Line #250 Fanfic/XSGCOM


1	->''How can you not love a fic where a [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill 400 megaton]] [[NukeEm nuke]] [[LensmanArmsRace is seriously described as a firecracker?]]''[[labelnote: For comparison]]The Tsar Bomba initially had a yield of 100 megatons, later [[PowerLimiter limited]] to about 50 megatons.[[/labelnote]]
2	-->--''Paraphrased from [[Website/SpaceBattlesDotCom SpaceBattles]]'' [[http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/xsgcom-terra-from-the-deep.159403/page-106#post-10739794 user]] '''Rufus Shinra'''
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4	''XSGCOM'' is a Crossover / AlternateUniverseFic with Franchise/{{Stargate\|Verse}} and VideoGame/{{XCOM}}[[note]]Please note that the [=X-COM=] depicted here is the ''original'' [=X-COM=], and not from the franchise reboot seen in the Firaxis games, such as ''Enemy Unknown,'' ''Enemy Within'' or ''The Bureau''.[[/note]] written by Hotpoint. It explores an alternate universe where humanity is actually better off than in either main universe. Instead of the Russians finding about the second stargate, X-COM retrieves it. After both organizations become known to each other, they are merged together. What follows is a clash between two factions, one badass Canadian, Earth moving to the offense and lots of dead Jaffa. The two settings involved are neatly tied together with, for example, Elerium being made from Naquadah, though the process involved is unknown to Earth. The author provides any [[AllThereInTheManual necessary background info]] in his chapter notes, including hyperlinks[[note]]Due to the nature of the site, the Fanfiction.net versions of the stories do not have the links[[/note]].
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6	Contains two parts to date:
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8	1) ''XSGCOM: Goa'uld Defence'' (alternatively subtitled ''Mirror Image'' on FF.Net) follows events from the aftermath of the second stargate's retrieval to the finding of the Ancient Outpost in Antarctica.
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10	2) ''XSGCOM: Terra from the Deep'' follows the Atlantis Expedition and its war against Wraith and ongoing events in the Milky Way.
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13	Both stories can be found here [[http://www.tthfanfic.org/Series-1694 here]] and on Fanfiction.net: [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3631062/1/XSGCOM_Mirror_Image Mirror Image,]] and [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5636838/1/XSGCOM_Terra_from_the_Deep Terra From The Deep.]]
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15	[[http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/xsgcom-terra-from-the-deep.159403 Has a SpaceBattles thread]] which is sometimes more up-to-date than the other sites.[[labelnote: e.g.]]As of 08/09/16, it's on Chapter 20, Parts [[http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/xsgcom-terra-from-the-deep.159403/page-102#post-8307303 One]] and [[http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/xsgcom-terra-from-the-deep.159403/page-106#post-10739772 Two]].[[/labelnote]]
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17	----
18	!!This fanfic provides examples of:
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21	* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: Invoked by [=McKay=] when trying to buy food from Genii.
22	-->Sheppard sighed. 'I thought you said the Genii were fair traders?' he asked Teyla.
23	-->'The Athosians have always been able to achieve a reasonable bargain' Teyla replied, 'however we were never so desperate to buy' she noted.
24	-->'The invisible hand of the free market strikes again' [=McKay=] quipped. 'Three million light-years from the nearest copy of the Wealth of Nations and Adam Smith still has us by the balls' he said.
25	* TheAlliance: The Alliance Of Four races in past, United Worlds in current timeline.
26	* AlternateUniverse: caused by Loki creating the Sectoids, leading to the creation of X-COM.
27	** Also caused by the ancients [[spoiler: ''heavily'' modifying humanity so that [[HumansAreWarriors humanity is downright terrifying.]] ]]
28	* AppealToForce: '''OUR WORDS ARE BACKED BY NAQUADRIA WEAPONS!'''
29	* {{Area 51}}: Like in SG-1 becomes a site for research into alien tech. However due to stronger relations with the Asgard one of their researchers ends up working here resulting in regular pranking of new recruits. [[labelnote: *]] For those who haven't seen the show, the Asgard are pretty much dead ringers for a Roswell Gray [[/labelnote]]
30	** Area 51 seems to attract a lot of aliens due to its nature and what they're studying- Nirrti is pretty much a Boxed Crook, and several humans from across the galaxy claimed asylum and work there on various tasks.
31	* ArmorIsUseless: Averted. Getting better armor has helped survival rates, and Kull are terrifying partly because they need multiple Heavy Plasma shots, THE biggest infantry gun around (Blaster Bombs are... a bit above infantry level), to kill, as well as the fact that ''they'' can punch through X-COM's cydonium/trinium armor just fine.
32	* AscendedExtra: Lots of people. As just one example, Sharp was originally a throwaway reference in a manual.
33	* AttackItsWeakPoint: If they can't shoot it down the normal way, X-COM loves to beam aboard [[NukeEm nuclear weapons]].
34	* AwakeningTheSleepingGiant: After the Tau'ri give some advice to the Tollan, even Anubis keeps his distance. The Wraith learn the hard way that they don't want the Tollan in their galaxy.
35	** Also what happens when X-COM blows up a quarter of the Wraith in the galaxy. [[spoiler: Here come the Aquatoids...]]
36	** The Aschen might be viewed as the TokenEvilTeammate of the Alliance, but it is noted that they have the highest population of any human nation, and the second-highest tech level of the human nations as well (behind the Tollan, but they're ahead of other non-human nations as well). Due to a concentrated effort by the United Worlds, they're mostly kept to systems they control, but one of the last-ditch plans of the United Worlds is to give the Aschen Goa'uld hyperdrives (which are vastly superior to their own) and let them go on their enemies.
37	* AxCrazy: Parodied. "When the guys in charge of X-COM think you are too nuts to be on a UFO Retrieval Team, then you have got some ''serious'' issues."
38	* BadFuture: Why the Aschen are so willing to work with other races- in the original timeline, they released a DepopulationBomb against Earth so that they could take the technology and Earth as a colony world. X-COM responded by sending the first of their [[CoolShip BC-305]] ships to the Aschen Homeworld with [[MoreDakka ZPM-enhanced]] [[{{BFG}} Asgard weapons]], and [[StuffBlowingUp destroys a very large fraction of the planet.]] The Aschen used the time-travel glitch on the Stargate to send a message back in time to warn them against doing this: "Under no circumstances provoke X-COM." Also serves as a nice ContinuityNod to the SG-1 episodes "2010" and "2001."
39	* BelligerentSexualTension: [[spoiler: Dr. Frasier and Commander Sharp.]]
40	* {{BFG}}: It's a fusion of the Stargate 'Verse and X-COM, so these are present in large numbers.
41	** The Tollan, realizing that they may be vulnerable to ships whose shields are immune to their Ion Cannon's Phase Shift technology (which allows them to bypass most shields, but it was this very weakness to phase-proof shielding that led to their downfall in canon), construct HEAVY Ion Cannons, which are designed to simply batter down shields and are far more powerful.
42	** The Ancient Defense Satellite is a massive beam cannon, which manages to take out several Wraith Hives.
43	** X-COM's typical [[NukeEm non-nuclear]] response to problems that their ''small'' guns can't take care of is either to work their way around the problem, or fire bigger guns at it. They manage to take out Anubis' "Stargate Destroyer" by firing a building-sized maser[[note]]That is not a typo. The 'm' stands for 'microwave' because that's what the cannon is emitting. If it had been gamma rays, it would've been a Graser.[[/note]] beam at it through the Stargate. The ''wrong way'' through the Stargate.
