it is always listed as one of the legendary games. I was probably off trying to get Red Crystal to work or something.....

[jack cloudy]

X-COM is definitely one of the best squad-based warfare games ever. Sure, it can't beat the new ones in terms of graphics or complexity but it is still good. I like how every action has mayor consequences. Your troops are very vulnerable even with the best armour. That's one reason why X-COM: Apocalypse was a dissapointment. Your troops were like walking tanks there. If I have to critisize it, it has to be the lack of civilians outside the Terror sites. There were never any farmers to worry about while all the barns got wasted by explosives.

Anyway, back to the story. Here you'll see one of the big problems assosiated with landing in a not so advanced society.



Chapter 1: By the Divines, there are people inside those Dwemer machines!

The colourful group of bandits moved along the rough path. Their last raid had been a good one, and they were on their way to their camp to celebrate. Suddenly, their leader stopped.
,,By the Daedra! Our camp, it’s ruined!” He blurted out and watched at the strange objects that were littered around what used to be the bandit’s camp. What looked like a metal man was sitting right in the pit they used as a toilet.

The bandits drew their weapons, ranging from sticks to a rusty Iron sword.
,,Lookie here, those filthy Dwarves decided to use our spot to dump their trash.” One of the bandits laughed. The leader frowned but said nothing. He already had enough worries with the Imperial Legion on his tail. He carefully moved over to the metal man.
,,Right, well it looks like one of those Dwarven things I once saw in a museum.” He muttered as he leaned in closer, with his sword ready at all times.

The metal man looked very odd to him. Even the face looked odd with what looked like two eyes made out of Ebony and a flexible horn of sorts protruding from one side. He tapped the biggest eye with his sword. The eye didn’t sound like Ebony. In fact none of the materials the man was made from seemed like anything he knew.
,,Right, whatever you are, I bet you’ll fetch a nice sum on the black market.”

,,There you are, Palladius Morcus. In the name of the Imperial Legion, you are charged for robbery, theft, murder, trespassing and….smuggling Dwemer artefacts has just been added to the list.”
The leader growled when he heard that familiar voice.
,,Not now, you stupid Legion woman.”
,,You’ll never get me alive! Get them, boys!” He shouted as he turned around.
The Legionaire captain smiled.
,,I hoped you were going to say that. I really prefer to hack you into little pieces anyway.” She responded.

The fight was short, but vicious. In the end, none of the bandits survived. The Legionaires hadn’t gotten away without a scratch either, and the healing potions were more than welcome.
,,Captain? What do we do with all this stuff that’s lying around?” One of the freshly healed Legionnaires asked.
,,It doesn’t quite look like Dwemer in the end. We’ll take it to my husband. He’d love to take a look at all this.”

The Legionaire grumbled something unintelligible under his breath.
,,Did you say something?” The captain said with a smile.
,,It’s just that the damn mage always seems to be there to take the glory but he never is there to help us out when things get rough.” The Legionnaire complained.
,,Well you didn’t complain when you drank one of the healing potions he provided. Now load it all on a cart. We’ll start with our steel man over there.”
The Legionnaire got all red but managed to recompose himself enough to bark a few orders.


,,Ow, my head hurts. How long have I been out? There’s still some oxygen in the tanks so it can’t have been more than two hours. That blast should have vaporized me. I wished it did, I don’t want to suffocate.” These and several more thoughts went through his head. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of trees and a blue sky.

,,Earth? What am I doing on Earth? Did the bugs bring me here? They would rather pull me through an autopsy so it can’t have been them. A rescue-mission? No, unless X-COM managed to find enough Elerium to fill up the Lightning and then somehow flew it all the way to Mars, any attempt to retrieve me would take months. Even if there was a second Avenger, they would never have arrived on time. So I can’t possibly be on Earth.” He realized that the only explanation for his current location was that he was dreaming. But the shaking felt very real. It felt as if he was lying on the back of a truck that was being driven over a very rough road.

,,Wherever I am, I doubt that I’m in the hands of the good guys. Come on Gerard, time to get back on your legs and get the hell out of here. You don’t need any freaking civilians who think they’re dealing with some sort of robot.” He tried to move his arm, but had to give up after a bit. He was simply too heavy to move. A quick glance at the small display in front of his eyes showed the weight of his situation.
,,Brilliant, that blast knocked the Elerium out of position. Without those rocks to create an anti-gravity field, my suit weighs a ton. I can’t even lift my hands far enough to remove my helmet. On top of that, my radio got fried so I can’t ask for help. Wow, I never dreamt that I would suffocate while there was a whole atmosphere to breath just beyond my helmet.” The rest of his airtank was used to voice some profanities that no one managed to hear.

