Dual Duel
When we last left off...
Fayth and AJ were snookered into testing out Marie's revolutionary training sim based on the same alien technology they had used to trap them in when they were captured and brought to London. As the training proceeded, they discovered that they were forced to experience each other's memories when the computer conducted various "calibrations" to their psychological perception of the sim. Later, they encountered an anomaly in the form of CRSE-04, who was somehow wirelessly imported into the sim. Because nothing ever goes wrong testing out alien tech, the two learned that Marie could not jack them out of the sim due to unknown interference. This was revealed in the form of a particularly ominous anomaly: A certain Muton Elite that has a bit of shared history with Fayth. When Marie implored the two to "sit tight for a bit and don't die in there," the Elite stepped out and had his own thoughts on the subject.
"We'll have to see about that," it growled, before AJ chased it off with gunfire.
In the real world, Marie rushes to get a team to help her. While he is not who she is looking for, she finds Brock first, and tells him to grab Carville, get armed up and report to the Hangar. "Fayth and AJ are in trouble, and I need your help!" She is uncharacteristically goal-oriented and to the point. With Brock on that job, she rushes off to find the next person she can think of who will be most motivated and able to help Fayth, and she runs to find Douglas.
With Douglas on-board, he explains to Carville, Brock, Fayth and AJ (the latter two being included in the conversation via Marie's link to the sim) that he has detected a spike of psionic activity in Olympia that bears an identical signature to the interference he is picking up from Fayth and AJ. No one knows exactly what this means or how Douglas "knows" it, but he states with relative certainty that the source for the interference is in the Governor's mansion. The last time X-Com was here, they wound up blowing up Jay Inslee. Who knows what will happen, now? Brock and Carville head to the armory to gear up while Douglas and Faraday check out the last two assault drones in the armory. Douglas suggests she be included because she is the only other person who can pilot a drone, and it might be a good idea to have tech personnel on each end of the operation.
When everybody shows up in the hangar bay and Lillian Kjelstad is warming up the gunship, Carville is faced with a dilemma, and asks Brock for guidance, since he might be close to the issue. "With all this carrying on," he explains, "Thunder and Flash must've figured out that Fayth is in trouble and we're mounting a rescue. It seems like one of them wants to come with." The bulky robot could just barely fit into the troop carrier's hold, but it would drastically limit the number of people they can carry to just he, Brock, Douglas and Faraday. "If I tell it no, I'm concerned it will never forgive me, but if I follow my gut and let it come and it gets destroyed, I'm pretty sure Fayth would never forgive me!" Brock suggests getting Fayth's opinion on the matter, and comms her in.
With almost no hesitation, she tells Carville to let Thunder come. She seems to understand how her litter must feel about this. Thunder is exuberant, and loads up. Wasting no more time, the gunship lifts off, and the cavalry is on its way.
Meanwhile, in the sim, AJ, Fayth and CRSE-04 stumble across a random assortment of buildings in the woods. Some kind of a mock-up of a small town. As they mosey on through, hoping to avoid the Elite and keep safe until Marie's real-world plan comes to fruition, they are ambushed by a pod of Grays. Fayth gets blasted by one with a needler, while AJ and CRSE-04 dispatch the majority of them. Worried that the Elite may simply be able to throw simulated reinforcements at them until the cows come home, they make a beeline inside one of the structures to find a more defensible position.
By this time, Lillian is able to fly to the outskirts of the Executive Mansion grounds, and drops off the assault team. Their plan is to approach as stealthily as possible and assess the defender's position. Douglas and Faraday stay onboard the gunship piloting their drones. They circle and flank the mansion, ready to engage stray forces that might reinforce the front where Brock and Carville plan to make entry. The front is guarded by a pod of Grays, who Brock begins sniping at as Carville and Thunder advance. At one point, Brock gets the wind knocked out of him by a well-placed burst of plasma fire, and Thunder moves to shield him just as Alamo did to shield Sgt. MacNaughton a couple weeks ago. This move buys Brock enough time to get back on his feet and help Carville mop up the remaining guards. They make their way into the mansion, following Douglas' directions to find the source of the interference.
