Hometown

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Hometown
Previous level	Highway of Death (In-game)
Next level	The Wolf's Den (In-game) Captive (Chronologically)
Game	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Character	Farah Karim
Place	Riyzabbi, Urzikstan
Date	1999
Enemies	Barkov's Forces
Console codename	hometown

Hometown is the ninth campaign level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Characters

• Farah Karim (playable, P.O.W.)
• Hadir Karim (P.O.W.)
• Walid Karim (deceased)
• Fatima Karim (deceased)
• Shadi (deceased)
• J-12 (K.I.A.)
• Viktor
• Andrei (K.I.A.)
• Luka (K.I.A.)
• Roman Barkov
• Alex (cutscene only)
• Kyle Garrick (cutscene only)
• John Price (cutscene only)

Plot

The year is 1999, 20 years ago in Riyzabbi, Urzikstan. A young Farah is trapped under a collapsed building, leveled by Russian artillery under the command of General Roman Barkov. Farah frees herself from the rubble and sees her mother, dead. Some voices can be heard searching for survivors and Farah uses a brick to make noise and gather the people's attention. A group of rescue workers wearing white helmets find Farah and free her from the debris. Her father, Walid, overjoyed to see Farah safe, embraces her. The workers also pull his wife's body and a deceased male child out, causing Walid to question where Farah's brother Hadir is. Farah tells her father that Hadir is still at home, studying. A fighter jet flies over and bombs the surrounding area, causing everyone nearby to panic. Walid carries her away from the chaos and tells her that they need to go find Hadir and leave town.

Walid meets up with his friend, Shadi, who warns him that Russian soldiers have arrived and are looking for resistance fighters. Shadi urges Walid to escape as soon as possible. As Farah and Walid head down the street, Russian soldiers arrive in a truck and start shooting at the civilians. Walid narrowly escapes with Farah and they continue on their way home. More Russian soldiers begin deploying poisonous gas on the streets. Walid quickly enters the house and Hadir greets them, telling his father that he followed orders to close the windows when the bombs fell. Walid commends Hadir and gives a gas mask to Hadir as well as a pair of mobile phones for the children.

As the family prepares to leave, J-12, a Russian soldier who is wearing a gas mask, breaks into the house. Walid asks J-12 to leave his family and alone and J-12 refuses, pointing his AK-47 at him. Walid, seeing no other choice, hurls a backpack at the soldier and the two begin to fight hand-to-hand. J-12 then pulls a knife out to stab Walid, but Hadir intervenes. The muscular soldier knocks him to the ground with ease, but this allows Walid to get ahold of the knife and stab J-12 in the gut. The enraged Russian soldier beats and throws Walid back. Walid urges Farah to run and hide as J-12 grabs his AK-47 and shoots Walid repeatedly, causing him to pass out.

J-12's superior, J-13. radios him for his status. J-12 states that he captured Hadir, intending to use him as a human shield against snipers. J-12 also mentions Farah, whom J-13 allows him to kill. As J-12 searches the house, Farah sneaks around her home, finding sharp objects on the floor so she may sneak up on and stab the soldier. She stabs him in the legs in an unsuccessful attempt to cripple J-12, whose rage grows at the injuries. When she tries to stab him a third time, he grabs Farah and begins to strangle her. Hadir gets up and jumps onto J-12, stabbing him in the shoulder. Struggling with the muscular soldier, Hadir urges Farah to kill J-12.

Despite being stabbed three times in the torso, J-12 again overpowers Farah and Hadir, before attempting to strangle the latter. With J-12's back turned on Farah, she grabs his AK-47 and fires wildly into his back, finally killing him. After Hadir crawls from under the soldier's corpse, he takes the J-12's gas mask and gives it to Farah. The children say goodbye to Walid before he dies from his wounds. Farah and Hadir head outside, navigating through the town and avoiding patrolling soldiers as they try to escape.

Hadir walking through the poppy fields

Eventually, the children arrive at a field clear of poison gas, allowing them to take their gas masks off. Hadir sees a Russian truck and plans on stealing it to escape, but two soldiers (Andrei and Luka) are patrolling right by it. Farah is tasked with distracting the soldiers by calling Hadir's mobile phone. While they investigate the ringing of Hadir's phone, Farah picks up a handgun and kills them both.

Hadir opens the truck door and prepares to start the vehicle, but Roman Barkov appears behind them. He carries Farah and Hadir to the back of another truck. Barkov, aware of what she did to the two soldiers, puts a bag over Farah's head as she is taken to an internment camp.

Present-day, Farah and Alex are seen recovering from the chlorine gas that Hadir deployed. Price and Garrick arrive to the rescue, but Farah angrily calls out for Hadir, infuriated that he used the gas against the Russian soldiers. Price informs Farah and Alex that Hadir fled the scene, as he escorts them away in a helicopter.

Weapons

Found in level
.357

Unobtainable
AK-47

Transcript

Main article: Hometown/Transcript

Trivia

• The rescue workers at the start of the mission are a reference to the Syria Civil Defense, a volunteer organisation that used white helmets and engaged in rescue efforts.
• When the player is following Hadir till they reach safer ground, they can witness some of Barkov's forces getting ready to execute the captured Urzikstani citizens. If the player ignores this and continues to follow Hadir into a wooden structure of sorts, a sequence is triggered in which the soldiers immediately execute the citizens, making Hadir dodge the incoming bullets frantically.
• The two soldiers the player needs to kill have similar AK-47s to J-12's, only difference is lacking a merc foregrip.
• Farah's hometown is situated in front of and below an Al-Qatala hideout.
• Although the weapon used by Farah looks very similar to the .357 Magnum, it actually is the Model 29 chambered in .44 Magnum instead.
  • Despite it being a double-action revolver, Farah pulls the hammer after each shot.
  • Due to Farah obviously being a young child, she's struggles to control the gun's recoil, she will yelp out everytime she fires it, and her reload isn't as fluent. Also when she aims down her sights, the gun shakes and sways a lot because it's her first time handling a gun. The player can press down the movement stick to stablise it, similar to a sniper rifle.
  • The Russian soldiers Andrei and Luka talk about it, should the player take their time in completing the level. Their dialogues are meant as a clue for the player to pick the gun and shoot at them.
• When escaping the town with Hadir, the player can hear some of the Russian soldiers talk about their current assignment.
• If Farah approaches her father after J-12 is killed and Hadir is at the door, she will say goodbye to him, and then wipe tears from her face.
• If Farah aproaches J-12 before her father is killed, J-12 will grab her and she will throw her arms against him to no avail.
• If Farah does not stab J-12 when Hadir is trying to hold him, J-12 will throw Hadir over his shoulder and then smash his rifle against Hadir, killing him.