Recruitment Drive, part I
XCOM:_Gray_Dawn#Recaps
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When we last left off...
Game #19 10/19/14
Day 22-23
The day begins with Janice Faraday on the hunt. She is looking for Marie. Not for an apocalyptic cat-fight, but to check her math on something that could be very important. Marie is nowhere to be found, however, so she looks up Fayth instead. The good doctor is usually pretty easy to find, and hasn't displayed overt dislike toward her.
With Fayth informed that Marie is AWOL, she spreads the word, to which everyone else kind of shrugs their shoulders and chalks her absence up to her erratic behavior. The cavalry is not instantaneously whipped into a damsel-rescuing lather. Perhaps she's just off chasing shiny butterflies holding nickels that are made entirely of squirrels and mirrors. AJ gets in touch with Lt. Spiers, and tells him to be on the lookout for her. Doug taps into the alien comm device that Marie wears, since it tracks location, and finds her easily enough. She is out in the woods where she really shouldn't (nor would she want) to be. He dispatches a scout drone.
Marie groggily wakes up. She is bound, gagged and has a black bag on her head. She is being carried on the shoulder of man carrying on a conversation with another person. The kidnappers seem to have a difference of opinion when it comes to the wisdom of taking Marie. One insists she is a high-value target. The other feels they should let her go because she is the Elma group's resident voice of reason/party-poop, and without her around to rain on their parade, those guys from Elma might finally get the Army dudes to take them all...
At which point the conversation ends because it has become comically prophetic. Marie hears two double-taps, then she is dropped. She hears boots crunching on the gravel road toward her, then another two gunshots. The hood is pulled off her head, and she finds Lt. Spiers standing over her. He cuts her bindings and offers his hand, telling her, "On your feet, Ranger." Marie is naturally a bit stunned because Spiers has just killed two men in order to rescue her.
Doug hears the gunshots with his drone and swoops in to verify Marie's safety. Spiers plucks stolen Development Park IDs off the dead kidnappers. He explains that Marie's mom sent him to look for her daughter and bring her back safely.
With Marie safe, the newest addition to the research team is trying to make herself even more useful. Faraday tells AJ that with the research Marie has completed thus far, she can begin manufacturing armor. AJ gets her on the job. One drawback, however, is that the armor has very unforgiving fit specs, which will require any wearer to sit through a lengthy and very personal measurement process. Farady sidles up to Marie and offers this olive branch to give her the opportunity to spend some mutual naked time with Doug. "...Unless you want me to do it," she says, reminding Marie of the alternative. For Marie, that plan is a definite no-go. She will figure it all out later. Faraday also approaches Fayth about getting Carville's measurements, which leads to a second date of near-unrivaled awkwardness. Faraday only has enough raw materials to produce four suits of "Composite Body Armor," and AJ determines that the first suits should go to Carville, Brock, Marie and Fayth. We will eventually see how AJ's wife feels about him turning down advanced armor...
AJ is contacted by Officer Cristelli regarding some teenage boys requesting an audience. He arranges a meeting at city hall. The boys represent a larger group who would like to offer their help, hopefully in a way that doesn't involve building bridges. AJ sees their camo hunting gear, rifles and their can-do attitudes and offers them the exact task they came to help with, almost as though he read their minds (or the Ref's poorly-guarded game notes). He wants them to scout and provide intel on the Pershings, but emphasizes that they need training and their parents' blessing. He doesn't want to create a PR-shitstorm if some kid gets himself killed.
Later on, Peter Kjelstad requests a side-job be completed when the group heads toward Seattle on the Egghead Hunt. KAI's main offices are in Olympia, on the way, and he would like them to degauss or destroy the computers there, since he can't account for all the information they may contain (which could potentially lead people to some of the X-Com bunkers). They agree, since they need to check on a few scientist leads in Olympia, anyway.
When they get to Olympia, the place is strangely peaceful and orderly. Groups of civilians are seen wordlessly working together in perfect harmony and orchestration to clean the place up, which is all kinds of creepy. Marie and Doug find that the Lizardman Detector--a normally short-ranged doodad--is positively wigging out from the signal strength all around them. The team realizes they are in the lion's den and choose to speed through town to their destination. Carville takes a few corners to throw off WSP pursuit, and lead them out of the Children-of-the-Corn-maze, eventually arriving at the KAI offices.
The place is abandoned, but it looks as though someone has broken into their target. AJ and Carville quietly enter and make their way to the back where the servers are. The computer room has been breached, as well. AJ hears movement inside. The power is on in that room. He spies two intruders that he and Carville neutralize. They have incisions on their necks; the mark of the NOI. One also has an alien hand-computer-thingy that Marie learns is sending out data. AJ sets up the charges and blows up the offices, then the team rabbits.
With that task complete, they try and contact the three scientists on their list in the Olympia area. One is overtly creepy and keeps trying to get info about the team. He wants them to pick him up at the Capitol campus. The team tells him all one thousand of them are on their way, and wisely choose to let the Quisling hang. They get the other two non-creepy scientists to meet in a safe location outside of the city and call in the Skyranger for extraction.
The round-up has begun, and the group must carry on north up the I-5 corridor if they hope to make any further contacts.
