Team Tryouts
When we last left off…
Fayth is finally able to release the last of her team from the sickbay. With AJ and Marie stepping back from the line into non-combat roles and Mal’K’Rettt taking a powder, the X-Com Assault Team now only consists of Fayth, Douglas, Brock and Carville. Janice Faraday has volunteered to step in as the team’s field tech as needed, which causes the science & engineering departments at Bunker November to breathe a collective sigh of relief; sometimes her research methodology and lab procedures leaves many of the Eggheads wanting…for her absence.
With the team roster looking thin, Lillian Kjelstad has put a priority on recruitment. She leaves a note for Fayth requesting she gather the team and meet her in Conference Room A (the fancy room with the comfy chairs and the holo-globe, woo!) Lillian has invited three potential candidates to the bunker and introduces them. They are John “Whiskey” MacNaughton, one of the Rangers; Andre MacMillan, a former detective for the Tacoma PD; and Harry Anderson, a talented young Eagle Scout who has worked as a scout and courier for Lillian on several occasions. She uses the meeting to begin catching the old-timers up on what has been going on and to give the Rooks a crash-course on X-Com.
With the introductions complete, Lillian lays out a mission for the team: There is evidence that some of the Pershings are under the influence of the NOI and are working for the aliens. X-Com doesn’t yet know how the aliens control people with the implants, so the key to freeing regions like Olympia may lie in finding and researching this “controller,” if it exists. She tasks them with surveilling Pershing compounds until they find evidence of the NOI, then attempt to find out how directives are sent to the implanted victims.
The team discusses their plan and decide to use the Lizardman Detector to sniff out the NOI. They ask Faraday to make some minor tweaks, disabling any of its electronic bells and whistles and adding recording functionality to it. When the device is ready, the team goes to a likely site suggested by Harry—a Pershing compound uncomfortably close to one of Gunky’s bolt holes. Harry figures that if he can get help clearing out those Redneck assholes, he might be able to get at his stuff again, and figures Gunky would have approved of the plan.
Since he has previous knowledge of this compound, the team relies on Harry to know the Pershings’ patrol routes and times. Harry volunteers to sneak near their route and plant the LD, with the hope that if any members of the patrol have the NOI, it will record the data and they can confirm it a bit later when the patrol passes. Harry plants the device, and beats feet away, not realizing that he has left some telltale sign of his presence. One member of the patrol notices, and performs some 12-gauge recon, which understandably causes Harry to yelp, and the unexpected fight is on.
The assault team rushes to the sound of the gunfire and meets the patrol in the woods. Whiskey cuts a burst of suppressing fire across half the patrol, which shakes them so much they stand stupefied in their own tracks for a few seconds. Those few seconds are all the rest of the team needs, however, to maneuver into cover and begin cutting them down. Fayth pops out from behind a tree and stitches one of them up and down with a couple of bursts from her SCAR, while Andre tags one in the head with his .44 magnum, blasting a crater in the poor yokel’s face. The survivors try to get their act together, with one of them trying to drill Andre, but missing. For his trouble, Fayth riddles that guy with five-five-six, as well.
With Sgt. MacNaughton laying down more suppressing fire on the last member of the patrol, he hollers out between bursts for the guy to drop his weapon and surrender. The hunting rifle instantly gets chucked like a spear in the direction of Andre, with a cowed reply of “JUST MAKE IT STOP!” This is clearly in regard to the withering machinegun fire that has been steadily whittling away at the large tree he’s been hiding behind. Whiskey lays off the trigger, and the team takes the Pershing into custody.
A bit of investigation reveals that at least one of the Pershings has an NOI, but there doesn’t seem to be any mysterious control device among them. They all have Chryssalid inhibitor beacons on their person, which further suggests they are in cahoots with the aliens. They tend to the two wounded. One is not in too bad of shape, but the other is nearer to death than life. Fayth gives a half-hearted attempt to save him, but when that fails, she watches over the kid and the Ranger as they use the ventilated Pershing as a first-aid practice dummy so she can get a feel for their skills. In a stroke up luck or divine intervention, Sgt. MacNaughton manages to stop the arterial bleed and manages to save the guy, which possibly causes Fayth to grumble at the notion of having to provide aftercare for the scum.
Focusing once again on the compound and the mission at hand, the team sets up a diversionary plan to get the Pershings at the compound to scramble into the field and split their forces for an infiltration/assault. When everything is in place, they kick the plan in gear, setting off some ammo in a fire a way off in the wrong direction. When the Pershings react, the team waits for them to disperse, but then everything goes sideways.
Several Pershings pile into a pickup that hauls off down the driveway. Shortly after it hits the gravel road, something detonates underneath of it, turning it into a flaming steel doughnut. Several troops of an unknown faction seem to melt out of the brush across the road from the compound and start riddling the walls of the house and the bodies of scrambling Pershings with bright blue beams from some kind of zort-guns. The team spots another one of these oddly-dressed commandos casually lurking atop the ridgeline of the main house. They have no idea how he got there, who they are or what these monkey wrenches are up to. There is a decent chance they might blow the operation if they take the goods here or destroy everything and kill everyone. That certainly won’t mean a complete mission failure, though. There seems to be no lack of Pershings in this neck of the woods. They are left with the question of whether to sit out the fight and allow it to conclude on its own, or jump into the fray—and if they opt to fight, which side to they join? Or do they try plan C, and let the two groups duke it out and jump the victor, after they have been bloodied as much their opponent could manage? We will quickly find out how the team chooses to play things, and if they make it back to base, whether the Rooks make the cut!