44	* BoxedCrook: Nirrti.
45	** Also, the Aschen. Even though they're part of the alliance, nobody trusts them and they aren't granted the same technological items that others are.
46	*** To paraphrase, "The Nox didn't like them, and the Nox liked ''everybody.''"
47	* BrickJoke: Back in Chapter 8 of ''Defense'' [[spoiler: Daniel said that ‘the Cult of Osiris isn’t coming’]]. Guess what the foundations for have been laid in Chapter 37?
48	** In Chapter 31 of ''Defense'' inhabitants of Jebanna were told about "Sharp of Canada". Guess who came in person in Chapter 1 of ''Terra''?
49	*** A little girl who was listening to Maybourne the first time even comes up and brings up the "Hockey Stick" joke.
50	** Way, way, ''way'' back in chapter one of ''Goa'uld Defense,'' an X-COM member states that if X-COM was a company, he would buy stock in it. By ''Terra From The Deep,'' X-COM has founded their own company called [=MarSec=], which sells X-COM tech to Earth's offworld allies.
51	** Samantha Carter mentions that she would need to see evidence of psionics in a carefully controlled laboratory situations before she believed it. By the end of ''Goa'uld Defense,'' Samantha was the first to witness Cassie actually lifting chess pieces with her mind, and Psionic-gifted soldiers now make up a decent portion of X-COM SOP.
52	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Andianov comments that O'Neill is the most inexplicably effective commanding officer she has ever had, after he came up with the idea of publicly humiliating the Goa'uld to ruin their image as an excuse for playing practical jokes on them.
53	* ButICantBePregnant: [[spoiler:Doctor Frasier and Commander Sharp are quite surprised to learn that sarcopghus can fix a vasectomy...]]
54	* CallARabbitASmeerp: "Like the Casa Gruel in the story of Draxius Kol and the Three Unas?" Though this one came first and the names were changed when it got to Earth, making it not quite a straight use[[note]]For those who didn't get it, it's Goldilocks and the Three Bears.[[/note]].
55	* CarFu: The first Kull Warrior is taken out partly by a hovertank running it over.
56	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: A common problem with Goa'uld alliances but taken to its extreme during the massive battle between Apophis and Anubis when [[spoiler: Ba'al, Ameterasu, Bastet and Kali all immediately betray Anubis and start attacking him after Apophis' flagship is taken out]]
57	* ChunkySalsaRule: Once X-COM starts making its own Sarcophagi, this is one of the few things that you can't be brought back from.
58	* ColonelBadass
59	* CoolShip: While the upgrades that the author makes to canon ships are quite impressive, the BC-305 in an alternate timeline where the Aschen wiped out a fair portion of Earth's population bears special mention: Zero Point Module enhanced, Asgard supplied weapons are the only ''mentioned'' weapon that these things have, but knowing X-COM, it probably has ''way'' more. The rest of the Tau'ri fleet is stated to be off in another galaxy, fighting the Ori.
60	** The Tollan "Ghostrider" ships are particularly impressive, with Asgard Shields and Hyperdrives, as well as their own Ion Cannon weaponry, phaseing technology, and UFT bombs capable of cracking a planet in half.
61	** [[spoiler:The United Galaxies Ship ''Arthur Pendragon'', the one of it's kind X-306 class Dreadnought]] from the upcoming XSGCOM: Multiverse. [[spoiler:1.75 Kilometres from stern to bow, 65 million tonnes of mass, the ship features an Arcturus Reactor[[note]]Based on the abandoned Project Arcturus[[/note]], four Zero Point Modules, 12 Neutrino Ion Generators and 24 Mark IV Naquadah Reactors for power generation, a Lantean Wormhole Drive, an Asgard Intergalactic Hyperdrive, a Graviton Pulse Drive[[note]]For sub-light propulsion[[/note]], a Time Jumper Drive and an Alternate Reality Drive. The ship is built around a Lantean Particle Cannon[[note]]The kind found in the Lantean Defence Satellite[[/note]] and has two Ori Energy Beam Weapons, four "Ripper" Heavy Staff Gatling Cannons, four Tollan Heavy Ion Cannons, eight Asgard Plasma Beam Weapons, 16 Ori Pulse Weapons, 36 Railguns, 48 X-COM Laser Cannons, 48 X-COM Phaser Cannons, four Ancient Drone Launchers[[note]]500 drones each[[/note]], four VLS missile batteries[[note]]100 missiles each, armed with Mark VIII 1.2GT warheads[[/note]], 16 Horizon Missiles[[note]]6 x Mark IX 800 GT warheads[[/note]], eight Tollan "Chicxulub" Class Phasing Bombs[[note]]100 Teraton Yield[[/note]], four Tollan "Serita" Class Phasing Bombs[[note]]100 Petaton Yield[[/note]] and two Tainted ZPM Warheads[[note]]For taking out stellar systems[[/note]] for further armaments. It also sports improved Asgard Shields as well as a Lantean City Ship class shield and has a hull made of laminate of Kull-Warrior Armour weave, Trinium/Cydonium alloy, Aqua-Plastics and mono-molecular fibre mesh. Additional systems include a Lantean Cloaking Device, Tollan Phase-Shifting Device as well as Asgard Transporter Beams.]]
62	* CrazyPrepared: the X-COM operated Omega Site. The Stargate protected by both a force field and an iris, preventing people from coming through. The Omega Site is not on the main Stargate Network, so you can only get their if you know how to dial the Tollan-designed Stargate. The Stargate itself is in a pit that rises up to ground level once scanners have confirmed that you are, in fact, who you say you are. Finally, the top of the pit can be sealed with a force field so that X-COM can drop grenades, boiling liquid, or heavier-than-air nerve gas on you.
63	* [[spoiler: CreatingLife: Out of all the protagonist species in the story so far, only a few are not stated to not have been created by another life form: The Nox, Unas, the Ancients (and by that extension, the Ori), Goa'uld, the Serrikin, and the Aquatoids. The Ancients created the Pegasus Replicators and the human race, which created Reese and the Replicators, while the Aquatoids made the Ohnes, Gadmeer, the Wraith, and the Asgard. The Sectoids were created by Loki, an Asgard.]]
64	* CurbStompBattle: Until Anubis arrives this is pretty much how every ground battle between the Goa'uld and X-COM goes. Subverted against Loki and the Sectoids. Just when you think humans are getting the upper hand, there is something new.
65	** Standard Goa'uld forces still get stomped pretty hard by X-COM, despite the fact that they ''are'' advancing. The problem, though, is that for Jaffa forces, a "Major Advance" is using horse-drawn staff cannons to quickly relocate their artillery. For X-COM, a "Major Advance," involves PowerArmor with enough firepower to level a continent.
66	** In a BadFuture, the Aschen are the subject of one when they unleash a plague on Earth. They are soon visited by the BC-305, an Earth ship with ZPM-powered Asgard weapons.
67	* DeadpanSnarker: Even more than in original. Sharp, Hammond, O'Neil (of course) to name but few.
68	* DepopulationBomb: The Aschen try to unleash one on Earth in a BadFuture. It doesn't go well (for the Aschen).
69	* DeadFic: Hasn't been updated since 2013.
70	* DeathIsCheap: Well, at least after they figure out how to operate and build sarcophagi.
71	** And even then it's more like "Death is Cheap''er''," as there are some things the sarcophagus cannot bring you back from- headshots, total vaporization, or enough damage, and even the near-magical device can't bring you back.