[treydog]

And the plot heads in the hoped-for direction. Looks like there is going to be some fun in store- misunderstandings, fights, alliances of convenience, fights....

[jack cloudy]

More update-goodness. Due to several problems involved with the Cyrodiilic language and English, I have decided to go for a magical translating amulet that will show up in the next one.



The Breton who appeared on the doorstep of the building was practically jumping once he got sight of the Imperial Patrol, and what they had brought.
,,Lovely, sweetie. I’ll have it brought to my room right away.” Anything else he might have wanted to say was muffled by the hand covering his mouth.
,,Don’t call me sweetie in front of the guards.” The captain whispered.

,,Sorry, but I really like this. It is somewhat similar to Dwemer, but there are quite a few differences with what we know. There are no holes to breath through, so it is clear we are looking at some sort of construct and not a heavy suit of armour.” The captain turned around and ignored her husband.
,,Alright men, let’s get drunk.” She said and marched of to the nearest tavern.

The Breton and several other mages who had appeared attempted to lift the metal man off the cart but soon found out that they lacked the needed muscle.
,,Right, we’ll do this the easy way.” The Breton muttered as he rolled up his sleeves. Several feather spells later, He could easily carry it all by himself and wasted no time to get to his room.

,,Alright, let’s see what we have here.” The Breton grabbed a few scraps of paper and enthusiastically began to write on what he saw.
,,Main bulk of it is made from an unknown type of metal. It looks like it is made out of several large pieces that are very smooth. Looks like the blacksmith who made this one is a true master. Two black and round eyes made from a different kind of unknown material. They’re different in size. Maybe that means that one eye is for long-distance viewing and the other for short-distance? One horn sticking out of the side. It is too flexible to be used as a weapon, maybe it is for decoration. All known constructs are Dwemer in origin, so there is a large possibility that this is a previously unknown form of Centurion.”

He leaned in closer to one of the shoulders.
,,What do we have here? It looks like some sort of symbol that’s like a small bump in the shoulder-piece. A skull above a….cross? Well, there is a skull and this thing is clearly very robust so I suppose it is meant for combat. Wait, what’s this near the neck?”
He carefully touched the small button in the thing’s neck with a finger. There was another button on the other side. He pressed both at the same time and with a loud click, the head was separated from the rest of its body. He carefully lifted the head up.
,,Hmm, the whole head can come off. Maybe for maintenance? By the Divines, there are people inside those Dwemer machines!”

He had to take a few deep breaths to calm down.
,,Keep calm, Andre. There has to be a reason why a Nord would suit up in weird armour with no way to breath. Talking about breathing, it looks like this fellow has recently suffocated.”
He ran out of his room and into the main hall of the building.
,,I need a healer, quick!”

Several hours later.

He awoke with a really bad feeling. He was thirsty, hungry and his body ached all over.
,,Right, this is so weird. This is the second time in a row that I face certain death and I still wake up somehow. Hmm, I can move my fingers. Someone must have removed my suit. Did X-COM find me?” He opened his eyes rather hesitatingly. Who he saw definitely wasn’t a member of X-COM. Or else a robe-craze had suddenly took form while he was off blasting bugs on Mars.

The man said something that sounded like complete nonsense. The only thing that was clear was his name, Andre Charien.
,,Lovely, why didn’t I decide to learn every language in the world while I had the chance? Hmm, I bet he won’t understand me either. I’ll just forget about my cover and tell the real story. He won’t know anyway.”
,,Gerard Dreyfus, commander of North Division beta squad. I’m a member of the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit. As by the agreement of pretty much the whole world, it is your duty to take me to the nearest military base where I can hitch a ride back to where I came from. Of course you’re too dumb to know what I’m saying, so some booze in the meantime would be great.”

The Breton, Andre, didn’t understand a thing of what the man was saying.
,,Oh, it must be one of those Skyrim peasants that run around in animal skins. Don’t ask me where he found that armour though.”
He turned to an assistant who had been quietly standing in the corner.
,,Go and fetch one of those Clearvoice amulets.” He ordered while he looked at the weird Nord.
,,And tell the alchemists to make a meal and get something to drink for this guy while you’re at it.” He added.

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Jun 30 2006, 09:29 PM

[The Metal Mallet]

Hehe, many drinking references in this post

This is steadily intriguing me, too bad I might be a little too young for X-Comm, because I've never heard of it before this. Sounds sorta like Starcraft too me, though maybe it's not a RTS game.

[DarkHunter]

Hrm... this will be interesting to say the least... Odd question: When will the Space Marines fall from the sky in drop Pods? (Warhammer 40K)

[treydog]

Going strong- excellent humor and great descriptions. I forsee much fun ahead...

[jack cloudy]

Mallet, I doubt that you're too young for X-COM. I only got involved with it about two(?) years ago. You can get it at various places, including the big internet. Just check google.

