We thought it was high time that we break down the context around your efforts to thwart the alien menace in XENONAUTS-2...

The game isn’t a direct sequel to Xenonauts (narratively there’s not many places to go from the end of the first game!) but a reimagining of the same scenario: how could a small multi-national organisation cope with defending the world against an alien invasion?

To set the scene, let's delve into a little backstory...

The Iceland Incident

The Iceland Incident was a political crisis that occurred in 1962. The official story is that the discovery of a secret American missile base in Iceland led the Soviet Union to mobilize an invasion force to blockade the island before nuclear warheads could be deployed. A large-scale face-off between the American and Soviet navies almost led to a nuclear confrontation - but the situation was eventually deescalated when the Americans agreed to abandon the missile base and allow Soviet inspectors to verify the closure of the site.

In reality, the confrontation was sparked when American engineers building a secret missile base in Iceland discovered fragments of an extraterrestrial spacecraft embedded in a nearby glacier. When the Soviet high command heard reports of this discovery, they assembled an invasion force - fearing that extraterrestrial technology might give their opponents a permanent advantage in any conflict. De-escalation occurred when the Americans agreed to hand control of the artifacts to a jointly-established research organisation that would study the recovered technology and report to both sides. This organisation was known as the Xenonauts.

In the end, less than half of the crashed UFO was ever recovered from the glacier and no sign of the extraterrestrials themselves was ever found. No major scientific discoveries were made as a result of the research work performed by the Xenonauts, and with no obvious signs of further alien activity, the superpowers eventually lost interest.

Undeterred, the Xenonauts continued to operate over the following decades (on ever-smaller funding) and developed several important pieces of technology that would prove invaluable in the coming invasion. The first of these was the inference radar; an extremely sensitive radar capable of tracking UFOs via the disturbances created by their energy shields as they moved through the air. The second was the X-24 Angel interceptor - a small reconnaissance jet equipped with a small inference radar and designed from scratch specifically to resist alien weapons.

The Present Threat

XENONAUTS-2 begins in 2015 on an alternate timeline where the Soviet Union did not collapse and the world is still in the throes of the Cold War (in no small part due to extraterrestrial interference).

The game opens with an invasion of Earth by alien forces: a wave of strikes by UFOs on major cities causes only minor damage but demonstrates that the various regional governments are woefully under-equipped to deal with such a sophisticated threat. Any attempts to rebuff these incursions are foiled: conventional radar tracking is near-impossible and conventional fighters are no match for the advanced energy weapons of the alien craft.

One solitary successful operation is conducted: an unarmed reconnaissance plane is able to intercept a UFO and gather a wealth of data. The Xenonauts, still in operation as a clandestine research organisation, are revealed to be behind the efforts and take it upon themselves to share their findings with both NATO and the Soviet powers.

Hurried bilateral talks are conducted: it is agreed that a unified planetary defense force is the only hope for the survival of humanity. The Xenonauts emerge as the only viable option and are provided with significant funding to conduct an expansion programme; their objective is to act as the "first response" force against extraterrestrial attacks. They are granted unprecedented jurisdiction to establish bases and deploy military forces anywhere in the world, provided they agree to share any research data with all participating nations.

An esteemed military officer - someone whose credentials are sufficient to garner the respect of both sides - is placed in charge to spearhead these efforts (which is where you come in!)

Next Time...

That’s the background to the game explained. In our next update we’ll be discussing one of the new mechanics added to the strategy layer - an alien superweapon that humanity (initially) has no answer for!