72	*** There are also other flaws in the sarcophagus design- if you use it too much, too often, you will begin to show signs of sanity slippage (and consider how marginal the sanity of most X-COM troops is to begin with), which at times makes helping people more difficult. They nearly let [[spoiler: Egeria]] die because of the fear of what such prolonged exposure to the sarcophagus would do to her. Also, Sarcophagi are ''really'' expensive to build.
73	* DestructiveSavior: X-COM, of course. Best summarized here:
74	--> '''O'Neill''': We are gonna kick so much Goa'uld ass.
75	--> '''Carter''': We are gonna destroy ''so much'' of the galaxy in the next few years...
76	* DoubleTap: ‘Shoot anything that isn’t human, keep shooting it until it fall over and shoot it once more in the head to make sure'
77	** Justified because some of the things X-COM has to fight really are that tough.
78	* DontYouDarePityMe: At least one planet in the Pegasus Galaxy displays a downplayed version of this trope- they are incredibly thankful to the Atlantis Expidition, but feel really bad about being in the position where someone else had to save them. It takes quick thinking to come up with a trade deal to avoid resentful feelings from building up.
79	* TheDreaded: Sharp aspires to be this for aliens.
80	** Although he's perfectly aware that even among other humans, he's not all that popular. Nor is his soul entirely clean. At one point, a doctor suggests that perhaps turning to God might help him find forgiveness. His response? That there wasn't enough time left in his life (even with life-extending therapies and alien healing technologies) to say all the "Our Fathers" and "Hail Marys" before he died, so his ultimate plan is that God wants him on his side more than he wants Sharp punished in hell.
81	** The Tollan- and to a lesser extent, the other United Worlds members- are this to the Wraith. It's mentioned that their greatest fear was a race with technology to rival the Ancients, "Minus the near-total military incompetence."
82	* DropShip:
83	** ''Avengers''. Which can also serve as heavy fire support.
84	** In ''Terra From the Deep,'' it's stated that the Orbanians are working on a version that can fit through the stargate.
85	* EnergyWeapon: X-COM already has laser weapons by the start. While they get even more powerful plasma after some time, lasers are kept around for softer targets and [[BottomlessMagazines being able to freely draw from Powered Armour reactors.]]
86	** In addition, Lasers do not require Naquadah or Elerium, which mean that they can be constructed and armed without using up valuable exotic resources (as Nukes or Plasma weapons do). For most of the war against the numerically superior Goa'uld forces, the primary weapons of the Tau'ri are lasers for this reason. And even once they ''do'' get access to Plasma weapons, the sheer utility of lasers keeps them on the field.
87	** Later, X-COM makes money by selling their earlier, less advanced laser weapons to their allies.
88	* EnemyCivilWar: See "EvilVsEvil" below.
89	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Anubis thinks that Loki's plan to be accepted back as the savior of his race is delusional. This from the man who wishes to eradicate all life in the galaxy.
90	** That being said, Loki thinks that Anubis is StupidEvil.
91	* EveryoneHasStandards: When the ''Nox'', PerfectPacifistPeople who look like a troll doll fused with a nature spirit and who ultimately believe in the good of all races, don't like you, you have some serious problems. Note that the Aschen fall into this, but then again, no one likes the Aschen.
92	* EvilCounterpart: Surprisingly, the Wraith to the Tau'ri. [[spoiler: Designed by a millions-of-years-old precursor race to make up for their own race's shortcomings (lack of aggression in humans, lack of psychic powers in Wraith)? Check. Ability to defeat foes of their creators far easier than their creators could have managed (Humans vs. Aquatoids and Wraith vs. The Ancients)? Check. Willing to torture information out of their enemies with no questioning of morality? Check. [[/spoiler]]
93	* EvilLawyerJoke: Some of the Tollan remark that they have similar opinion of Lawyers on their world (called "Archons"), and relate a story about two Unas. "One came upon the other, who was eating dung. 'Why are you doing that?' asked the first. 'I just ate an archon, and I'm trying to get the taste out of my mouth,' says the second."
94	* EvilerThanThou: Although Anubis and Loki [[BigBadDuumvirate work together]] to further their own ends, they loathe each other on a personal level. Loki considers Anubis a [[ForTheEvulz pointlessly malevolent psychopath]], and Anubis thinks Loki is a hypocrite because of the [[WellIntentionedExtremist methods he is willing to use to save his people.]]
95	* EvilVsEvil: Anubis vs. Apophis, Loki vs. The Replicators, Loki and Anubis vs. The Replicators, Loki vs. Apophis, and given how fluid the situation in the Milky Way is becoming, these are all likely to go into the blender and hit "Liquify," relatively quickly.
96	** It's implied in the future that the [[TokenEvilTeammate Aschen]] will be extremely helpful in the fight against the Ori.
97	** Part of X-COM and the Alliance's strategy for beating the Goa'uld involves keeping them fighting each other until the Alliance is strong enough to handle them on their own.
98	* TheFederation:
99	-->[[spoiler: '''Weir''': 'You mean other than me trying to explain to the UN and the IOA that not only have I gotten us involved in another major war as an official ally of the High Council of the System Lords but that somehow I've accidentally turned Earth into an imperial power that rules over a quarter-million stars?']]
100	* FixFic: The author isn't afraid to correct what he sees as problems with the canon. Usually (see InSpiteOfANail below.)
101	** [[IncrediblyLamePun He usually isn't afraid of having X-COM use cannons to fix the canon, either...]]
102	** See WordOfGod below, as well, for ''why'' he's trying to fix the continuity.
103	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The Aschen are implied to be of massive help against the engineered plagues of the Ori.
104	** Several potent X-COM weapons, such as PowerArmor, are talked about in earlier chapters, but become reality later.
105	** Carter and another scientist at a Russian base lament that there has to be ''somewhere'' for Rodney [=McKay=] in the universe, but that as long as there's hyperdrives and Stargates, [[Series/StargateAtlantis anywhere in the Milky Way isn't far enough away.]]
106	* FlatEarthAtheist: The Tollan don't believe that psychics exist, despite that it's a matter of historical fact that the Ancients (not to mention other people) have turned into beings of pure energy and ascended to a higher plane of existence. This includes Daniel Jackson and several others. It takes Cassie showing off her powers for them to start double-checking their calculations.
107	* ForgottenSuperweapon: Subverted and averted. If the Stargate 'verse has left something behind, then the author usually comes along with X-COM teams to pick it back up, brush it off, reverse engineer it, and make the humans ''even meaner.'' Case in point? They start reverse engineering Sarcophogi as soon as they can, for starters...
108	* ForTheEvulz: It's commented on that this is pretty much the only reason Anubis does ''anything''.
109	* ForegoneConclusion: The Aschen will prove useful against plagues released by the Ori, and Earth will assemble a "Grand Alliance," to fight the Ori (chapter 16, ''Goa'uld Defense'').
110	* FourStarBadass: Commander Sharp. You can't get much more bad ass.
111	* FromBadToWorse: Enhanced by Stargate tech, X-COM starts winning battles. Then, the Sectoids get a massive power boost. While Earth is adjusting to ''that,'' Apophis and Anubis start showing up and unifying the System Lords. Once Apophis is gone, the Replicators start to show up, while Loki's Sectoid forces grow more advanced. While the Wraith are pushovers, the Aquatoids that show up are known to capture people and use their parts as pieces of their ships and organic technology. All while Earth is just barely keeping up with the influx of enemies and technology. The worst is still yet to come, though, as the biggest baddies in the Stargate series, the Ori, haven't even shown up yet but are still on the horizon. The whole series is like one big struggle between LensmanArmsRace and FromBadToWorse, with the race making things better, while the worsening seeks to keep how bad things are in stasis, good-bad wise.