Darkhunter, no space marines. I'm not all that familiar with Warhammer 40K but from what little I do know, they'd totally own X-COM. (Normal humans with maybe psionic powers using Plasma weapons that can blast through brick walls and walk around in big flying suits with maybe a miniature tank for backup vs SUPERSOLDIERS wearing POWERED ARMOUR and actually using TANKS and such. Not to mention planetbusting spaceships.)

Well, update time. I'll have to think the next bit over. I intend on working with the differences between earth armies and the Tamriel version.




Gerard had no idea why they suddenly seemed so intent on hanging a funny necklace around his neck. He really didn’t need one.
,,Get that thing away from me! I’m a soldier, a tough guy! I don’t need any fancy jewelry!” He shouted while making some futile attempts to push away the necklace. It appeared he was still weakened a bit from his ordeal.
,,There you go, Nord. Now you did have some very funny ideas, getting into a suit of armour that didn’t allow you to breath. But our healer had just the spell to heal you. Welcome to the Kvatch Mage guild, where we study magic for knowledge and profit.”

Gerard had to blink a couple of times. So the damn man did know English.
,,Nord? Are you trying to insult me? And what the heck is this nonsense about magic and stuff? Are you some kind of fantasy nerd? And you should have told me earlier that you could speak English!” He shouted at the Breton.
,,There’s no need to be so rude. I only deal with fact, not fantasy. Cyrodiil isn’t like back in that frozen pit you call Skyrim. This is the most civilized province on the continent of Tamriel and so we deal with magic because magic is the civilized way to solve problems. And I don’t speak English, you are wearing a Clearvoice amulet that translates things.” Andre replied rather fanatically.
,,I don’t know anything about Cyrodiil or Skyrim but I do know every continent on the planet by name and location! There is no continent named Tamriel! And finally, magic doesn’t excist, only sufficiently advanced technology and a tiny bit of Psionics.”

The two stared at each other for a while.
,,Right. If there is no Tamriel and magic doesn’t excist, then how do I light that candle over there?” Andre finally spoke and launched a small fireball at the candle. Gerard’s eyes went wide at the sight.
,,Eh, implants?” He stammered.
,,And what’s an implant?”

,,Right, this is really getting weird. I might even start to think that this is not earth! But then why the hell am I talking to a human here? The bugs sure as hell didn’t do enough abductions to get enough people to put up a whole industry. I refuse to believe that everything in this room is made by just a handful of people. What did the lightbulbs at base call this, a parallel universe? Hmm, I’ve seen weird things in the last couple of months, I can handle this.” The X-COM soldier thought to himself.
,,So let’s assume that this is Tamriel and that magic does exist. That means I’ll likely will be stuck here for a while. Got any jobs? I used to be a top-class elite of the elite soldier.”
Andre smiled.
,,Good, my wife is captain in the legion which upholds the law around here. She recently lost a few good men and I’m sure she’d like a good replacement. I’ll introduce you tomorrow. But now, eat.”

[The Metal Mallet]

Well it's good to hear I'm probably not young enough for X-Com, I guess it just went under the radar where I am...

You have a nice, humorous story going on right now. Perhaps I'll be inspired to get X-Com from reading this.

Looking forward to the next post. I wonder if he'll be able to handle a sword/bow/weapon...

[DarkHunter]

Alright if not W40K (you're right by the way Cloudy...) how about the pitiful marines from Starcraft?

Heh heh heh that X-Com is totally lost

[milanius]

More update-goodness. Due to several problems involved with the Cyrodiilic language and English, I have decided to go for a magical translating amulet that will show up in the next one.

---

,,Don’t call me sweetie in front of the guards.” The captain whispered.

---

,,Go and fetch one of those Clearvoice amulets.” He ordered while he looked at the weird Nord.
,,And tell the alchemists to make a meal and get something to drink for this guy while you’re at it.” He added.

Oh yeah. OH YEAH. "Sweetie", eh ? "Clearvoice Amulet", eh ?? The next thing I know, we'd be seeing something like that fantasy weapon of mine... Dwemer ASMD Shock Rifle BUT I LIKE IT ! KICK MUCHO BUTT, EARTHLING !!!

[minque]

Even though I´m not at all familiar with the X-com I find this story amusing and intriguing! A very nice approach and I´m looking forward to see how it´s turning out!

[jack cloudy]

Starcraft Marines? Oops, Starcraft is one of those games I've heard about, but never seen. Sorry, but no. This story was specifically meant as a X-COM TES cross-over. The only sci-fi universes I'm sufficiently familiar with for a story is Star Trek, Star Wars and X-COM. I picked X-COM cause it is my favourite. (Though phasers are arguably much better guns than the plasma weapons from X-COM)

And if anyone wants to know more about X-COM, I suggest you visit www.xcomufo.com.




