Celatids

[Accounting Troll]

It would make an excellent fanfic if it was written in the style of a scientific paper.

 

I find the Ethereals more interesting than the Sectoids. The first time I played the game and did an Ethereal autopsy, I was struck by how human-like they are. Almost as if the aliens had kidnapped a group of prehistoric humans and messed with their genetics to speed the evolutionary progress by tens of millions of years.

 

The fall from grace the Sectoids experienced by the third game is interesting. I think the Micronoids have always been in charge of the aliens, and they think humans are more useful than Sectoids because of the greater resoursefulness humanity shows in the wars.

[Kriptor]

I also think the tanks have an operator as they are subject to loss of morale and panic attacks if the battle goes really badly: therefore they can be sensed by the Celatid.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But the operator isn't in the tank. When a tank is destroyed, it counts only a vehicle, and nothing "X-COM operatives killed in action". And, if a soldier is killed, the tanks morale doesn't drops.

[NKF]

No, the operator isn't in the tank, but I imagine it's more of a remote operator stationed somewhere beyond the battlefield. Even so, the operator would still suffer from anxiety and fear just as the soldiers in the field, however the effect of morale loss on the operator is not as severe as a soldier that's actually there in the field.

 

---

 

Accounting Troll: I believe the Micronoids in Apocalypse were the invading species - the masterminds behind everything. The aliens we faced were merely a convenient vessel for them to attack in - otherwise the aliens in the alien dimension are probably their world's equivalent of prehistoric cave dwellers. The technology they had did seem somewhat out of place at times.

 

But I don't quite see why they needed to raid earth, unless it was just a random world they selected to conquer. There doesn't seem to be a purpose. I mean, just your average every day conquer the galaxy scheme is fine and all, but why? Is their planet dying? Are they running out of food? Do they think humans are better because they've got opposable thumbs? Or is it just a minor stumbling stone in the bigger picture?

 

The sectoids in the third game, I believe, could be earth engineered sectoids - the raw material needed to breed the hybrids. But that's just one of the possibilities in the many paths of the trousers of time.

 

- NKF

[Solitaire]

I think aliens invaded for resources - slaves, genetic material, all the booty of mother nature - oil, gas, metals. Maybe their brain thing could see the future. Maybe it knew that in the deep dark future Humanity would destroy it, so it made a pre-emptive strike in the hopes of wiping us out before we became too much of a threat.

 

But that's a bit too much supposition, that sort of thinking leads nowhere fast.

[Accounting Troll]

If the aliens attacked Earth because of a fear that we would one day destroy them, it is ironic that we became more of a threat thanks to captured alien technology, and their actions gave us a reason to want to destroy them I'm glad to see that we aren't the only species capable of making such a massive screwup!

 

I'll post my theory in the next day or two.

[Blehm 98]

I think the aliens had conquered the dimension we saw them come from, and just decided to move on to our dimension, where they found us. They then decided to attempt to eradicate us. That would also explain the multiple dimensions thing that the Developers were originally going to add into the game. The micronoids want total control, and the other aliens are just vessels they have picked up on their multi-dimension conquest. That might explian why some aliens just don't fit in, like the popper and spitter. They don't fit into the genetic line of the aliens, and neither do the anthropods, skeletoids, psimorphs, megaspawns, and brainsuckers. Which makes you think they were genetically engineered from their original species to be combined with the life cycle of the multi-worms/multiwormegg/hyperworm/chrysallis. And since the micronoid obviously doesn't belong there it probably somehow found brainsuckers and propogated them into the species they are, at which point they slowly began to build up an empire. And, since the aliens have microbes that can mind control and aliens that can destroy stuff, it stands to reason that they could possibly have a special breed of microbe that builds their ships too Or the microbes just grow into their weapons

[Accounting Troll]

When I started typing out my theory I decided to turn it into my first stab at some X-Com fanfiction. I hope you lot like it:

 

Strategies of the Aggregate.

 

The xeno-archaeological digs in the Alien Dimension have revealed an impressive amount of information about the Alien Wars of the 20th and 21st centuries. We now have solutions to enigmas such as the presence of ancient Egyptian culture throughout the explored galaxy, the purpose of the genetic harvests and the reasoning behind the alien military strategies. The digs have also increased our understanding on how the aliens have affected the progress of our civilization and unwittingly propelled us to galactic domination.

