Initiation Rite

When we last left off...

Several months passed, mostly peacefully and quietly. It is now summer, over six months into the alien invasion. The latest stretch of calm was disrupted when a large group of aliens and humans made their way overland from the south and attacked the Alien Base that the Elma Resistance had captured last year. What seemed like the main assault turned out to actually be a diversion, a spoiling attack that allowed a smaller group of Grays and Behemoths to infiltrate the base. Once inside, they closed on the bridge.

During the battle, Ranger John MacNaughton was seriously wounded, along with Alamo, who came to defend him and repel the attackers. Ranger Daniel "Rabbit" Rabinowicz attempted to drag MacNaughton to saftey, but was ultimately killed by the lead Behemoth, before the aliens made their way onto the bridge where they captured Marie Kjelstad.

Upon learning of this, Fayth found her old ally AJ, who was looking to get back into action. She didn't need to work hard to convince him to rejoin the assault team. They planned to try and track the aliens from the base to see if they could catch up to them and call in reinforcements. To accomplish this, they looked to Lt. Speirs to see if any of his men were skilled enough trackers to pull off such a feat. He pointed them to Staff Sergeant Robert Rathbone, 3rd squad's team leader, who was there during the recent battle. Without hesitation, Fayth and AJ accepted his offer to help when they made their proposal to him; both of them figured he would want some payback for what had happened to his team.

AJ and Fayth wanted to keep their scouting team small and highly mobile, so they did not pack their ranks with extra bodies. Brock was enlisted as a liaison with base personnel, and would guide the cavalry in when the scouts called for reinforcements. Sgt. Rathbone appropriated some ATVs, AJ managed to get Naomi's blessing to go out and play, and the three rendezvoused in the hangar to make their way to the scene of the battle.

Once there, they attempted to locate the likely exfiltration path of the alien capture team. Sgt. Rathbone's experience proved invaluable here with his understanding of the psychology of the pursued and his keen eye for finding "spoor," the catch-all term for any clues left behind by the targets. During the hunt, AJ and Fayth both found interesting clues of their own: hints left behind by Marie to help anyone who might be tracking them. This confirmed that they were on the right path.

The Recon team was notified that an alien transmission had been picked up not far from their location. It appeared to be a call for pick up and retrieval. Depending on how close the alien craft was, they might only have minutes before Marie and her captors made their getaway! Time suddenly became even more of the essence than it was before.

With an alien craft likely in-bound, there was the possibility of holding off and attacking it, as well. This would pose a greater risk due to an unknown number of alien reinforcements, but greater reward, as well. Taking out or recovering another alien vessel would immensely help the Elma Resistance. However, the unknowns were too great for the team to take a chance on, and they opted to stick with the plan. The scouts pinpointed the aliens' rally point, and surrounded the area. They spotted the Behemoth they had been tracking, the remaining Grays and--most importantly--Marie, who was doing everything in her power to annoy the piss out of her massive captor with little more than her baseline personality.

After only a short amount of her verbal abuse, the Behemoth opted to lay the smack down on Marie to silence her, at which point AJ opened fire and drilled the Muton in the head. His shots were followed by Fayth and Sgt. Rathbone. Before the alien squad leader could even fight back, all the shots fired from ambush laid him low. A short battle with the remaining Grays ensued. Sgt. Rathbone took a lucky shot to the head from a plasma rifle that knocked him out briefly. Fayth and AJ took out the remaining Grays and recovered the Behemoth's homing beacon. AJ popped it into the barrel of his M-203 and fired it off into the distance, to throw the incoming UFO off their trail. Since the Mutons had a history of playing 'possum and coming back to life at inopportune moments, Fayth took the beast's tricked out plasma rifle and handed it off to Sgt. Rathbone to deliver the coup de grace for the sake of catharsis. The soldier pointed the weapon's cruel bayonet at the Muton's chest and rasped the motto of his unit: "Rangers lead the way!" before plunging the blade deep, just as it had done to Corporal Rabbit. The cavalry arrived, and everybody made it out safe, flown back to base by none other than Lillian Kjelstad.

Back at base, Naomi was glad to see that AJ hadn't gotten rusty after all these months and was mollified by his uninjured state. Sgt. Rathbone, despite his objections, was turned over to the medics in the sick bay. They ratted the Ranger out to Fayth by informing her that he had some pretty serious lingering injuries from the battle earlier in the day that he'd been hiding. Fayth was none too pleased to hear this, and medically down-checked the Ranger with a Brock Jankins special: Doctor ordered bedrest in the sick bay and a deck of cards. She informed Lt. Speirs of his Ranger's shenanigan, but the officer was not surprised, as Rathbone had priors for just that sort of trick. Speirs also reminded Fayth that she had some lessons to follow up on, and that she should seek him out sometime sooner rather than later. Marie was also able to translate some of the messages the Behemoth had on him and revealed that the entire attack appeared to have been an operation carried out by the Muton in an attempt to earn a chance to be inducted into the ranks of the dreaded Muton "Elites."

Lillian requested to meet with Fayth and AJ to convey her gratitude for rescuing her daughter, and also to discuss future plans. She warily admitted that the core of Elma was fairly secure now, and the population was relatively productive and self-sufficient. She posited that they could continue to be a local reactionary force, but also that it might be time to consider taking their resistance on the road and branching out. Of course, she was just the Custodian of this particular X-Com bunker, though. The real war effort ought to fall to certain other go-getters that she could name. She didn't demand any answers, but asked that the two think things through, discuss options and bring whoever they felt they needed to into the conversation. Lillian would hear their answer when they were ready to give it.

Meanwhile, planning must take place, and research and training continues, as always!