112	** Things do get better on the Sectiod front once they get the Enterprise culminating in them driving Loki out of the Solar System.
113	* GatlingGood: Staffs mounted in a rotary configuration.
114	** Then improved upon when they decide to make the "Rippers." These are six staff cannons arranged in a similar manner.
115	** Then gatling plasma repeaters, the ones the Kull use, and gatling shotguns!
116	* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: [[spoiler: All of the most effective races for fighting in the setting are genetically enhanced or engineered. The Sectoids are the reason X-COM is so terrifying, the Ancients turned proto-humanity into utter nightmares on the battlefield, and the Wraith (created by the Aquatoids) were the ones who routed the Ancients in open war.]]
117	* GodzillaThreshold: The Tau'ri have some... decisive last-ditch "fuck yous" planned if things really go wrong. Things like strategic WMD on Goa'uld worlds and letting the Aschen get their hands on hyperdrives. They also hope that the Tollan will introduce the Goa'uld to [[EarthShatteringKaboom UFT bombs]].
118	* GondorCallsForAid: In Chapter 48 Langaran goverments request help from Earth to fight against Loki's invasion. Earth forwards message to Optricans, Pangar, Tagrea, Orban, Tollan... pretty much every human world that can help as well as Asgard. It sets up major SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome when they all appear to help.
119	** Happens on a much smaller scale in Terra From the Deep when one planet is attacked by Wraith riding party. The villagers send some volunteers to contact Terrans but don't really think that Terrans can do anything about Wraith. Only to be shocked when X-COM arrives and after an extremely one-sided fight make the Wraith flee.
120	* GoneHorriblyRight:
121	** Sharp's offworld propaganda campaign does have its benefits, but it eventually results in at least one of the System Lords choosing to ally with the ''[[HordeOfAlienLocusts Replicators]]'' because they are seen as easier to coexist with than [[TheDreaded Sharp, Warlord of the Tau'ri]].
122	** Some of the ascended Ancients muse to themselves, after seeing how the Tau'ri emerge onto the galactic stage (and beyond) that perhaps their genetic engineering of the people of Earth was a tad too successful.
123	* GratuitousRussian: Lyudmila Andianov. It's generally well researched, but sometimes she is saying [[GoshDangItToHeck Chert Voz'mi]] in the middle of a heated battle.
124	* GravityIsAHarshMistress: One of the things done with transporters is beaming Sectoid engines out of their craft, resulting in them stopping in midair and falling like a rock. This is actually known as the Wile E. Coyote maneuver.
125	* GrimUpNorth: Parodied when Canada is described as a frozen northern wasteland of icy winds and constant snow, with forests full of ferocious bears that must be defeated as part of tribal initation rituals.
126	-->''"They say [Sharp's] homeland is a frozen wasteland where the icy wind would cut you to the bone and where water only ever falls as snow, like it does here upon the mountaintops yonder... it is said the forests there are full of ferocious beasts with huge teeth and claws called bears, and that you must prove yourself worthy by defeating one with a traditional weapon of his tribe they call a hockey stick"''
127	* HalfHumanHybrid: Parodied with O'Neill making a joke about Earth demanding child support for the Sectoids.
128	%%** The Hebridians have these, as in canon.
129	* HiddenDepths: Commander Sharp knowing Latin well enough to quote Ovid in the original.
130	* HistoricalInJoke: It's implied that the reason that the United States invaded Iraq was to covertly provide funding for the AG-3 Satellite Defense Weapons.
131	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Cassie gets a [[spoiler: Wraith Queen to suck life from herself.]]
132	** X-COM and Alliance forces start getting their own taste of it once Apophis starts outfitting his troops with zat-proof armor, staff rifles, gate-travel capable vehicles, and tactics clearly inspired by the successes that the Tau'ri/X-COM/SGC have enjoyed. It was predicted InUniverse many chapters back.
133	** To a much lesser degree, Loki, as it's ''his'' technology that's given X-COM such a huge boost in technological ability. He openly states in ''Terra From The Deep'' that the reason why he's bringing the Type 4 fighters into production when the Type 3 were capable of curbstomping the most advanced human fighters is because "If I do not maintain such a large technological gap, I fear one day I will wake up strapped to a table facing smiling scientists with scalpels and mind probes."
134	** The Goa'uld System Lords are offered the choice between fighting against Ba'al alone, or fighting against the Replicators. One of them remarks that she can see herself coexisting with the ''freaking Replicators'' much more easily than Russel Sharpe and X-COM.
135	* HoldYourHippogriffs: "My hydraulic pump leaks for you, really it does."
136	* HollywoodTactics: Subverted by the Goa'uld as time goes by, with them learning to use supporting fire and ambushes more effectively. Several characters lament this.
137	** Played straight with the "Tok'ra emulating Creator/ChowYunFat" example below. "It was hard to tell who was more surprised, the Tok'ra or the Jaffa."
138	** Kolya's report on the combat abilities of X-COM against the Aquatoids indicate that... he doesn't actually have a good grasp on their abilities. Because most of the X-COM tactics he witnessed involved "turn invisible, wait for the Aquatoids to walk past us, and then stun them in the back," he doesn't really have an idea of how strong their armor is, what their tactics in a full fight are like, or even their weapon strengths or weaknesses are. He concludes it by pointing out that the whole battle felt like an ambush against a foe that was not remotely prepared to fight them, so he hopes to get more data next time.
139	* HumanityIsInfectious: Parodied when a Tok'ra agent infamously does a Creator/ChowYunFat impression on a squadful of Jaffa. 'Tau’ri culture was insidious like that, it rubbed off on you, totally shifted the way you looked at the universe and made you try things you wouldn't have dreamt of before.'
140	* HumansAdvanceSwiftly: Played with. This trait is what drew Loki's attention to the people of Earth in the first place, seeing how quickly they advanced from their first attempts at powered flight to fission bombs. However, a great deal of the progress made in XCOM is based on taking apart ''other'' people's work and taking that info for themselves. It's later revealed that [[spoiler: this trope was an intentional detail; the Ancients modified humanity so that they would be more innovative and aggressive than the Ancients themselves.]]
141	** For a good example of this, for X-COM, a major advancement is unleashing brand new powered armor units on the galaxy. For the Goa'uld and the Free Jaffa, this means "Using horses to transport staff cannons."
142	* HumansAreDiplomats: While X-COM is certainly good at blowing up the galaxy, the humans from Earth also helped put together a major alliance between all the freed human nations in the galaxy, and even nonhumans like the Asgard, Tok'ra, Free Jaffa, and more. It's stated that they're trying to rebuild the old Alliance of Four Great Races (Ancients, Asgard, Nox, and Furlings).
143	* HumansAreWarriors: See the ProudWarriorRaceGuy entry below for more details.
144	* HypocriticalHumor: The captain of the ''Redemption'' degrades boxing and calls the people of earth "A race of thugs." Seconds later, he screams for his crew to "Kill that prick (One of Loki's ships)."
145	* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: As the dropships touch down on [[spoiler: Mars]], Colonel Gomez Rogrigues realizes a priceless opportunity.
146	-->Colonel Gomez Rodrigues knew [[FamedInStory he was widely considered]] the [[TheAce best soldier in X-COM]], wearing his [[PowerArmor Powered Armour]] and carrying a [[{{BFG}} P3A1 Heavy Plasma Rifle]] he also realised that he couldn’t possibly miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime and he switched his radio to transmit just before the Troopers began to pour out onto the ground. ‘Come on you apes’ he yelled out, ‘[[WhoWantsToLiveForever you wanna live forever?]]’ he exclaimed.
