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Proof that the remaining 10% is worth assaulting a downed alien battleship for.

These are recommendations made by tropers for X-COM and XCOM: Enemy Unknown Fanfics, all of which have to be signed to stay on the page. After a few samples, you will be able to note the interests of the tropers recommending them, and judge whether you might be also interested in a certain 'fic.

Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found herenote . Do warn when a fanfic may head into sexualnote  or non-canon territory. Some people just don't like it, and as we all know, Shipping is Serious Business.

Reviews of fics are encouraged, but if you choose to write one, please make it substantive, and give specific details about what you liked / disliked in the fic. If you want to give a fic a thumbs-up without writing a full review, you can add your troper handle to the Recommendations Line. Please refrain from posting "Comments" or Conversation in the Main Page though; that goes in the discussion page.


GuavaMoment and Jade Star

  • Recommended by: Andy Waltfeld, OperationAvenger
  • Status: Complete
  • Comments: The saga that inspired the X-COM page on TV Tropes... and the exhaustive coverage that drove Guava and Jade nuts. Note that these are listed in order by internal chronology; Guava actually played Apocalypse and Interceptor first, then Jade did Aftermath, then they started collaborating.
    • Ssfsx17: This is an absolutely epic saga detailing the life and times of an X-COM soldier by the name of Otto Zander, with some interesting custom missions made specifically for the LP series.
      • It would seem that Otto Zander is now an "official" unlockable character in the new XCOM remake by Firaxis. A great little piece of ascended fanon.
      • Speedball: It's a fantastic comedy of errors where everyone keeps dying...and yet also gets serious when it becomes time to, like all great fiction. Seriously, check it out.
      • Known for its plethora of characters; Andrew Jackson (as in the PRESIDENT) makes an appearance as a soldier, and the infamous hypern (an extremely poorly-written backstory-holding grammar-bereft moron).

Beaglerush Ironman Impossible by Beaglerush

  • Recommended by: adipose1913
  • Status: Dead
  • Synopsis: A tightly edited playthrough of Enemy Unknown. From the first episode's description: "Let's save Earth! On the hardest difficulty! Without loading saves! Woo!"
  • Pairing(s): None
  • Comments: Gave us gems such as Oakley, the sniper who always misses, and Soylent "Murder Zone" Green. Only the first season is complete. The other two seasons were dropped in favor of his "Live and Impossible" stream series. One of the best Enemy Unknown series out there.

Peptuck - Peptuck's UFO Defense at Stardestroyer.net

chiasaur11 and Alex Knight

  • Recommended by: Andy Waltfeld and adipose1913
  • Pilfering equal parts from Red vs. Blue and Warhammer 40,000 to create a tongue-in-cheek hyper-Spartan mentality, these two somehow manage to survive X-COM's insane Red Shirt turnaround and turn that luck into ensemble comedy. Currently Dead Fic since Alex Knight's computer crashed halfway into TFTD.
  • Adipose1913: Seconded. The Red vs. Blue comparison is apt, although people here can somehow be even more Genre blind and genre savvy than any Red vs Blue character in the same moment.

MJ12 Commando

  • Recommended by: Commissar Gaunt
  • A darkly hilarious and extremely awesome description of what really happened in AW's 1 and 2. Finished.

English Ivy

  • Recommended by: Charlatan
  • Mad science, Korgmeister's highly ironic death, a hilarious one-off joke shunting Terror from the Deep to the wayside, and the adventures of Epsilon Squad, as well as an epic endgame.

Krellen's XCOM: Enemy Unknown Commander's Logs

  • Recommended by: Sphingx
  • A good rundown of the canon XCOM: EU campaign from the POV of The Commander, with good character development. Ends right after the Overseer mission.

The XCOM Saga, by the Fear the Boot roleplay community

  • Recommended by: spiritplumber
  • A Let's play with RP interludes written by the community
  • Covers XCOM 2012, Enemy Within (as a second invasion, with dates changed), and XCOM:Apocalypse in one organic narrative

XCOM Academy, by the Emlia roleplay group

  • Recommended by: spiritplumber
  • A Let's Play with RP interludes written by the community
  • Covers Enemy Within
  • XCOM exists to train soldiers to fight aliens in their home country, rather than deal with the invasion single handedly: rookies are used throughout, and returned home (fired) instead of being promoted
  • Seems to contain ADVENT in a side plot, despite having been written before the announcement of XCOM 2

XCOM: Enemy Within, by Speedball

  • Recommended by: HouseLyrander
  • Status: Complete
  • Synopsis: A full playthrough of Enemy Within with a strong emphasis on narrative. Uses a great deal of Adaptation Expansion to not only flesh out the lore behind the game mechanics and the personalities of the canon characters, but also to include several well written OCs as well as some minor Canon Welding with other XCOM games particularly with The Bureau XCOM Declassified
  • Pairing(s): OC/OC
  • Comments: A great mix of cerebral, funny, and dramatic that somehow manages to strike a balance between serious introspection on transhumanism, tragic deaths, fluffy romance, shocking plot twists, and EXALT's leader being rewritten into Cobra Commander

XCOM: Enemy Within and XCOM 2, by [-DaStalinator-]

  • Recommended by: Meshakhad
  • Status: Abandoned
  • Synopsis: In most respects, an ordinary Let's Play of both XCOM: EW and XCOM 2... except that the soldiers are all named and modeled after modern (and occasionally historical) political figures.
  • Comments: Ever wanted to see Pope Francis stab a Sectoid while Donald "The Wall" Trump provides covering fire with a minigun? Your wishes have been fulfilled.

