Ascidians

The Ascidians were an alien species planned to be included in the cancelled X-COM FPS game, X-COM Alliance. They were assisted by X-COM, and helped their Human allies battle the fearsome threat who had returned after their defeat in Enemy unknown.

Story

When an X-COM crew, stationed on the lost ship "UGS Patton" accidentally flies through an inter-dimensional worm hole, they are shocked to find remnants of the alien creatures from Enemy Unknown inside. The alien menace, who had once before threatened humanity in The First Alien War, had turned their sights to the Ascidians, the natives of this other realm. Humanity, who had been in the Ascidians' position many years in the past, decided to help them, and so the alliance between the Humans and Ascidians was born, promising to cleanse the hostile alien threat from the Ascidian dimension.

Unfortunately, that is all the information we were given about them. Technology, appearance, history and behaviour, none of this was ever explained, we can only make a few assumptions based on the given information.

Physical Appearance

The Ascidians have been given no official picture releases or description, but the name "Ascidian" provides us with a clue. In reality, Ascidians[1] are a type of sea creature, more commonly known as a "sea squirt". While these creatures would probably make for boring and unhelpful allies, the Ascidians could perhaps derive physical features from these deep dwelling growths, perhaps sporting some sort of growth on their bodies resembling these creatures, or simply being of aquatic origin.

General Background

The location of the two systems involved in the conflict are 60 light years from Earth, the Ascidian’s homeworld orbiting the star designated from Earth as Pegasi 51. The controlling race of the Sectoids have been attacking the Ascidians.

The Ascidians are currently in conflict with the inhabitants of a neighbouring system. At the time the Patton comes through the Dimension Gate the Ascidians have launched an attack on the enemy’s local command base on the edge of the Ascidian’s solar system, which fails.

The Sectoids are preparing to finish off the Ascidians and so claim the mineral resources left in the planets and asteroids of the Ascidian’s system.

The Ascidians together form a Genus, and consists of three species of creatures, which form the basis of their society, which is a cross between the feudal and caste systems of society. The species within the Genus have evolved to perform set functions. These functions are:

   • Intellect caste
   • Warrior caste
   • Worker caste

This structure of society has been perpetuated in their thinking when they discovered genetic splicing and mutation technologies. Creatures that they wished to create were based upon the premise that they would serve a specific function for their creators. Through the creation of these creatures the Ascidians genetically manipulated & bred creatures to perform the following functions:

   • Grunts - used for slave labour
   • Warriors - To use in the fight against the Sectoids
   • Guards - to defend installations & to control the other genetic constructs
   • Terror Creatures - to use as shock troops against the Sectoids

7.6 Background on the Ascidian Caste system

7.6.1.1.1 Intellects These creatures have evolved to maximise their efficiency for discovery and scientific study. These creatures have an increased brain pan size, with associated atrophy of their defence and attack elements of their bodies forms.

Vestigial elements of the warrior caste’s defence spines are present. The lack of heavy physical labour within their lives has lead to the weakening of their tool using upper limb set.

Loss of the thickened hide and bone plating with respect to the warrior species has occurred, presumably to support the increased blood flow in the increased tissue mass within the cerebral cortex.

7.6.1.1.2 Workers Showing a remarkable level of deviation from the general physiology of the Genus creatures of this caste show increased quantities of muscle mass within their bodies to allow them to perform the heavy manual labour that is usually their lot.

The reduced requirements for abstract thinking and the increased requirements for fine motor control and reactions has led to a startling evolutionary solution. Rather than having one centralised brain these creatures have developed localised centres of control. These “sub-brains” have apparently developed to impart the creatures with increased reactions and strength through much better localised control of their Cardio-vascular systems. These gains are however offset by the reduced speed of high level thought and reactions to tactical situations as the increased ‘pre-processing’ that takes place within the sub-brains leads to the requirement of data accumulation and error checking of suppositions made by the lower order sub-brains.

The loss of any spikes on the creatures body and the warriors aggressive jaw variants, while still retaining the thickened hide and solid bone plates allows the creatures a high level of protection, whilst keeping them submissive and easy to control.

7.6.1.1.3 Warriors Featuring the delocalised control centres found in the worker caste, the creatures have a “Command & Strategy” brain located in the cranial cavity, whilst retaining the localised sub brain system to deal with reflex actions within the body.

A localised sub brain located immediately behind the retinal surfaces of the eyes appears to be dedicated to image processing, allowing a far greater level of visual acuity than would otherwise be possible. Improved sensitivity of the retinal surfaces allows a much wider range of Electro-Magnetic radiation to be imaged by the eyes, the range of wavelengths the eye is sensitive to apparently ranging from near microwave radiation wavelengths to the end of the visible spectrum for humans, the respective wavelength limits being 2 x 10-4 metres to 4 x 10-7 metres.

This ability allows the creatures to sense the emissions from our electronic equipment & to locate a unit without the need for a physical line of sight.

Friendly Ascidians

Ascidian Engineer

Type: Real time low poly sprite

Max Polygon Count: 450

Innate Attacks: None

Description:Ascidian Engineer - Showing a remarkable level of deviation from the general physiology of the Genus creatures of this caste show increased muscle mass within their bodies to allow them to perform the manual labour that is usually their lot.

The increased requirements for fine motor control and reactions has led to a startling evolutionary solution. Rather than having one centralised brain these creatures have developed localised centres of control. These “sub-brains” have apparently developed to impart the creatures with increased reactions and strength through much better localised control of their Cardio-vascular systems.

These gains are however offset by the reduced reaction speed to tactical situations as the increased ‘pre-processing’ that takes place within the sub-brains leads to the requirement of data accumulation and error checking of suppositions made by the lower order sub-brains.

Enemy Ascidians

CYBERNETICALLY ALTERED ASCIDIAN

Type:Real time low poly sprite

Max Polygon Count:450

Innate Attacks: Teeth, claws, built in weaponry

Description: Using materials gathered during harvesting and abduction raids on the various planets including the Ascidian’s homeworld and the remnants of attacking Ascidian forces, these creatures basic physical form and internal organs are still present, however the Sectoids have performed major reconstructive surgery and cybernetic replacement of many limbs and organs within the hosts’ body.

Limbs attached to the upper torso are often replaced with weaponry which is controlled through direct neural commands passed through the creatures existing nervous system.

The creatures are directly controlled by their squads commander, who forces them in to the fight as shock troops and cannon fodder before the true onslaught of the major forces are committed. Essentially a remote controlled living organism, these creatures do not understand the meaning of the word fear, or for that matter any other word than kill.

GENETICALLY ALTERED ASCIDIAN

Type: Real time low poly sprite

Max Polygon Count: 450

Innate Attacks: Teeth, claws.

Description: Taking the basic genetic material of an Ascidian, the Sectoids have created a truly vicious warrior. Replacing sections of the Ascidians DNA sequence with material from natural predators on planets under their control has heightened their natural survival instincts. In addition to this increases in their stamina and constitution makes these creatures truly deadly.

Their shape is very similar to that of the Normal Ascidians and so when viewed in silhouette they can easily be mistaken for these harmless creatures. Players may thus be fooled into getting too close before realising their mistake.