O Brother, Who Art Thou?
XCOM:_Gray_Dawn#Recaps
Previous...Next
When we last left off...
Game #22 11/23/14
Day 24
O Brother, Who Art Thou?
The day begins rather innocently, as many days of portent do. After the group's meeting with Dean Vickers, they notice one of the new scientists trying to spy on them and failing miserably in her attempts to keep hidden. AJ approaches Dr. Belladonna Waithe, startling the jumpy geneticist. She strangely inquires if AJ is with "him," indicating Dean Vickers who just left their company a moment ago. AJ puts her at ease, telling her they hardly know the man. She tells a convoluted story about not trusting him or the other guy (Ian Church), because she is not sure they are who they say they are. By way of explanation, she hands over a photo she purloined from the Cold War exhibit at the Pacific Science center. It is a black and white glossy of two men at some kind of electronics console. One of them is a spitting image of Vickers. The other is Church. This picture of them looks like it could have been taken yesterday, however the date on the back claims it is from "Listening Post Reykjavik" in 1958. Strangely enough, there is a third man in the background of the photo. A black man who looks almost exactly like AJ, which might have accounted for Dr. Waithe's suspicion of him. AJ is pretty sure that it's not him in the picture, but with the strangeness of all the things going on in the world, he might have some doubts about his own memories and background! The team considers what to do, and decide against confronting Vickers or Church directly. Instead, Marie talks to Vickers and tries to get some info from him in under the guise of trying to get a base security clearance ironed out for him.
A bit later on, Fayth gets a call from Dr. Emil Richards, the current director of the local hospital in Elma, and the primary care physician of Fayth and Doug's mother. She answers the call with some trepidation; has her mother miraculously recovered? Has her condition worsened? Dr. Richards asks to meet her face to face, and Fayth fears what that means. You don't give bad news over the phone. She gets Doug in the Volkswagen and takes him to the hospital to hear what the doctor has to say. Whatever news may come, she figures her brother ought to be there to hear it, too.
On the trip into town, Doug is (typically) obsessed with using his laptop to maneuver his coterie of drones around; she can see one following them in the rearview mirror. She is a bit miffed (to put it lightly) about his lack of concern for what brings them to the hospital. She gets the impression that this trip is more of a bother to Doug than anything else. When they meet with Dr. Richards, he has no immediately good or bad news regarding Lorelei Wilson. Rather, he wants to bring to Dr. Wilson's attention the facts of the current situation. He says that while her mother's condition is not worsening, it is not improving, either, and based on what tests they can run, he--sadly--has no reason to suspect she will recover with only the passage of time to heal her. He also points out that Mrs. Wilson has other medicinal requirements, and it is only a matter of time before they either exhaust their supplies or what supplies they do have expire. Finally, there is also the real possibility that some catastrophe may strike again, and they might need the space in the ICU. He apologizes profusely, but calls upon Fayth's understanding of the principles of triage. He suggests that she begin considering alternatives for her mother's long-term care, up to and including taking her off life support. Fayth is not ready to pull the plug on her mom, not while there is a chance that ground-breaking research a fresh batch of scientists might be able to kick into gear. Fayth makes preparations to possibly move her mother into the sick bay at Bunker November.
On the way back to the development park, while chastising Doug for his general callousness, Fayth notices Doug's drone drop out of the sky while it is following them. She pulls over, and Doug frantically leaps into action to save his baby! When they get back to the park, Fayth is hassled by the Ranger at the gate who makes her jump through a few hoops before he lets her on base. She complains a bit, but the Ranger reminds her that she and her friends were the ones who wanted heightened security, and after the rash of people trying to infiltrate using stolen and fake IDs, he's not taking things for granted.
Meanwhile, Marie notices that her droney shadow has plopped on the ground nearby. She examines it and finds that is not getting any power. She, AJ, Fayth and Doug put their heads together, and investigate Draco's buried ship, as its reactors are the source of the drones' power. Fayth calls upon her litter to do the excavating. While Fayth punches the code into the access panel in the bunker's hangar bay, she notices Alamo watching her punch in numbers. She also notices the hulking construction drone pointedly looking away whenever she looks at it, trying to appear as innocent as a four-legged SUV with a noted penchant for curiosity can be. The group escorts the construction drones out (obviously they have not lost power!) and they try to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Draco's ship is dark inside, and deathly quiet. They find the reactor, and using the method AJ discovered in the reactor room aboard the Firestorm, he begins scrubbing the ship's fuel rods, cleaning off the impurities that have crusted on them and cut their efficiency to zero. When the rods are plugged back in, the ship's systems come back online, and power is restored to the drones. Doug is overjoyed, and hugs Marie for saving his babies.