147	-->The next time he led his troopers into battle, that being against the goa’uld, [[ShoutOut they all had]] “[[Literature/StarshipTroopers Rodrigues’s Roughnecks]]” painted on their armour.
148	* IDidWhatIHadToDo: X-COM mentality when it comes to MindRape, torture and other nasty things they do.
149	* IdenticalStranger: The Tollan Narim and Elizabeth Weir's fiance look identical, which is simply an ActorAllusion (the same man played both roles).
150	* IfIWantedYouDead:
151	** An initial argument against the Asgard and Sectoids being the same was that the latter would not have to come down to Terra and use infantry if they had the former's tech- they'd just use Asgard Teleporters to take people with impunity and then leave.
152	** In an incident about humans...
153	---> "Commander, according to the results of the investigation you agreed to while under the za'tarc detector you were more annoyed at the implication that if you ''had'' been responsible there would have been any live witnesses left behind than you were the accusation you were guilty of carrying out the attack."\
154	"I objected to the implication I'm some kind of blundering amateur."
155	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Loyalist Jaffa, in spades. Their aim gets ''much'' better much later when they start copying the new staff rifles the humans give the Free Jaffa.
156	* ImplacableMan: Kull Warriors are still tough nuts even with X-COM armour and weapons.
157	* INeedAFreakingDrink: O'Neill has this reaction when he finds out that [[spoiler:Loki is offering to ally with Earth to fight the Replicators.]]
158	* InSpiteOfANail: Some things like [[spoiler: Fifth being left behind with the other human-form Replicators]] or [[spoiler: Anubis getting all the Eyes for his superweapon and destroying Abydos]] still occur despite the changes.
159	** [[spoiler: Daniel Jackson dying and ascending, though, is justified: even though in this timeline they have access to a sarcophagus (two, in fact), both are being used to revive X-COM personnel who died on a recent mission. He decides to ascend before they can stick him in one, though.]]
160	* IThinkYouBrokeHim:
161	-->"It can't be true" Weir said to herself quietly, "we can't just be the [[spoiler:leftover war-toys of some precursor civilization]]" she tried to convince herself before a thought occurred and she suddenly stood up and thumped her clenched fists down on the conference table. "I refuse to accept that Russell Sharp is a first class representative of what we were intended to be!" she shouted out into the universe before collapsing back into her chair, her eyes glassing over as she considered the bleakness of creation.
162	* InWorkingOrder:
163	* ItGetsEasier: The Ancients' view on non-intervention.
164	* ItNeverGetsAnyEasier: Inverted with Andianov after [[spoiler: Daniel's ascension]]. As others note, being X-COM for so long had neutered her to the realities of their high casualty rates and getting seconded to SG-1 has, in her own opinion, made her weak again, though said others see it as a sign of regaining humanity. She thinks they're the same thing.
165	* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: X-COM isn't above torture, though the others aren't happy about it.
166	* JerkassHasAPoint: When Sharp questions who Fraiser's kid is, she slaps him. It was insensitive for him to imply that she cheated on him, however, he had two good reasons to think that might be the case. The first being that, at the time, he'd ''already'' had one lover (in his backstory) cheat on him while he was overseas being a soldier, so he'd be more open to the possibility. Second, and more crucial, was that due to the aforementioned cheating girlfriend, he got a vasectomy, meaning that it shouldn't have been possible for Sharp to accidentally impregnate Dr. Fraiser. This was in fact how the people of earth learned that one of the side effects of using a sarcoughagus is that it can undo even minor surgeries, like, for example, Sharp's vasectomy. Since Sharp didn't know that was a possibility, the easiest solution was that Fraiser cheated on him.
167	* LampshadeHanging: In chapter 22 of ''Goa'uld Defense/Mirror Image'', Sharpe notes that a lot of the worlds in the galaxy look like his home country of Canada. The show is produced in British Colombia and Vancouver, which leads to the city's nickname as UsefulNotes/StargateCity.
168	* LegoGenetics: Sectoids are actually a mash of Asgard and other races' DNA.
169	** The Wraith are a fusion of Alteran/Lantean DNA and Iratus Bug DNA, created by the Aquatoids to overcome their own lack of psionics.
170	* LensmanArmsRace: Earth starts at the bottom of the food chain. By the start of the second story, [[spoiler: the Goa'uld actually agree to human domination of part of the galaxy just to get Earth's weapons pointed at Ba'al instead of themselves]].
171	* LogicalWeakness: Those who have Naquadah injected into their bloodstream (to be able to use Goa'uld healing devices) will set off metal detectors at the airport.
172	** Most of X-COM's arsenal doesn't work well underwater, because they largely rely on lasers or plasma, which would either simply not work or would be too scattered by the water to be anything better than short-range ones. When they start facing the Aquatoids, the Atlantis Expedition has to either rely on Ancient Drone Weapons (which were originally designed to deal with Aquatoids), or develop entirely new avenues of weapons research, such as rocket torpedoes and coilguns.
173	** When Aquatoid soldiers are zatted, they get lobotomized... because they have computer chips in their brain, and having electrically conductive material connected to sensitive grey matter getting the equivalent of a lightning bolt through it ''probably'' isn't healthy.
174	* MagneticWeapons: The Gauss weapons from the original ''Terror'' have been turned into coilguns.
175	* MamaBear: [[spoiler: Janet slaps Elizabeth when the latter tries to go WhatTheHellHero on her for sitting by as Nirrti is tortured.]]
176	* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: The Aquatoids to the Wraith.]] Also Loki to the Sectoids, but that's revealed fairly early on.
177	** [[spoiler: To a much lesser extent, the Ancients to the humans.]]
178	** Anubis ''wants'' to be this to Ba'al, but has thus far failed to understand exactly what makes [[ManipulativeBastard Ba'al]] tick.
179	* MarsWantsChocolate: The key to opening trade with Tollana. We don't have anything they ''need''... but they ''want'' luxury foods, spices, wine (both from Earth and other worlds) and, yes, chocolate.
180	* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler:Earth(Terra) was renamed after Ancients conquered it. Before that, it was called Water(Aqua) by Aquatoids]]
181	* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Sharp had to euthanize a young girl who was abducted by Sectoids.]]
182	** Played more for laughs when Rodney kills Shepard in order to save him from an Irratus bug. They do bring Shepard back with a Sarcophagus.
183	* MesACrowd: [[spoiler: Weir gets her past self, who dies in original timeline, brought back to her. The second one serves as a MoralityPet for the present battle hardened one]]. Also Carter. Right now, there are total of three different Carters running around the Milky Way[[note]]The human one, the android, and [[FanNickname Replicarter.]] [[/note]].
184	** Not to mention the other android duplicates of SG-1: [=RobO'Neill=], Androidinov, Robot Daniel, and Robot Teal'c.
185	* MeleeATrois: The Battle of Abydos turns into one of these when Apophis shows up and starts fighting Anubis and the Tau'ri for the Eye of Ra.
186	* MindRape: It's standard procedure for X-COM interrogations. [[LampshadeHanging They even call it that.]]
187	* {{Mooks}}: Series begins with X-COM slaughtering a group of Jaffa. It only goes downhill for the Jaffa from there...
188	** The Jaffa start getting better once they start adopting tactics from X-COM, including using artillery, modifying their staff weapons into staff-rifles, and investing in better armor. Of course, by this time X-COM's weapons, armor, and tactics have improved to such a degree that it's almost "Too little, too late." The Free Jaffa, on the other hand, find that adopting X-COM tactics will allow them much easier victories over Goa'uld Jaffa, so the trope is ''kinda'' zig-zagged.