 

It is now known that the myriad alien species encountered by X-Com in the wars were all under the control of the group mind of the Micronoid Aggregate. Contact between Earth and the Aggregate dates back to the failed colonization attempt 65 million years ago. At this time, Earth would have been a tempting prospect for colonization. It had both a flourishing ecosystem and an indigenous race of intelligent amphibians. This race, now known as the Gillmen was advanced enough to be a useful source of slave labour, but not advanced enough to be a threat to the Aggregate.

 

As the vast colonization ship entered the Sol system, it malfunctioned and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs and giving mammals their big chance. Two years later an alien scout ship entered the Sol system to investigate the silence of the colony, and it concluded that the colonization ship had been destroyed on impact. The environmental devastation caused by the impact discouraged further colonization attempts – there were plenty of more hospitable planets to choose from.

 

Unknown to the rest of the Aggregate, the colonization ship had managed to survive the impact despite heavy damage. With no other alternatives, the crew and the colonists were put into stasis while they awaited a discovery that would not come until the 20th century when their brethren found out that Human geologists had discovered the approximate location of the ‘asteroid’ impact that had destroyed the dinosaurs.

 

The environmental collapse caused by the impact left the Gillmen on the verge of extinction. Their only chance of species survival was to persuade the aliens to shelter some of their number in their colonization ship. The aliens agreed on condition that the Gillmen become subject to their rule. The result was that the Gillmen were eventually brainwashed into thinking that Humans were responsible for their 65 million years of misery; it took decades to fully break this conditioning.

 

Xeno-archaeology digs across the explored galaxy indicate a major shift in Aggregate strategy 53 million years ago. They have always been a parasitic species, requiring the bodies of other creatures to manipulate the world around them. However, a host species will eventually evolve an immunity to their control. It might take ten million years, but it will happen. This problem also existed in genetically engineered host species created in laboratories.

 

The Aggregate came up with a bold solution to their problem involving every world in this galaxy (and possibly other galaxies) where multi-cellular life had evolved. They would allow evolution to run its course with only the occasional tweak here and there. The objective on each world was to create a host species capable of physically manipulating matter, thus ensuring a never ending supply of host species. Earth, Ascid and countless other worlds effectively became vast Petri dishes, their inhabitants having the same status as an interesting species of bacteria created in a laboratory. The majority of the alien species X-Com fought in the wars had been acquired in this manner.

 

Approximately eight million years ago, a survey ship reported on the potential of certain Earth primates. A small but permanent base was established in the Cydonia region of Mars for further studies of Earth fauna. An off-world location was chosen because while the Aggregate was happy to interfere with evolution on Earth, they did not want these changes to be unintentional.

 

As a side note, it is now suspected that the controlling brains of both the Cydonia aliens and the colony ship were composed of Micronoids. This hypothesis cannot be confirmed due to their total destruction in the wars.

 

The primates were resilient and they flourished without interference, despite massive climatic changes, occasional asteroid impacts and super volcanoes erupting. Our evolution interested the Aggregate because it regarded us as having potential both as a host species and as slave labour. The abduction and subsequent genetic engineering of a portion of the population created the Ethereal species, useful mid-managers for the Aggregate in several theatres of operation.

 

Egyptian civilization, with its emphasis on unthinking obedience to a semi-divine pharaoh, was created as an experiment to test our viability as a subject race. The results were disappointing; with individual thought discouraged, Egypt stagnated and was out-evolved by its neighbours. Only direct intervention gave Egypt victory against the Hittites, who had been the ones to invent iron working and chariots. Further direct intervention against the rising power of the stubbornly individualistic Greeks would have ruined the objectivity of the experiment.

 

The Roman experiment repeated the failure of Egypt. The Roman Republic defeated one rival power after another and carved out a large empire. Then the Romans abandoned their republican freedoms for a highly conservative society with supreme power held by a semi-divine emperor. It was promptly out-evolved by the peoples that Romans had dismissed as a barbarian rabble.