The team gets Fayth's litter back in the bunker, and they are called by the guards at the main gate. Some of the 50 Lizardman detectors Marie ordered built have found their way into the hands of the men at the main gate, who have been proactively scanning people. This precaution is evidently not fruitless, as they have gotten a positive reading off of one of the base personnel attempting to leave. They are stalling her, but they would like some backup and intervention. The team makes their way to the main gate to check things out.
The woman trying to leave is one of the workers at the medical center at the park. She is confused and annoyed (understandably so) about why she is being held up. As the group arrives, they overhear the Ranger at the gate trying to mollify her, explaining that the new security measures are causing some hiccups that they are trying to work through. Marie tries to assist by asking a few guileless questions ("Can I see the back of your neck?") Fayth steps in to try and keep Marie from completely blowing any cover they might have, asking her associate to pull her car off to the side of the road and stepping out of the vehicle so they might resolve this issue. The woman agrees, and pulls off to the shoulder. Fayth sees her reach over for her purse, but is powerless to stop her from pulling a revolver from within and shooting herself in the temple.
Needless to say, watching someone she has worked with for several weeks now blow her brains out without warning right in front of her freaks Fayth the fuck out. If this were a Call of Cthulhu campaign, she might have to make a SAN check. The team decides to put the base on full alert and lockdown. If people are getting mind-controlled, they need to figure out who has been affected. AJ calls his wife to get her on the scene, and hears her cell phone ring from the trunk of Suicide Girl's car. Whaaaat?
AJ finds his wife inside, trussed up and knocked out. They get her woken up and she says the nurse jumped her, and that was the last thing she remembers.
Doug wants to retrieve some equipment from his command center, but is stymied by the lockdown. AJ works a deal with the Rangers for Doug to have an escort off site. He returns with his mysterious package, and sets his zany plan in motion, making a cocoon of tarps in the cab of his jalopy pickup, preventing people from seeing what he is doing. People quickly ignore him because if they wonder too much what Doug is up to, it tends to give people headaches.
The dead woman at the gate was clearly not implanted with an NOI, suggesting that she was controlled by an entity with psionic abilities. The team's marginal understanding of this ability pegs it as relatively short-ranged and temporary, suggesting that there might be an alien nearby or even in their midst! AJ orders the base locked even downier, when things suddenly take a turn for the bizarre.
Doug rips down the tarps inside his truck and sticks his head out the window, calling for the Ranger in the guard tower to get Captain Newton on the horn and get the artillery battery to launch a fire mission. He rattles off the coordinates for the hotel at the Lucky Eagle Casino! People are trying to get information from Doug, but he is reluctant to reveal how he knows that alien masterminds are hiding out at the new Pershing stronghold. Captain Newton arrives to get info from AJ regarding the trustworthiness of this intel. While AJ is strongly tempted to give Doug's plan the thumbs-up based on the fact that if he's wrong, they'll just be bombing the Pershings, he can't deny the fact that they don't know what innocents the White Supremacists may have packed into the Indian casino. Reluctantly, they have to put the kybosh to Doug's call to arms, and Newton calls for the artillery battery to stand down.
Since the lockdown, Doug has rapidly grown increasingly paranoid, and has tasked the assault drone following him to hover over his truck in a defensive pattern, ready to stun anyone who gets too close. Fayth idly tags her brother with the LD, and gets a fluttering reading from him. She approaches to try and talk to him, only to get warned off by the drone. She hatches a plan. Muttering under her breath, "You better have that thing set to stun!" she vaults toward the truck and rolls underneath. The drone tries to stun her, and also energizes the truck, which gooses Doug, as well. Fayth's plan was successful, except for the part where Doug doesn't go unconscious. He then takes matters into his own hands. His crazy, crazy hands.
