Hey Paintballers! This is a story from my first 24-hour scenario.  We (Canadians) went in on our first night mission at W.O.W. paintball in Logan Ohio.  It was a hold mission at a spot called Miners Camp.  Which was kind of a run-down tent and some miscellaneous camp stuff just above a creek bed down in the gully that is the portion of the field used for this game.  We went in with our squad and about 15 or so other players and got backlit by our friend, or so we thought (wink, wink. KGB) Renegade and nearly the entire group was wiped out in an ambush.  3 of our squad were left along with at least one other player (DaMartian from the BC forums).  That’s the set up so here it is:

Crazy (Scott) and AWOL (Paul) and I (Drill-Head) were dug in just to the left rear of the tent.  After the flourish of fire that had just taken place we were quite tense. I think I heard Spiro (the games producer) say over the radio:  "It sounds like a giant popcorn popper in there".   The rest of our squad (Team Fed X) and our counterparts had just been wiped out.  We didn’t have a flashlight or any kind of light at all and it was very dark.  We saw DaMartian throw his grenade and get taken out and after he and his painted American left the field the remainder of the American squad moved up to the camp.

I remembered after hearing the chatter about DaMartian’s grenade that I too had a grenade.  I only had the one and I knew I had to make it count and not blow our cover at the same time.  As soon as the enemy's attention was on the tent, I made my move.  I quietly took out the grenade and pulled the pin.  When it looked like their backs were turned I eased up off the ground and threw the grenade.  It hit close to the tent.  Although in the dark I couldn’t tell if anyone was hit they scrambled and pulled back to their original position.  If nothing else, it at least bought us some time. 

As soon as they got back away from the camp I checked with my teammates to make sure they were still with me.  I decide to risk using the radio and tried to call in some back up.

“Red general, HoundDog, anyone there?  This is the remainder of Fed X at Miner’s camp can anyone hear me?”  I was trying to speak as soft as I could so not to give away our position.

“Drill-Head… is that you?”  It was Psycho.  “Where are you?  We thought everyone got hit down there.” 

“We’re still in the camp.” I whispered back, “We’ve got hostiles down here and we need some back up.  See if you can get hold of the General and ask him to send a helicopter in with some reinforcements.  This mission is still under way.”  The American flashlights continued to scan the area around us.  

“Roger that.  Sit tight I’ll see what I can do.” 

After a couple minutes of watching the flashlights Psycho called back.  “Fed X come in do you read?”

“Go ahead, we read you.” 

“That’s a negative on the reinforcements we got another mission underway and can’t spare the troops.” 

Damn! “Can you gather the rest of our squad and come in on foot?” 

“That’s a negative also. We’ve got equipment problems and we’re going to be down for a while.” The situation was starting to look pretty grim.

“Ask the general to send in a helicopter extraction to Miner’s camp and get us out of here.” Apparently HoundDog wasn’t picking up our signal.

“I’ll see what I can do but don’t get your hopes up.”  Psycho answered.

Damn!  That was it for the radio.

After a little while the Americans apparently decided to have another go at it.  This time they tried to fan out as they approached the tent, their flashlights scanning slowly across the ground where we were laying.  We kept our faces to the ground.  One of them walked right by us about 15 feet away. We held our fire and stayed down.  They must have thought the 2^nd grenade was some kind of booby trap because they couldn’t seem to keep their attention off of the tent.  Then, as if we all three had the same thought; we sat up slowly and took our aim.  The first shot was immediately followed by many more as we opened fire.  Their returned fire answered our shots but they had no idea where we were.  After a brief exchange the Americans called themselves out.  We ended up taking out the rest of the American squad and successfully completing the hold at Miner’s Camp.  (Read on. It’s almost over.)

As soon as we checked in with the ref to complete our mission card we started taking fire from the creek area.  We moved up away from the camp and hunkered down to decide what to do next and to see if we could find a trail.  We just wanted to make it out without getting hit.  We continued to take occasional fire from the creek bed as we slowly moved up toward the lower firebase.  That’s when things got interesting.  We saw some flashlights and glow sticks moving toward us and could tell there were reinforcements coming in.  We just didn’t know for whom.  That’s when the fireworks started.  Literally.  The flash bangs and flares and rockets and general pyrotechnics added the perfect touch to what had already been quite a mission.  We used the light of the air strike (or whatever it was) to keep watch on the snipers in the creek and to make our way back to some friendly forces and eventually help them bring a key part of the warhead (prop) back to our command post.  Way to go Crazy and AWOL!  We made it out without taking a single hit. All the while adding to the inevitable defeat of the American forces.  Oh Canada! Oh Canada! 

Thanks Frank, Dave, Keith, Matt, Paul, Scott and everyone else who played or participated.  Even Renegade, who I am convinced led us into the ambush in the first place.  Thanks? Ian? For stealing our hard earned crate. Thanks Black-Cat Productions and W.O.W. for a super-fun first time 24hr scenario.  We can’t wait to do it again.

Drill-Head, Team Fed X.