 

The rise and fall of the British Empire came as a shock to the Aggregate. The Aggregate had dismissed this tiny island with few natural resources as an insignificant backwater. Suddenly Britain, with its strong middle class and respect for personal freedom, became the most powerful and technologically advanced nation on the planet, and the first global civilization in our history. The ancient centres of civilization, Egypt, India, China and Mesopotamia all fell before this young upstart tribe. Despite being one of the least militaristic countries in Europe, the British then muddled their way to victory over Nazi Germany, now known to have been sponsored by the Aggregate.

 

Aggregate concerns were increased by the way in which the British dealt with the nationalistic drive in their colonies after 1945. British respect for personal freedom made the idea of an empire maintained by military force anathema, so in a mostly bloodless fashion they dismembered their empire and granted independence to their colonies. The British were even content to gracefully surrender world leadership to the USA, a former British colony.

 

It was clear by 1970 that Humans would never choose to serve the Aggregate no matter how outmatched they were. Earth would not simply become one more source of slave labour. At this time, there was no shortage of host species, so we were not needed for that purpose. The Aggregate decided to exterminate us and then prepare Earth for the sleeping colonists. But first, Humans and other indigenous species would be genetically harvested; a standard practice for species the Aggregate intended to destroy.

 

Harvesting involved abducting millions of members of a subject species and extracting DNA samples for future use. A large number of abductees was needed to ensure the DNA samples on file were a true representation of the subject species. The Aggregate is known to have used these samples to improve the Sectoid genome and to create cloned Human soldiers for the Ascidian War.

 

As every child knows, in 1998 we put aside our tribalistic differences and cooperated in the face of mounting alien activity. The First Alien War had begun. However, the Aggregate did not consider itself to be at war with Earth. Humans were no more than a very local irritant and Aggregate soldiers were effectively pest control officers. This is why the enemy forces were committed in ‘penny-packets’ in the first two wars, when a mass attack could have easily overwhelmed X-Com.

 

The primary alien mission was to carry out the genetic harvest of Humans and animals before cleansing Earth, an event scheduled for late 2005. As alien casualties mounted, they launched secondary missions such as terror attacks on population centres, direct attacks on X-Com bases and the infiltration of Human society. These secondary missions all had one goal: to reduce Human interference in the harvest.

 

Shortly before the alien defeat at the Battle of Cydonia, a tachyon beam was transmitted to the dormant colony ship in the Gulf of Mexico. The attempt to prepare Earth for the colonists had failed, but perhaps they would fare better. Even after X-Com defeated the colonists, the Aggregate did not regard itself at war with Earth. These local setbacks were barely noticeable for such a vast and ancient civilization.

 

The setbacks of the 2060s were a different matter. Human intervention in the Ascidian War resulted in a significant defeat for the Aggregate. Then Humans developed a practical means of faster than light travel and forcibly established colonies in a region of space the Aggregate had regarded as secure. The bacteria had escaped the laboratory! The Aggregate panicked and tried to build a super weapon to destroy Earth and the colonies. The desperate Human counterattack temporarily locked the Aggregate in the alien dimension, which was devastated in the final battle.

 

The Aggregate rethought its strategy in the wake of this defeat. Humans had shown greater adaptability and resourcefulness than any species it had encountered. Getting their subject races to launch another direct attack would be unlikely to succeed, so they decided to infiltrate Human society by taking over the bodies of its corporate and political leaders. Once they had conquered the Humans, they would be able to settle scores with the Ascidians. The onslaught was focused on the city of Mega-Primus as it the location of the headquarters of most interplanetary corporations.

 

Most of the alien species encountered in the Third Alien War were disposable and only existed for one purpose: to carry the Micronoids into our dimension. The sole exception is the Sectoids who were rescued from the alien dimension by X-Com and entrusted to the care of the Mutant Alliance.

 

Xeno-archaeological evidence has confirmed the Sectoid debriefings. Their race was harvested and destroyed by the Aggregate approximately 85 million years ago. When the Aggregate needed a workforce, for instance to harvest Earth, they would use the DNA samples to clone vast numbers of Sectoids in their factories. When the Sectoid clones (in this case, the pilots who survived the frontier wars) became surplus to requirements, they would be recycled as food for the other aliens. This revelation destroyed the Cult of Sirius: having their gods tell them that the hated X-Com had been right all along left them utterly discredited.