In the sim, AJ and Fayth are confronted with the sourceless, taunting voice of the Elite as they hunker down. "Not bad work for sticks such as yourself," the voice says. "We have a bit of history, you and I." This comment is meaningless to AJ but it carries some weight with Fayth, who was the only member of the team to have had the memory block removed after they were captured in Brazil several months ago. The Elite's menacing monologue continues. "You know, when this opportunity to get back at you arose, I didn't even ask for payment. Just access to resources to enable me to get vengeance for what you did to my partner in Alaska. Prepare yourself, sticks." They aren't quite sure why the Elite keeps calling them "sticks," but it sounds like it is meant to be intimidating and/or derogatory. They chalk it up to something lost in translation that they are not really interested in finding. With the monster's pep talk out of the way, they steel themselved for whatever else it has in store for them.
Back in Olympia, Brock and Carville home in on a sort of bunker within the mansion, like an executive panic-room or something like it. They are not sure what to expect so they move in cautiously, only to find the place seemingly abandoned. Creeping from one bit of furniture to the next, they encounter the Muton Elite proned out behind a large desk and engage it in combat. The Elite seems a bit sluggish, and not exactly the whirling dervish of destruction they expected...
...This is due to the fact that the X-Com agents are engaging the Elite both in the real world and the sim at the same time, forcing it to split its attention between both fronts! The alien focuses its attention on Fayth and AJ in the sim, bearing down on AJ and almost taking him out of the fight. In the real world, Carville sees a device on the thing's back that seems to be projecting a protective energy shield, and takes it out with a precision shot while Brock manages to land a lucky shot to the Elite's armored faceplate, staggering the beast and causing it to switch tactics. It starts punching controls on the inside of its forearm, and electrical arcs begin swirling about from its location.
Carville shouts out, "No you don't, motherfucker!" and charges. Right when he tackles into the Elite, a massive bolt of lightning rips up from the floor and swallows both of them, zips into the ceiling, and they are gone. In the sim, CRSE-04 is rushing the Elite in an effort to save AJ, and the Elite drops there, as if it were a marionette with its strings cut. Brock tries to explain what just happened on his end of things, finding himself uncomfortably alone all of a sudden, which causes Fayth to understandably freak out for a moment. She turns her gun on CRSE-04 demanding an explanation, since his former people are the only ones she has ever heard of vanishing away by riding lightning bolts from the ground.
"Hey," CRSE-04 says defensively and apologetically, "I'm on your side, here! I helped you guys take this creep out! I don't know what's going on out there, either!" Fayth hears the robot's words and manages to calm herself a bit. She exhorts Marie once again to get them the hell out of the sim. She can't stand being here helpless any longer, not when her fiancé's fate is unknown. While Marie and Faraday work through the process of safely shutting down the Elite's interference equipment, AJ and Fayth brainstorm their next moves. They are fully ready to storm the Think Tank's compound in Redmond until the strained voice of Douglas interjects.
"I've detected another psionic spike," he says. "Probably related to the incident Brock just witnessed. I'm...trying to pinpoint it..." he says, exertion clear in his voice.
Lillian cuts in. "Bunker November's tracking station has picked up a contact! It's...to the west. Just above Aberdeen." This should be within range of their comms. Fayth frantically attempts to contact her man.
"Feargus! Feargus! Can you hear me?!" she shouts.
There is a response, but it is weak, intermittent and riddled with static. "Fayth! ...on a ship! ...oh, shit..." the words are then interrupted by a whooshing roar, and Carville's comms go quiet.
Fayth is gripped with dread, and this causes total silence for a moment among the members of the team who were all witness to what may very well have been Carville's final words. Lillian interrupts the dead air. "Tracking shows the craft is losing altitude." Another moment's silence. "Losing speed. Touchdown," she announces quietly. "Fayth, the UFO is grounded. It has crashed."
"Where?" she asks gravely.
"Aberdeen. I'm sorry, Fayth." Sorry, of course, because Aberdeen is a chitinous hell-hole. It is the origin of the swarm of Chryssalids that attacked Elma. She is sorry, because if Carville is stuck there, he is almost certainly doomed.
While the totality of this realization washes over Fayth, Faraday is taking the final steps to jack her friends out of the sim. Marie notices something on her end of the computers, probably triggered by Fayth's emotional state. "AJ, watch out! There's another calibration incoming..." and her words are cut off as he is washed over with the experience of Fayth's greatest trauma to date: Her memory of being captured by the Elites.