Stories focused on the family and the friendly relationships of the cast. Plot-focused stories or light day-in-the-life stories. Pretty much anything that isn't focused on romance.

X-COM Saga by Russ Brown

  • Recommended by: St Clair
  • Status: Complete
  • Synopsis: The original classic from 1994, posted to Usenet one chapter at a time.

Kansai Arc by Ben Fischer

  • Recommended by: usmarox
  • Status: Complete
  • Synopsis: Strong contender with the above for "original and best". Can be non-canon in places, generally only to invoke a little more truth in fanfiction. Originally hosted on GeoCities.

X-COM: Unknown Menace

  • Recommended by: Flaser
  • Status: Complete
  • Synopsis: This is EPIC, in the truest sense of the world. It covers the entire First Alien War (UFO Defense) from X-COM's beginning to the final battle at Cydonia (1998-2003). 36 chapters of brutal combat, political intrigue and conspiracy. André has managed to pack a lot into this story, bringing the game to life and giving us characters that you care about.
  • Comments: Worth noting that the writer's first language is not English, so this can make some parts difficult to read. Nonetheless, extremely well-done and properly thought-out, adding in political and conspiracy angles that the original game couldn't offer.
    • They Killed Fritz: It's worth noting that, although the original novel is complete, as is the intermediate short story 'Eulogy', the full sequel 'Abyssal' is currently Dead Fic, and will likely remain that way permanently - the most recent update, the eighth chapter, was posted in 2005. As such, it is likely that the third planned novel, 'Nemesis', will never even begin.

Breeding Fear

  • Recommended by: Andy Waltfeld
  • Status: Complete
  • Pairings: Chrysalid/warm flesh, I guess
  • Synopsis: BioKraze takes a look inside the mind of everyone's favorite alien zombie maker.
  • Comments:

Remembrance by Norwest

  • Recommended by: Gentlemens Dame 883 and Sphingx
  • Status: Complete
  • Pairings: None
  • Synopsis: "In the end, we all end up on the Wall."
  • Comments:

XCOM: The Hades Contingency by Xabiar

  • Recommended by: Gentlemens Dame 883
  • Status: Complete with one complete sequel - XCOM: The Atlas Protocol - and one ongoing sequel - XCOM: The Advent Directive.
  • Synopsis: "The Commander". The man who won the War on Terror at a horrible cost and was vilified for it. He may be the only hope humanity has to fight the alien menace...if he can stay ahead of the distrustful Council's machinations at the same time. Based on Enemy Within with XCOM: Long War content.
  • Pairing(s): Commander/Vahlen Ship Tease
  • Tags: XCOM

Crossovers
XSGCOM: Goa'uld Defence
  • Recommended by: SJC, amitakartok, Krisnack
  • Crossover with: SG-1
  • Status: Complete
  • Pairings: None
  • Synopsis: SG-1/X-COM Crossover — As humanity fights two alien threats its defenders join forces to turn the tide
  • Comments: "surprisingly good" doesn't even scratch the surface. This fic is made of concentrated awesomeness mixed with a healthy dose of HSQ.'
    • Night: Feel-good asskickings abound. In other words...NOTHING LIKE X-COM.
      • Mandemo disagrees. It's exactly X-COM. It's just Jaffa suck compared to sectoids, etherial or crysalids... Still, X-COM spends most of its time trying to figure alien tech out, as several situations at are very grim (Alien fighters fromInterceptor against UFO Defense equipment? Oh, Crap!). Still awesome!
      • Has now a page: XSGCOM

X-COM: SG1

  • Recommended by: Usili
  • Crossover with: SG-1
  • Status: Dormant
  • Parings: None
  • Synopsis: SG-1/X-COM fusion fic - it's about XCOM: EU Earth running their own Stargate program staffed by a bunch of XCOM style familiar faces from Stargate - both Carter and Jackson are psionic, and so are a few Goa'uld. The author has hinted that the slightly different Stargate galaxy the Earth of the story finds themselves in is a result of some sort of conflict/relations between the Goa'uld and the Etherals... and that we should all be scared witless when the already psychic bad guys of Stargate show up. It's written from Jack's perspective in first person and is actually quite funny at times - even if the main draw is the kickass action on a scale never dreamed of by SG-1 or XCOM.

