#sectoid

[image source]

"Nakey"

Some Sectoids

Sectoid

 Another conversion special, and this week we’re tackling a sci-fi franchise with plenty of ties to wargaming and turn-based combat: XCOM!

For the uninitiated, XCOM is a series combining a turn-based tactical combat and resource management game with the concept of an alien invasion. In typical series gameplay, players are expected to handle enemy UFO’s, fight against aliens on the ground, and defend civilian centers, while simultaneously acquiring as much information and research about alien technology as possible in order to gain and edge and finally force the invaders off of Earth.

The various alien species under the umbrella of the invaders include plenty of references to real-world claimed alien encounters, as well as some sci-fi references (the original design for chryssalids, for example, is ripped straight from Alien), but in particular, we will be focusing on the aliens as they appear and act in the current main series (i.e., Enemy Unknown/Within, XCOM 2, and Chimera Squad, with the latter two taking precedence).

Essentially, all the aliens under the control of the Ethereals/Elders are the product of their attempts to take other species and refine them into “inheritors”, creating perfect beings to take their place (whether this is literal or they plan on using the “perfected” beings as new bodies is unclear). Needless to say, each of these alien races proved insufficient in some way, resulting in them being repurposed and modified into living weapons and soldiers, used to subjugate new worlds in the quest to find the next candidate species.

As such, each species we’ll be covering this week has been subjected to extensive genetic modification, to the point where it is unclear what they were like before the Elders got ahold of them. Still, with very few exceptions, they are still thinking, feeling beings, though we never really got to see things from their side until Chimera Squad, a shorter, more linear game taking place after XCOM 2, in which humans and the remains of ADVENT and the alien forces behind them live in uneasy peace after being abandoned by the retreating Elder overlords.

 The first race on our docket are the Sectoids, which were based on the stereotypical “grays” (making for the second gray-based alien I’ve converted).

When they first came to earth, the sectoids were diminutive creatures that resemble both grays and the “Dover Demon”, a vaguely humanoid cryptid. Aside from their round heads and large eyes, they lacked a mouth (implying a reliance on nutritional injections from their masters for survival, and a stance that blurred the lines between bipedal and quadrupedal. They also sport a form of bioluminescene, their chests glowing from within.

However, after the failure of Earth’s initial defenses, the alien forces began augmenting sectoids with human DNA, granting them increased stature, a working mouth constantly stuck in a lipless, skull-like grimace, and a more human-like skin tone. Still no clothes though, though after the war ended, surviving sectoids begain wearing clothes and even appear to have undergone gene therapy to gain expressive lips that make their facial features less intimidating to other species.

What really sets the Sectoids apart, however, is their psionic potential. While the early invasion sectoids only had minor powers and were considered a failure, the human-augmented sectoids could develop impressive psionic abilities, making them quite dangerous despite their armor and simple, grafted weaponry.

By the time that Chimera Squad rolls around, however, sectoids have began to be revealed as an analytic, but also fully fleshed-out people, even capable of learning empathy and morality despite having been literally engineered to not experience these things, (which just proves the flexibility of the living mind). Their often cold and practical outlook does make them off-putting to others though.

 +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha

Hp: 4

Size and Type: Sectoids are medium humanoids of the sectoid subtype

Racial Traits

Eerie Focus: Sectoids gain a +2 to Perception and Sense Motive, but a -2 to Diplomacy

Limited Telepathy: Sectoids can mentally communicate with other creatures within 30 ft that they share a language with.

Sectoid Psionics: Sectoids gain the following spell-like abilities: At will: daze, psychokinetic hand 1/day: detect thoughts. The caster level for these effects is equal to the sectoid’s level.

This was my second thought when I heard Verge's backstory in Xcom: Chimera squad. So I made this so everyone can enjoy It. (my first thought was: Where is the snek?!)