189	** In the main series, Wraith were considered terrifying opponents who took many rounds of ammo to kill, and could easily overwhelm their opponents. In this universe, one person is startled by a Wraith, then admits that she was scared for a moment, then blows off the Wraith Queen's leg with a plasma pistol.
190	* MoralMyopia: Loki is fully convinced that the Asgard will welcome him back after he solves the problem with their cloning, regardless of the cost to humans and other experimented-on species. Anubis thinks he's deluded.
191	* MoreDakka: Gatling Staff first, later Gatling Staff '''Cannon'''.
192	** The Mk. II Power Armor also counts, as it has Gatling Plasma Repeaters as well as a number of other weapons.
193	** It's practically X-COM official policy.
194	* {{MST}}: On [[https://literarytravesty.wordpress.com/category/xcom/xsgcom-mirror-image/ Library of the Damned]]
195	* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Played Straight by O'Neil: "'We’ve got a few friends, basically decent folks like yourselves' he said. 'And we know the Aschen too'"
196	* MythologyGag: A privatized defense conglomerate called [[spoiler: [=MarSec=]]].
197	** [[spoiler: In the games, the Aquatoids created the Sectoids. In the story, Loki created the Sectoids, so at first it looks like that piece of continuity is thrown out. However, in ''Terra,'' it is revealed that the Aquatoids created the proto-Asgard, which gave rise to the Asgard proper, ''including'' Loki. So in a roundabout way, [[FridgeBrilliance the Aquatoids still created the Sectoids.]] ]]
198	*** [[spoiler: 2nd game says: It is a Sectoid, our former foes, but changed by surgical methods and implants to be aquatic creature. So Sectoids created Aquatoids in the games.]]
199	** [=O'Niell=] in canon wanted to name the ''Prometheus'' the ''Enterprise.'' While this was shot-down in-universe because, well, it's clear that he just wanted to make a Star Trek joke, in this universe they ''did'' select ''Enterprise'' as the name of Earth's first ha'tak-class warship, with the justification that there is already a carrier named that, and thus any slips of the tongue might make people think that someone is talking about the boat and not the alien-built starship.
200	* NeutralNoLonger: The Tollan are more or less starting to leave their isolation when faced with all the cruelty other humans are suffering.
201	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: When Anubis sends the Naquadah asteroid, XSGCOM easily move it out of the solar system and starts mining it. This solves all their naquadah related needs in the future. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Commander Sharp, "Someone remind me to send a note of thanks to the dumbshit that gave it to us."
202	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Said word for word by Sharp; it was because the SGC defeated Apophis' attack on Earth that Loki began to step up his operations.
203	** Because the humans of the Milky Way are so good at killing the Wraith, they accidentally wake up their old masters- the Aquatoids, who used to fight against the Ancients.
204	* NoPunctuationPeriod: As you might notice from the quotes, Hotpoint has... issues with punctuation.
205	* NoSell: Cassie's psychic power is clean off the charts. X-COM and SGC troops whose psychic resistance is itself enough to NoSell MindControl from other aliens are still hapless before her.
206	* NotQuiteDead: Thanks to Goa'uld sarcophagi some - but '''not''' all - previous writeoffs can be brought back to life. They can't bring back those who have been [[YourHeadAsplode headshotted]] or are subject to the ChunkySalsaRule. Also, the Earth-made sarcophagi are expensive, and there aren't that many of them. It's still possible to die permanently while waiting for one of them to be freed up for your use.
207	* NormalFishInATinyPond: How X-COM feels in the war against the Wraith, Aquatoids, and the Goa'uld. X-COM soldiers are so used to fighting Sectoid forces, which are ''far'' more powerful, durable, and dangerous in every conceivable way than ninety percent of the alien races encountered, that fighting against Jaffa is considered a ''vacation'' for them. Sharpe even feels ''guilty'' because he's stuck fighting the war against the Goa'uld, when he knows that his skills would be better suited to fighting the war against the Sectoids, which needs far more men and weapons.
208	* NotSoDifferentRemark:
209	** "Lacking the disposable cannon-fodder of many worlds with a large population of Jaffa upon them Anubis was always forced to seek force-multipliers, in this way he was strangely similar to the Tau’ri he now found himself in opposition to, they both constantly sought a technological means to make up for their numerical shortcomings."
210	** This is also one of Earth's best methods of diplomacy: they exchange [[EvilLawyerJoke lawyer jokes]] as well as spices and chocolate with the Tollan, for one example. Jack O'Neill claims this when Loki attacks Langara, saying that "If you attack one of the United Worlds, you attack all of us."
211	** During the construction of the Alpha Site, Sharpe mentions that he regrets that the base couldn't be inside a volcano with liquid hot magma. Later, Anubis becomes furious not only because Sharpe destroyed his base, but because "they had no understanding of just how difficult it really was to build a base in a hollowed out volcano surrounded by liquid hot magma."
212	** Also rebutted by Andianov when Elizabeth asks this of X-COM: ‘''We'' do bad things for a good cause. ''They'' do them for a bad one. If you cannot grasp the distinction then your intellect is vastly overrated.’
213	* NukeEm: X-COM standard procedure, to the point that Elizabeth Weir feels the need to point out that they are ''not'' the only way to handle problems in the Pegasus Galaxy. [=McKay=] isn't positive she's right about that.
214	* OhCrap: Basic reaction of Jaffa when X-COM appears.
215	* OldSchoolDogfight: Interceptions become this due to the stealth and ECM of Sectoid fighters making missile lock very difficult.
216	* PortalNetwork: Given that it's based on the ''Franchise/StargateVerse,'' this was inevitable, but a unique twist in that since diplomacy went ''much'' better with the Tollan this time around, the Tollan now supply planets with their own Stargates which can be effectively "off the grid," from the rest of the network. So it's like two semi-separate portal networks that can connect when one wants to.
217	** In ''Terra From the Deep,'' Shepard points out that due to a flaw in the Stargate's programming, the Ancients could have simply shut down all the gates in the galaxy before turning on the Attero Device, which would have caused far more death to the Wraith. This causes Janus to have a HeroicBSOD.
218	** To a much lesser extent, the Aschen Teleportation Platforms. They aren't used as much, though they do require at least two platforms.
219	* PoweredArmor: Yep. Shows up a little later than in X-COM canon due to the R&D people being swamped trying to reverse-engineer Goa'uld tech.
220	* PragmaticVillainy: Several straight examples. They're not all Goa'uld, either.
221	** Morrigan treats her Jaffa (relatively) well, their families are looked after, and she's less prone to randomly killing bearers of bad news in a fit of pique. She's just as evil as any other Goa'uld System Lord, but her Jaffa fight harder and are more loyal than others because their Goddess is so kind to them.
222	** [[invoked]]Ba'al—as befits his canon status as a MagnificentBastard—likes to promote based on ability, rather than sycophancy. Even if "The sycophancy is still expected."
223	** The Aschen are evil, amoral, genocidal, and the Nox don't like them. An alternate timeline version of the Aschen tried to genocide the Earth, which provoked X-COM into a [[BlatantLies typically restrained and reasoned response]]. The, now rapidly dying, Aschen used the solar flare/time-travel glitch in the Stargate to warn their earlier selves not to do that.