XSGCOM: Terra from the Deep

  • Recommended by: SJC, amitakartok
  • Crossover with: SG-1
  • Status: Dormant
  • Pairings: None
  • Synopsis: SG-1/X-COM Crossover — As old enemies fall by the wayside new ones appear to challenge the Tau'ri and their allies.
  • Comments: Night as above, so far.
    • Mandemo Pretty much same as previous, although too early to judge until series is concluded.

XCOM: Second Contact by Agayek

Stardust by Arad

  • Recommended by: Stratagemini
  • Crossover with: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
  • Status: Complete
  • Pairings: None
  • Synopsis: MLP:FIM/X-COM Crossover — Isolated from her friends and taken prisoner in the middle of a war, Twilight must deal with the very real dangers of being perceived as an enemy as well as the nightmares of her arrival on 'Earth'. Can she overcome her own fears and the fears of her captors? Will the wayward unicorn's assistance be a boon or a curse to the 'humans?' Most importantly, will she ever find her way home?
  • Comments: Completed, with 2 completed Side-story sequels, and a 3rd sequel currently updating.
  • Has a trope page

XCOM Online by Sasahara 17

  • Recommended by: Stratagemini
  • Crossover with: Sword Art Online
  • Status: Dead because the author has decided to focus on his other stories.
  • Synopsis: What if instead of Aincrad, Kayaba partnered with 2K Games to revive an old franchise as the first VRMMO, X-Com? Now, Kirito and Company must make it through a death game that claimed 3,000 lives (out of 10,000) in the first month alone.
  • Pairing(s): None, so far.
  • Tags: XCOM

Vigil by Peptuck

  • Recommended by: The Good Samaritan and Operation Avenger
  • Crossover with: Mass Effect primarily, with Eclipse Phase and FEAR sprinkled in.
  • Status: Dormant
  • Synopsis: Mankind has survived its crucible, and while scarred and changed by the Ethereals, they advance into the cosmos. The galaxy beyond is a place of wonder and terror, of wealth and strife. Amid the threats and opportunities, both within and without, XCOM remains vigilant. Mass Effect/XCOM/Eclipse Phase/FEAR fusion.
  • Comments: From the same author of Tiberium Wars, Renegade, and No Gods, Only Guns comes a decidedly grim mash-up of the worlds of X-COM and Mass Effect. Apparently inspired by XCOM: Second Contact, the story is its own organism, with such differences as first contact being with the geth, and the destruction of the entire quarian race by the Ethereals. The story is darkly intriguing at only five chapters thus far and shows enormous potential.
  • Pairing(s): None, so far
  • Tags: XCOM

Psi Effect by Cap'n Cryssalid

  • Recommended by: keen320
  • Crossover with: Mass Effect
  • Status: Dormant; last updated January 2018
  • Synopsis: A fun-loving asari mercenary finds herself a little in over her head when she ends up abducted by terrifying aliens from beyond the galactic frontier. These asari-like creatures call themselves 'humans.' They seem to be secretly nosing about on the borders of known space, acting through proxies, conducting covert operations, and they've got a deal for an enterprising asari...
  • Comments: Using the elements from Enemy Within, this fic is significantly lighter than most X-com crossovers. While X-com is, as often seems to be the case in these crossovers, somewhat overpowered, this was offset by the lighter nature of the fic, X-com's desire to stay covert, and the fact that the fic is told mostly from non-human POVs, particularly the asari mentioned in the synopsis.
  • Pairing(s): Possible one sided pairing between OC and Shepherd.
  • Tags: XCOM

The Road to Cydonia

  • Recommended by: mariic
  • Crossover with: Ranma ½
  • Status: Complete
  • Synopsis: The year is 2005, and man is waging a secret war against an enemy from beyond the stars. In Japan, the Nermina Wrecking Crew has been captured by said enemy, and join the fight.

X Com RWBY Within

  • Recommended by: SAMAS
  • Crossover with: RWBY
  • Status: Complete, with one complete sequel and another sequel in progress
  • Synopsis: A test of the Hyperwave Relay goes a little off when it suddenly generates a portal to who-knows-where. A question that is soon answered when four teenage girls drop out of it. Unfortunately with the war going on, they don't have the time to figure the system out enough to send them home. On the bright side, these girls have some new non-alien technology, and they all happen to be highly-skilled fighters in their own right. They just need a little... retraining.

Twenty Years Late by Drenched in Megalomania

Ferris by u63r

  • Recommended by Tropers/Jereyaj
  • Status: Complete
  • Synopsis: The pitch: A geek ends up in the XCOM universe. Good News: He's just the Chief Engineer's personal assistant. Bad News: The Chief Engineer is Tony Stark.
  • Crossover: Marvel Cinematic Universe and XCOM: Enemy Unknown


Alternative Title(s): XCOM Enemy Unknown

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