4 replies to this topic

[SJimenez]

Okay, just a random thought. You go on a mission, kill a bazillion-and-one floaters. So you research the one, and you sell one-bazillion corpses? Where do you sell all of these to? Is there an X-Bay or are you just selling the corpses back to the aliens or handing them out to kids at the local flea-market? Or maybe you use them in some kind of food? Like hot-dogs signed with "5% Beef" because the floaters were eating cows?

And what about the guns? Are you just selling the most advanced weaponry in the universe to little kids or back to the aliens or what?

Has anyone else ever wondered where a top-secret organization would sell the "non-existant corpses" from the raids that "never happened"?

[Selmak]

Well, I always wait until I'm practically overflowing with clips before I sell them, so those kids with great big alien plasma weapons can't hurt anybody until they get some ammo

The laws of demand and supply suggest that where a particular type of goods cannot be sold on the open market, a thriving black market will exist for it. It's pretty obvious that the military of most countries would be interested in the weapons and hardware that the rescovery teams bring back. After all, while XCOM is dealing with the alien threat, it can't be everywhere at once.

As for the dead aliens, well I can just imagine a Muton's head mounted on a wall in a hunting aficionado's home.

Edited by Selmak, 12 July 2005 - 05:37 AM.

[Snakeman]

I imagined that stuff just went out into the black market distribution network for all sorts of reasons and to all sorts of destinations. In some instances, probably militaries for most things, other super secret labs to get bodies and things like that for whatever omious research they're doing, and finally, probably just clandestinely stockpiling items and weapons for the purpose of forming independent cell groups for when the war seriously escalates.

Likewise I sort of imagined that many of my sacked soldiers probably wound up being a part of one of these cell groups i.e. the ones I didn't sack until they'd gone through psi training for example. Not only do they recieve some benefits to the psi training, they're likely training in other things while at our bases, to help them in this alternate unseen aim.

i.e. They got familiar with weapons, armor and equipment and sat through intel sessions about the alien threat before they got cut loose. So if they weren't heading to one of these cell groups, my guess is some wound up as military advisors to train others in all of the excessively sold stuff.

[Torgulf]

If their budget is open for the funding nation governments, they probably won't approve of selling top modern weapon systems to various criminal elements. And if I was a government, I'd definitely want to know what happens to the resources spent on the project (the governments were also the ones who opened it in the first place) - so I'm assuming that is the case.

So most likely government controlled military forces and, in particular, air force research departments. I doubt very much of the sold stuff ever would come to use (there are a lot of countries involved so they'd only get limited access each), but the technology would probably pop up on fighter crafts and other military vehicles some 20 years later (and then the earth is saved and everyone is happy so people will forgive them for that unresponsible use of alien technology ).

It puzzles me what would happen to the psi and anti-matter research when everything is done and over with though...

[Jonaleth Irenicus]

Alien bodies: Catering companies all over the world (mostly China I guess). Seriously, Chinese people make a delicacy out of everything that is biologically consider a live organism.

Weapons and ammo: Possibly many places, but there's nothing that suggests X-Com would sell fully loaded clips. Maybe they empty all clips when they are selling them (since noone can manufacure elerium...)

Technology: Dunno. USA? So they can make more über stealth craft and such?