Doug guns the engine of his truck and makes a beeline for the main gate, nearly running over Fayth in the process. The drone follows. The Rangers at the gate respond by opening fire on the most threatening thing heading their way, the heavily-armed assault drone. Doug's baby takes a hit, and he has the drone launch its payload of pulse missiles at the fortified gate to blast it open and make way for his escape. He is not too careful about his aim, not being overly concerned if some of the Rangers are caught in the fringes of the missiles' blast radius. One of them is enveloped in the destruction and nearly killed. The Rangers then switch their target to the one controlling the drone...
Everyone else is aghast at this turn of events. They can't comprehend what has come over Doug. Is he the new victim of alien mind control? All they know is that he must be stopped before he causes any more harm or gets himself killed.
A burst from the SAW in the guard tower rips through Doug's truck, crippling his arm and severely wounding him. Doug maintains consciousness long enough for Fayth to draw her pistol and blow out one of Doug's tires. He catastrophically loses control, plowing into a barricade at the gate and flipping his truck. The impact finally knocks him out, and without Doug to guide the drone or turn it off, it reverts to its defensive programming, opening up on the last combatant to fire at it: Captain Newton.
The railgun blows Newton's arm clean off, and the secondary blast knocks him off his feet. AJ and the Rangers continue to pour fire into the drone, but it is tough, and takes multiple hits. It tries to fire again, but the railgun misfires and explodes. Next, it tries to lash out with the needlers, but sustained fire has damaged that system as well. Fayth runs to the truck, hoping to pull her stupid brother free, if not to save his life out of general principle, then at the very least so they can interrogate him later! As she uses her freakish strength to break him out of his seatbelt, she notices the alien Neural Interface Helmet rolling around. She tosses Doug over her shoulder and scoops up the suspicious bit of headgear, running for cover as one final shot from AJ knocks the assault drone out of commission. The drone explodes in a final bit of chaos, and the unexpected battle is over.
Fayth scrambles to save her mortally wounded brother. AJ calls for medical assistance from the base; his wife leads the charge despite what she has already been through today. They rush to help Newton. It is touch and go for a moment with Doug, but he musters some will to live, and Fayth is able to stabilize him. She also saves the Ranger Doug blew up, but he is in bad shape. Wounded are rushed to the Bunker's sick bay, and people try to figure out what the hell just happened.
After Fayth is done with surgery, she waits for Doug to come to. She suspects he is playing possum, and eventually leaves his side to update AJ, who gets a call from Harlan Ruger. A Russian guy by the name of Vladimir Gurov has requested an audience with Fayth Wilson, at her convenience. Fayth is a bit taken aback that the Soviet bogeyman wants to talk to her, and tables that for later; she is not at all prepared to deal with him right now.
Soon, they get a call from Lillian Kjelstad, who informs them that she was called by Doug, who wants her help escaping the base, and what would they like her to do with him. Fayth's response is a general "What the fuck?!" while AJ asks her to go along with his scheme to see what he is up to, but that if he tries to elude her or if he tries to go to his command center, to take him back into custody.
Lillian helps Doug escape. When she asks him where he wants her to take him, he naturally seeks the refuge of his lair. When he arrives, he sets to gathering supplies when he hears something thump on the ground behind him. Turning to look, the last thing he sees is a concussion grenade rolling across the ground. When he is brought back, it is revealed that he had earlier picked Fayth's pocket and used a handcuff key on her key ring to get loose.
In a last-ditch attempt to spare Doug's life, Marie has thrown herself into researching the Neural Interface Helmet found in Doug's possession. It is the one she altered for him to prevent anyone (like Faraday) from taking control of his drones. She has run some tests on its memory buffer, and has found that Doug was using it, and based off of what she can tell from the readings contained therein, he was using it to try and wrest control of alien drones. Because Doug was using the thing in ways it was never intended, he might have suffered some backlash that resulted in the strange LD readings. At the very least, she hopes it is grounds for some clemency, though she admits that her views might be suspect because "He's my Doug, and I want to save him."
Because all this weirdness struck as soon as Vickers and Church made the scene, AJ has had enough of the subterfuge, and squares off with Vickers. He slaps the photo down and demands an explanation. Vickers relents, and tells AJ that those men are indeed he and Church. The year was 1958, and that the man in the background was...AJ's father, a dedicated soldier and X-Com agent who undertook a secret mission long ago.