224	* ProlongedPrologue: Technically, to the Ancients who [[spoiler: created mankind, most of human history (if not the first story) is one, since Mankind was modified by them in large part due to their desire to defeat the Wraith, Aquatoids, and the Ori. While beating seven kinds of hell out of the Goa'uld is a good thing, humans don't start on the Wraith until the start of "Terra From The Deep," while the Aquatoids don't show up until much later in the story, and the Ori haven't shown up yet (but WordOfGod says that they appear in the third story.)]]
225	* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Averted. The Aschen still aren't trusted, despite being arguably the most powerful human nation in the Milky Way galaxy. X-COM gets yelled at a lot for their "extreme" methods, and several diplomatic summits only take place under the condition that Russel Sharp is nowhere within a thousand light years of the meeting.
226	** [[spoiler: Time-Clone Elizabeth Wier]] takes pleasure in pointing out how far [[spoiler:her present self]] has slid, morality-wise.
227	* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Surprisingly, [[spoiler: what Earth humans were intended to be by the Ancients.]] They actually start wondering if they were ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too successful]]''.
228	** Many of the Athosians from "Terra From The Deep," think that humans from Earth are ''insane.'' When it comes to light that [[spoiler: the Satedans were another Alteran/Lantean/Ancient genetic project with the same genetic upgrades and proclavity for violence that the humans of Earth were given, they are not surprised in the least.]]
229	** The Jaffa... which is a source of humor for X-COM in that the Goa'uld picked perhaps the ''worst'' possible candidate to modify and give super strength, extended lifespan, and the capability to incubate their young. Then again, it's also a source of humor at how this attitude is averted in how easy it is for the flexible, modern tactics of X-COM (not to mention superior technology)to slaughter Jaffa in the thousands.
230	* {{Pun}}: ‘The best defence is a good Ha’tak’ (Made by... Teal'c, who else?) Although it is worth noting that he isn't ''trying'' to make a pun, he means it literally.
231	* PunBasedTitle: '''''Terra''' From The Deep''.
232	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Sheppard throws one at a Wraith Queen.
233	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Parodied with [[spoiler: Jonas]]. ‘You know you’ve more than redeemed yourself for anything you did, or didn’t do, regarding Danny since you joined the SGC... Hell you’ve died for the cause, only temporarily but you did die... hard to top that in the earning redemption stakes.’
234	* RedshirtArmy: Though the onscreen focus is largely on the successful missions, there's plenty of reference to how the other alien war costs a lot of X-COM men and materiel, and they're well aware of that. The author throws out the "crappy recruits" idea from game mechanics in favor of the view that the SF troops seconded to X-COM really '''are''' elite forces... the aliens are just '''much''' better. The ones in Sectoid service at least.
235	** The Jaffa play this trope ''much'' straighter.
236	** The Wraith are... much less of a threat then they were in canon, thanks to the advanced alien technologies X-COM now has access to. Case in point? The Battle of Atlantis was, in canon, a desperate struggle for survival, where Atlantis just barely held on because of trickery, Lantean Drones, and the ''Daedelus'', and they ''still'' had to make the Wraith believe they were dead to end the battle. In [=XSGCOM=]? Most of the Wraith Fleet that attacks is ''annihilated'' thanks to the combined efforts of AG-3X satelites, Earth's starships, a Lantean weapon platform, and much, much more.
237	*** A Wraith Queen surprises a human scientist. In canon, when the primary human weapon was the P-90 and bullets, single Wraith were terrifying opponents who could take full clips of ammunition before falling down, are faster and stronger than humans, and more. A Wraith Queen against a lone human means that that scientist is probably not getting seen again. In this story, though, the scientist is just annoyed, blows the Wraith's leg off with a plasma pistol, and gets back to work.
238	* RevealingCoverup
239	* SanitySlippage: One reason why the sarcophagus is strictly controlled.
240	* SerialEscalation: Humans kicking Goa'uld ass? Humans kicking Wraith ass? [[spoiler: Humans creating their own galactic empire?]] The last one is even better in that it happened by accident.
241	* ShellShockedVeteran: Every veteran X-Commie is disturbed in some way due to the losses.
242	* ShipSinking: Due to his wife surviving, Teal'c is not in a relationship with Ishta of the Hak'tyl.
243	* ShootTheDog: Sharp torturing Nitri to give cure for Cassie. Weir tries [[WhatTheHellHero to call him out on it]] but gets [[ShutUpKirk shut down]].
244	* ShootTheMessenger: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Apophis, who realizes that while killing the bearer of bad news is ''very'' cathartic, it's not good policy (especially with the war on). That being said, he is very tempted once word reaches him that Anubis has joined the fight.
245	* ShownTheirWork: Every chapter (except the first few) shows where he's getting every plot twist, from every game and/or episode in the author's note at the end of the chapter. Even if it's an original idea, he shows how the idea ''could'' possibly work if derived from the source materials.
246	** This is something of a trademark for the Author, who did the same thing with ''Fanfic/HuntedTribes'' and its spinoff, ''But Somehow A Most Melancholy.''
247	* SpaceBattle: It's a crossover between X-COM and Stargate. Yes, there are space battles.
248	** Of note is the final battle between Apophis and Anubis, which according to the Tok'Ra, involved ''two thirds of all Ha'tak-class vessels in the galaxy.''
249	** Or the Battle of Atlantis, which had well over a dozen hives.
250	* SparedByTheAdaptation: Various characters including [[spoiler: android SG-1, Janet Frasier, Alternate Timeline Doctor Weir, Replicator Fifth, the android Reese, Goa'uld Nirrti, Tok'Ra queen Egeria, and even background characters have been stated to survive where their canon counterparts have not.]]
251	** [[spoiler: More for the list, Civilization time! The civilizations of Rand and Calledonia (of Tegalus), the Aschen (though their fate in the canon timeline was never all that clear to begin with), the Tollan, Ernest Littlefield, and Catherine Langford all survive.]] Colonel Vaselov, the original military leader of the Atlantis Expedition, also survives.
252	** Apophis... sort of. While, due to X-COM not lending the Tok'Ra their Ha'Tak, Apophis didn't die the way he was supposed to in this timeline; he dies later, in battle against Anubis.
253	** Though it hasn't happened yet, it looks like Carson Becket might survive, as Janus disposed of the "Exploding Tumor" machine that killed him in canon.
254	* SpringtimeForHitler: [[spoiler:While negotiating with the Goa'uld System Lords, Weir wants to avoid going to war with Ba'al, so she tries to make a request that they will refuse by demanding that the Goa'uld cede them every star system within two and hundred and fifty light-years of Earth. They go for it, and Earth inadvertently becomes an interstellar empire.]]
255	* StabTheScorpion: At one point Andianov appears to be shooting at Teal'c. Turns out that [[spoiler: she intercepted a Goa'uld symbiote's attack.]]
256	* StuffBlowingUp: X-COM standard procedure.
257	* SuperSerum: [[spoiler: X-COM troops take a cocktail of drugs to boost their performance, aware that there will probably be long-term effects but believing the short-term benefits are worth it and that their likelihood of surviving the time needed for the side effects to kick in are... poor.]]
258	** By the time of ''Terra From The Deep,'' X-COM is working to add in Wraith Serum as part of a "Berserker Pack."
259	* SuperSoldier: Even the basic Sectoid trooper is genetically engineered to a level that X-COM troops have trouble with, never mind the more elite enemies.
260	** As it turns out, [[spoiler: humanity by the Ancients]].
261	** Also, the Anubis' Kull Warriors.
262	** In theory, the Jaffa. They fit most of the criteria: live longer, better immune system, heals better, stronger than an average human, etc. In practice, however, their inflexability, poor weapon design, awful tactics, and insane leaders make them little more than mooks to X-COM and other human forces.