 

The Third Alien War broke the power of the Aggregate forever. Mass immunisation programmes throughout the Terran League in the 2090s made it impossible for Humans to be used as hosts, and our military technology reached the same level as that possessed by the Aggregate by the early 22nd century. Although X-Com has found and destroyed many Aggregate colonies in the two centuries since the last invasion, there have been no further alien attacks and it seems that the danger has passed.

 

The Citizenship Act of 2129 completed our victory over the Aggregate. After intense lobbying by X-Com, the Mutant Alliance and S.E.L.F., our former enemies, the Sectoids and Gillmen were awarded full Terran citizenship with the same rights and responsibilities as Humans. The Ascidians were impressed and they petitioned for League membership within a matter of days of the act being passed.

[Jman4117]

*drops jaw...........*

 

AWESOME!

[Cap'n Kyth]

Very nice, Troll.

[Solitaire]

Yeah that's.. rather impressive... oO

 

Now do some more.

[Accounting Troll]

I'm thinking about doing a story set around 2200 AD in which we lose the first Alien War, and the aliens revived their colonists and transformed Earth into an alien colony. Humanity has been reduced to a cheap source of slave labour.

 

A small group of humans discover a secret stash of weapons and equipment hidden by X-Com in the last months of the war to assist future resistance efforts. They use this stash to begin an insurrection against the aliens.

 

Meanwhile, the Gillmen are starting to become dissatisfied with their status in alien society since they were revived in the decades after the war. Many of them are beginning to feel that the aliens regard them as being of the same status as Humans instead of valued local allies...

 

What do you guys think?

[Jman4117]

doooooo iiitttt!

[Blehm 98]

hmm, that is a good idea.. similar to ideas i have had

[Cap'n Kyth]

After my first encounter with a Celatid, I can say this;

 

They don't know how the hell to react to Hover/Plasma Tanks.

 

[ChronoLegion]

No, the operator isn't in the tank, but I imagine it's more of a remote operator stationed somewhere beyond the battlefield. Even so, the operator would still suffer from anxiety and fear just as the soldiers in the field, however the effect of morale loss on the operator is not as severe as a soldier that's actually there in the field.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Actually, I believe the Ufopaedia in the game says that the tanks are fully automatic. A load of BS, if you ask me. They've tried for decades to make computers visually recognize objects, but couldn't (I'm talking about real life here). Computers simply can't do it fast or efficient enough to be useful on a battlefield. In the 70s, it took a robot hours to cross a medium-sized room with several obstacles. Yes, now it would take it less time but still too long to be useful. Visual recognition algorithms are still way too hard to design and implement. Also, they only work on object the computer already knows. What about aliens never before encountered? They can detect motion and distance, but that would only make it useful as a stationary turret.

In a fanfiction novel I recently read, there were human operators sitting in the XCom crafts, controlling the tanks (one per tank). As a side note, that same novel claims that the reason the Battlescape has borders is because whenever a saucer lands, crashes, or deploys terror troops, it sets up a force field that dissipates in a few days. The field is useless anyway, as all XCom crafts (transports) are equipped with nullifying generators to punch through the force fields. Still, the aliens kept setting up those fields. There was one time when XCom crashed a ship that didn't match any alien design seen before and didn't set up a force field. They killed the three aliens inside, only to discover later that those new aliens were themselves victims of Sectoids & Co. and were simply trying to find out where the invaders came from. They went to Earth because the mothership that built the Cydonian base moved on to the new aliens' homeworld. Instead of finding allies, they found their deaths (they weren't even armed). Unfortunately, the novel drops that subplot and doesn't mention it again.

But I digress...

 

When I started typing out my theory I decided to turn it into my first stab at some X-Com fanfiction.

[Bomb Bloke]

The Patton dissapeared into a warphole, which was formed by the changing of hands of the X-Com licence too many times to list.

 

Odds are it will never return.