The food was surprisingly good. So was the alcoholic beverage he received.
,,So they aren’t total barbarians here. Good, gods know how good it was to get drunk after having half your squad turned into zombies. I better not ask them what I’m eating though. I might not like the answer.” He thought to himself as he ate it all.
,,Now I want you to take me to my suit and get some tools.” He demanded once he was done.

The mages took him to where they’d dropped all of his equipment. He made a quick list of what there was. His trusty Heavy Plasma was dropped in a corner and a three of the banana-shaped clips were lying on the other end of the room. He made a small mental calculation and concluded that he could pull the trigger 96 times. Not too shabby, considering that a Heavy Plasma had the firepower of a big Rocket launcher with the speed of an automatic rifle. There were a bunch of grenades, his motion detector, a medical kit and his Plasma pistol. Finally, his Flying Suit was lying in the center of the room next to a pile with bits of alloy.

,,Let’s see where the problem is.” He muttered and removed the back piece. He ignored the dents in the outer shell and instead focussed on the internals. All things equal, the anti-gravity module was surprisingly simple. All you needed was a lump of E-115, also known as Elerium, a few particle accelerators and some alloys to transfer the anti-gravity field. The problem was simple enough. It looked like the Elerium had shot loose out of the clamp and knocked one of the particle accelerators out of position.

Fixing it wouldn’t take more than a few hours. The only real problem was the fact that his chance of finding more Elerium to fuel it were practically zero.
,,Just how did you breath in it?” The Breton asked for the tenth time.
,,Never heard of internal tanks filled with compressed air?” Gerard mumbled and pulled out the broken particle accelerator.
,,Annoying idiot.” He thought to himself.

Next day.

,,And this is where we garrison the legion.” Andre concluded as if he was a tourist guide. Gerard looked at it with a frown. The whole thing looked like a medieval castle and the ‘guards’ looked quite a bit like Roman Legionnaires.
,,So, where’s Julius Ceasar?” He joked.
,,Eh, who?” The Breton replied.
,,Nevermind, I guess this isn’t Rome after all.”

,,Swee…Captain, I brought you a volunteer!” The Breton shouted across the plaza.
Gerard wasn’t paying too much attention. He was occupied with looking at all the guards.
,,Pathetic. This place is pathetic.”,,Right, a Nord?”
Gerard looked at the woman in front of him who was, like everyone, dressed up in the local armour.
,,For your information, I am not a Nord, whatever that may be. If you like to put a tag on me, call me an European. Now I suppose that you’re in charge here, captain?” He emphasized the word ‘captain’. Just to show that he wasn’t impressed.
,,I’d better not tell her that I outrank her, at least if we were using Earth standards. I’ll just play along cause I’m the stranger around here."

The captain frowned.
,,An European? Must be some sort of religion. Fine, since you look rather well-muscled to me, I’ll give you the big one.” She said and handed over a huge sword. Gerard took it with a sceptic look.
,,A sword? You expect ME to use a sword? I think you don’t get it. I’m a soldier, I use guns! Guns, not swords, guns!” He blurted out but managed to calm himself down soon enough. He just realized that there likely weren’t any guns on the planet with the exception of his own Plasma weapons. And he wasn’t planning on using the irreplaceable clips of those.

The captain rolled her eyes.
,,Whatever. You are a member of the Imperial legion now, so I expect you to use that Steel Claymore. As for me, I’m Audania Rulician but you will refer to me as captain.” She shook her head.
,,Andre, just take him back with you and make sure he’s ready for the job tomorrow.” She said and walked away.
Gerard flashed a short salute at her back and also turned around. He already had a plan.
,,Do you mage guys know a way to create electricity, the stuff you find in Lightning?” He asked his Breton companion on the way back to the mage guild.
,,Well, we do know a few spells that create lightning. Why do you want to know?”
,,You’ll see.”

[DarkHunter]

Lets see how dear Gerard does with a sword instead of his Stubber (Sorry Stubbers what I call most guns... having play W40K Wa-ay too long)

[The Metal Mallet]

Wooo! I can't wait to see Gerard in action with a sword. I'm sure it might be hilarious!

[Black Hand]

I agree. This IS tunring out to be rather interesting.

[milanius]

Wooo! I can't wait to see Gerard in action with a sword. I'm sure it might be hilarious!

Mind you, this is after all a professional soldier/murder-death-killer/asswhooper from Terra we're talking about here now we'll just see how military training makes one well adaptable to all sorts of weapons... I can just feel it in me bones - this guy is gonna kick 2 much butt ! [with or without Plasma and/or Shock weapons]

This post has been edited by Ze Milanio: Jul 3 2006, 11:35 AM