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XCOM:_Gray_Dawn#Recaps
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Game #11 6/29/14
Day 12
Before the core of the Elma Resistance meets for their showdown with Lillian Kjelstad, Fayth approaches Brock and formally discharges him from quarantine. His official release paper is the 3 of spades missing from his deck of cards. Brock cherishes it, and sticks it in his pocket, close to his heart. Now the resistance is whole again, and they can meet with Marie's frosty mother.
If they are to join Project Covenant, they want certain reassurances, operational discretion and transparency, among other things. Mrs. Kjelstad takes them on a tour of Bunker November, also known as "Eagle," and tells the history of her organization.
She tells the group that the fighting arm of the Project needs to be staffed in order to fend off the alien invaders, and the Project's resources will be at their disposal. With the Project's vast intelligence-gathering assets, its soldiers will have a leg up countering alien aggression compared to less-prepared combat units. She claims that she doesn't want to control them, she just wants them to be able to fight the invaders. She is certain that if they are given the tools and ability to fight back, the rest will come to them naturally.
The group proposes they put the measure up to a vote. The results come back: 8 for and 1 against. Lillian Kjelstad welcomes them to Project Covenant, and their new base of operations. She gives them free rein to explore and even move in, if they so desire. Fayth takes this opportunity to sneak off and interact with the base computer again, partly to see if it can exert any control over the 3 construction drones they have penned up there. The friendly computer greets Fayth by name and says it is "glad" to see her again. Fayth inquires why the computer knows anything about her or her friends, and finds that Lillian Kjelstad had been compiling information on many of them for potential recruitment. As to Fayth's request regarding the drones, the computer says it will do what it can to keep the big dumb machines occupied.
Before Marie's mom parts ways and leaves the group to their own plans, she drops a hint that she suspects Harlan Ruger will want to speak with them. Just to see what she's talking about, they go see the Colonel, and by golly, he does want to talk to them! What are the odds of that...?
Ruger's deputies had been called to investigate a missing local, a concerned neighbor trying to be a good citizen by checking in on his own neighbors. The deputies learned which houses were on the man's route and went door-to-door to see where he'd been last. At one house they got no answer, so in the interest of public safety, they forced entry and found a horrific scene: Three skinned corpses stacked like cordwood in the pantry! Ruger would like a team with a doctor to investigate for clues. Fayth, the resident Doc, is made lead investigator, and directs her team of AJ, Brock and her brother Doug (who is cleverly disguised as an Assault Drone) to check the perimeter while she, Marie and one of the Rangers checks the inside. The Ranger assisting them has a background as an MP, so he has a basic understanding of simple forensics and evidence-gathering.
Fayth determines that the corpses (2 males and 1 female; two are elderly and one is younger) have been skinned in such a way that they did not bleed all over the place. The younger male corpse has a cauterized burn wound in the chest, similar (but much worse) than the "Green Gun" wounds Brock suffered on Tiger Mountain. They also find one of the alien "mind control bullets" of the type that Fayth had removed from corpses of WSP Troopers.
Meanwhile, Doug finds some tracks outside the house and wanders off to follow them (without bothering to tell anybody that he is, in fact, wandering off or that he has actually found anything. Silly players! Why you no speak-speak with the radio thingies?) The tracks go through the woods and come to a nearby country road, where he loses the trail. This road leads only to rural residences, however, so the team employs the assistance of the local police to canvas the area.
During the search, Doug's drone spots a person slinking around--it is the missing old man from the murder scene! Or--as Doug suspects--some alien wearing his skin! Doug kicks the drone to pursue and unleashes the needler weapon, stitching the suspect up and down, leaving him a gory mess, and thoroughly corpsified. When AJ & Brock arrive, they find, through tears in the man's skin, that there is indeed an alien hiding beneath the human flesh. The arms and legs begin to move, to retract, which sort of freaks AJ out; he fires several shots into the prone alien, just to be on the safe side.
A couple officers report back that they have spotted suspicious activity at an apparently abandoned house nearby. Doug's drone is sent in to scout. Doug critically fails to spot the high-tech alien intrusion sensors, and tips them off to his presence. When he gets within view of the house, a Behemoth fires its energy rifle from a second-story window, nearly destroying the drone. Doug pulls back and zips to the other side of the property, pops out of cover, and unleashes the drone's explosive weapon to blow up a major chunk of the house. This doesn't wipe out the Behemoth inside, though (much to Doug's chagrin) and it leaps from the flaming ruins with a terrible roar to shoot the drone again.
Doug's drone is critically damaged, and he faces losing it if it takes one more hit. He pulls back, sending the drone on autopilot to return home. He tries to activate another drone, but his system tells him "access denied."
AJ and Brock are caught halfway between the scene of the murder investigation and the alien safehouse when they hear an explosion (a house being blown up) in the distance. They scramble back to gather forces and a vehicle to get the group to the action. This takes a few minutes, and when they arrive, they find a single drone shooting a rapid-fire laser into the woods, suppressing the cops that Doug abandoned there. Brock and Fayth take the drone out with precision rifle fire, and Brock spots a heat source hiding in one of the outbuildings, a child's small playhouse. The strike team advances from cover to cover, and when he's close enough, Brock tosses a frag grenade into the house.
A Gray frantically dives out the window, but the grenade flattens the house and knocks the alien out of action. The rest of the buildings are unoccupied. The aliens have fled and gone to ground. The investigation has begun and some questions have been answered, but this fight is far from over.