263	* SuperReflexes: Andianov. It is considered inhuman by other characters in the story and superb even by X-COM's high standards.
264	* TakeThat: occasionally, the narrative will [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] some of the events of canon, such as the silliness of the ''Prometheus'' taking off during the day, despite the fact that it's a giant spaceship launching from an area already under surveillance from UFO watchers.
265	** ‘One of those Star Trek novels?’ O’Neill queried, it still made him grin that a man born on another planet with an alien larvae living in his guts was a sci-fi fan.\
266	‘Yes thank you O’Neill’ Teal’c replied, ‘none of those written by Shatner’ he requested, ‘in hindsight purchasing them was a grievous mistake’ he said sadly.
267	** Janus disassembles the "Exploding Tumor Machine," claiming that it was incredibly dumb. SGA-1 also tells the Hoffans that their plan to become inedible to the Wraith will only make it ''more'' likely that they'll be wiped out by their enemies, not less, using the analogy of a farmer exterminating a cow that has "Mad Cow Disease."
268	* TankGoodness: The hovertanks, including the first one, which SG-1 names "Harvey."
269	-->"The Jaffa were slightly confused at the Tau'ri battlecry of "Sic 'em Harvey" but they didn't have much time to ponder the meaning of the phrase before a large, floating machine, utterly impervious to their weapons appeared in their midst spitting a continual stream of laser and plasma fire and the situation became very unpleasant for them indeed."
270	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: X-COM, again. O'Neill comments that Sharp probably considers the word "overkill" to be blasphemy.
271	** That being said, he advocates restraint when dealing with the Dakara Superweapon.
272	* TheTalk: Mentioned that Cassie got one, as "explaining the facts of life", from [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3631062/24 Chapter 24]].
273	* TokenEvilTeammate: The Aschen as a whole are this.
274	** Nirrti, a Goa'uld only kept alive because she's so useful to X-COM.
275	** [=O'Neill=] considers Maybourne this. In the same way, many members of the SGC consider X-COM this, given their willingness to do less than ethically sound or sane things.
276	** Many, many, ''many'' people and civilizations consider X-COM this. Even Stargate Command doesn't really like them all that much, and mostly goes along with them in order to make sure that they don't piss off ''all'' of their offworld allies. It doesn't always work, as at least one diplomatic conference was only convened under the reassurance that "Russel Sharpe is nowhere within a thousand light years" of the event.
277	* TooAwesomeToUse: Zero Point Modules and Ancient Drones are treated this way a bit. Since they are very powerful but irreplaceable, because their manufacturing infrastructure is gone, X-COM treats them as tools of last resort, only allowed to use when the situation is really dire.
278	** Before they capture Loki's production facility, Elerium is treated as this to a lesser extent. While an incredible power source that allows for the basis of much of X-COM's reverse-engineered tech, no one had any idea how to make it in sustainable amounts, and thus Lasers were the preferred choice of weapon for off-world expeditions and Naquadah-based tech research remained viable to lessen the burden on their miniscule Elerium supplies.
279	* TrainingFromHell: X-COM training. Even if you are Elite of Elite, you are still put through training that would be considered inhuman by many. Worst part? You are going to need it. After some of the technology starts filtering back to Earth, it gets worse. Recruits are shot repeatedly with Zat guns so they can build up an immunity to the shots, intars allow for more realistic live-fire exercises, and the memory devices recovered later allow memories from back before all the good alien hunting tech was used to be planted into rookies (when casualty rates were far, ''far'' worse.)
280	** And it keeps getting worse as time goes on and more tech is recovered.
281	* TemptingFate: In chapter 13 of ''Mirror Image/Goa'uld Defence,'' O'Neill and Daniel are making jokes as to who is most likely to win the "Evil Asshole of the Galaxy 2001 Award," with the two front runners being Apophis and Loki. Carter comments that there's little chance of another person coming in to take the title. ''The very next paragraph'' is the introduction to Stargate's greatest ManipulativeBastard, Ba'al, who is working for an even ''worse'' monster, [[AGodAmI Anubis.]]
282	* TotallyRadical: "There’s a passage over there which says Ra is a righteous dude and Anubis is bogus."
283	** Sharp uses "bitchin," when shown the Mark II Powered Armour, later blaming Cassie for it.
284	* TwinThreesomeFantasy: "The O'Neill's didn't simultaneously have the same thought about what they'd like to do with [[spoiler: [[MesACrowd three]] Samantha Carter's]] in an ideal universe, but only because the mechanical Jack O'Neill had a brain that got there quicker."
285	* VerbalTic: The author is inordinately fond of stating that his characters "opined," instead of merely "said."
286	* VillainTeamUp: Anubis and Loki near the end of ''Mirror Image''.
287	* WarriorPoet: Jake Gaston literally writes poetry.
288	* WeHaveReserves: The X-COM mindset, which is one reason for the friction between them and SGC.
289	* WeakButSkilled: Deconstructed when [[spoiler: the weapons on Thor's Beliskner turn out to not have enough power to overcome Anubis's new shields that are also immune to the shield-piercing effect.]]
290	** Played straight with the Seritans, who have no major capital ships, but rely on small, fast, powerful fighters. Loki's forces are viewed this way by the rest of the Goa'uld, in a manner similar to the Seritans.
291	** X-COM, in a sense, at least towards the beginning. Even without technological equivalence to the System Lords, X-COM soldiers are ''far'' superior to Jaffa Armies, despite the crushing advantage of technology, numbers, and FTL-capable starships. Later averted once X-COM starts getting its own starships, and the tech advantage begins to heavily favor Earth's forces. Still played straight in other areas- Earth, like in canon, is forced to "Punch Above Its Weight" in order to stay in the game, and while they are in a much improved spot than in canon, a Goa'uld fleet is still capable of doing ''massive'' damage to the planet.
292	* WhatMeasureIsANonhuman: The UN waived Geneva et. al for hostile extraterrestrials.
293	** This includes HumanAliens like the Tollan, Langarans, Tegalans, and Athosians, not just for nonhumans like the Sectoids, Asgard, or Goa'uld. This has caused friction between X-COM and Stargate Command at times, particularly since Andianov was originally assigned to SG-1 in order to watch over (and kill) Teal'c if he ever decides to betray them.
294	** It's also caused friction between Earth and its allies before. It's noted early on that several treaties were only signed because they had a guarantee that X-COM wasn't within a thousand light years of the signing.
295	* WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: Word-for-word spoken by O'Neill about Loki's seemingly endless bag of tricks, ships, Sectoids, and elerium in chapter 27 of ''Mirror Image''/''Goa'uld Defense.''
296	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Loki believes himself this even more than in canon. Even Anubis, who's hardly a paragon of morality and sanity, thinks that's ridiculous.
297	* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: X-COM is fond of nukes.
298	-->'''Weir''': Nuclear weapons are not my preferred solution to every problem we ever encounter in the Pegasus Galaxy.
299	-->'''[=McKay=]''': But we've done so well with them so far.
300	* WildCard: Ba'al. He's willing to temporarily ally with the Tok'ra because he knows that a single incredibly powerful system lord would be a greater threat to him. To this end, he also backs Anubis against Apophis, but betrays the former ''the second'' the latter is dead.
301	* WillfullyWeak: Justified for Loki, who can't use full Asgard tech lest his kin come down on him. Not that his troops aren't nasty enough without it.
302	** It's also implied that the deliberately low levels of technology were to help fight off the Replicators, who would attack high tech devices and make themselves stronger. By using low tech devices, he could surprise them.

Context Fanfic / XSGCOM