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[[XCOM:_Gray_Dawn#Recaps]]<br>
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When we last left off...

Game #29 3/28/15

Days 37-38


No Place Like Home

The team waits while Fayth recovers from her procedure at the hands of the Gray medic, Collier.  She doesn't return for some time, prompting her retrieval.  She is alive, but her wellness is yet to be seen; she is quiet and withdrawn.  No one pries very hard as to what she has recalled with the fog of chemical amnesia lifted.  Perhaps it is a case of mass apathy among her so-called friends.  Perhaps they are afraid to know, themselves.  Or, possibly, they can see shadows of the terrors playing out behind her eyes, and they don't want to force her to voice those memories just yet.<br>

Whatever the case, Fayth is barely there until people begin talking about what actions to take against the aliens.  Suddenly, she is all ears, and uncharacteristically gung-ho when it comes to making the XTs pay...<br>

Brock bullies his way around Underworld's command center like he owns the place, invoking the ire of Commander Mederow (who takes to calling Brock "Mr. Yankins").  The team agrees to clear one more mission from Mederow's docket, operation "Blue Sky:" a small UFO has been running a circuit near the Doughnut (another X-Com bunker), and it is preventing them from sending aid.  The team fires up the ship and head out to drive the UFO off or destroy it.<br>

They spot the tiny saucer and engage it.  It attempts to flee, but Fayth gives chase.  AJ, Brock, Carville and Douglas on the guns eventually manage to knock it out of the sky.  Fayth sets down nearby so a team can disembark to assault the wreckage.<br>

The craft is embedded in a small hill.  AJ and his team make for the high ground and approach from above.  There is a sizeable breach in the top dome of the craft.  Darkness looms inside, but as AJ squints into the gloom, looking for movement, his view of the world changes, and he sees what looks like false-color thermograph, which he uses to spot the little bastard in the saucer and perforate it.<br>

While standing overwatch, Douglas notices a steeple nearby with something suspicious in it; an observer, perhaps?  They move out to investigate.  Fayth watches over from the bridge of the Firestorm.<br>

In the church, large footprints mar the month-old dust accumulated on the stairs to the bell tower, and one of the old, rickety treads has been recently broken as though someone very heavy stepped through it.<br>

Up top, they find some alien gewgaw, possibly a monitoring device.  Marie notices a fine particulate floating in the air (like dust), but it seeks out and clings to herself and the people around her (very much unlike dust).  She wastes no time and wordlessly busts out her electronics kit.  While the others think she is rabidly fawning over a new alien toy, she connects leads to a battery pack and zaps AJ in order to render the nanites inert.<br>

AJ is shocked, literally AND figuratively, and reflexively slaps Marie in the Face.  Meanwhile, Fayth notices a new contact on the ship's monitors: a small, fast-moving target flying erratically from behind a nearby hill.  It corkscrews toward them in excess of 200 kph, and it triggers a foul memory from Fayth's recent bout of recall.  "Buzzbomb!" she screams over the comms, and when that doesn't immediately inform her teammates of the danger they are in, she tells them to get the fuck out of the church.<br>

Everyone bails and gets zapped by Marie to rid them of the nanites.  The buzzbomb spirals their way, then loops into the bell tower and explodes, destroying the house of God.<br>

With this bit of the past coming back to haunt Fayth, she wants to get home and leave England behind more than ever.  The team reports back to Cmdr. Mederow for a quick debrief.  They say their goodbyes, gather their stuff and turn down all requests to stay and help out, then they are gone!<br>

Unfortunately, their departure is complicated by the sighting of a Red Hand Assault Transport in-bound from the west.  The temptation is strong to just say "fuck it," and keep moving.  This plan goes by the wayside when the craft hails them and Fayth takes the call.  On the other end of the radio is Mrs. Kjelstad, leading a strike team to mount a daring rescue operation in a stolen warplane!  With the need for rescue obviated, Lillian says she and her team will make contact with Cmdr. Mederow and help out for a bit, then return to Elma in a few days.  The team resumes its homeward flight.<br>

While over the Atlantic, Marie noodles around the ship to keep busy.  Near a machinery access point, she finds a few flecks of dried blood.  She removes the access panel, and amongst the electronics and machinery, she finds more blood spatter and one of her missing tools.  She doesn't know what it means, but the implications can't sit well within her.<br>

On the bridge, during the boring flight back, Brock notices Fayth staring at his face, like she's looking for something (sadly for Brock, that "something" she's looking for is probably not "a good time.")  Meanwhile, Carville tries to rouse her from a bout of space cadet-itis, only to have her go full PTSD and pull her .45 on him.  He manages to talk her down, but in a moment of bad taste and poor impulse control, she says to him, "Not so fun, is it?"  This is a reference, of course, to their encounter in the alien Matrix where Carville was going crazy (thanks to Collier's interference) and he shot her in the face.<br>

On the way back home, AJ talks Fayth into stopping by his hometown.  He wants to check in with his dad and see if he's still alive and maybe have him answer some burning questions.  AJ finds his dad is alive and well, but his mom is nowhere to be found (though Dad suspects she's at Quantico or the J. Edgar Hoover Building in D.C.  According to AJ's Dad, she bailed shortly after the sweeps and he hasn't heard a peep from her.  He agrees to come with AJ back to Elma, to form up with X-Com.<br>