[Sun] 24 Mar 2013 (A walk in the woods)

[wolfenswan]

We peaked at the fantastic number of 58 comrades tonight and together we went to all places in Chernarus no one has ever went before. This allowed us to experience death and carnage to it's fullest in:

• Berezinoclearance (called after 2 caches were exploded and we had lost our helicopters)
• Goosechase (resulting in both sides claiming one of three hostages and the afterlife claiming the third)
• Poctalon - COOP (after a bit of an uneventful walk for Charlie and Bravo/Alpha making the aquaintance of an angry BRDM2 we all died when extracting the data. But at least the latter made it out alive!)
• 2 Days to Retirement - Vybor version (pigs to the slaughter!)

[NigelWantsKFC]

Really great missions tonight, awesome turnout too. A shame the KFChopper didn't last for long!

Will edit my post here later with some POV videos.

[tryteyker]

Berezino Clearance

Transport Helo 1 pilot

I started off this mission with being extremely fkin ridicolously nervous for no reason. Probably because of russian tech and as we all know it doesn't end well if I fly Russian stuff. So I fly off, try to hold course and who thought, I ACTUALLY LANDED SUCESSFULLY.
Everybody survived.
Do you believe that?
You probably should.
'Cause it's true.
No kidding.
No seriously.

So after that I head off and do recon, mark a few technicals and caches along the way. After my 2nd rotation I hooked up with Danny and Draith to form the ULTIMATE RECON HELICOPTER PILOT THINGY THING CHOPPER. Danny was flying the first couple rotations, where I successfully mark a couple of technicals and caches. We get called to scout a cache in a field and it ends up in a pretty fucking hairy situation. If you think tracer fire from Dushkas and such is hair(y) that's pretty true actually.
So I mark the location and we get the hell out of there, with a near engine failure. Since we had 2 more helos we switch, and this time Draiths piloting. We promptly end up going over the whole red zone (kinda like with a big mark saying "AYE WE DO N O T COMMUNICATE SHOOT US PLEASE") and then we also promptly find out that GOAT DAMNIT DRAITHS VON DOESN'T WORK. So we move to another Teamspeak channel. We land and get out, all happy and ready to board our third and last chopper.
HEADSHOT.
Yeah no kidding.
I got killed by someone in a safe zone.
Guess who it was. DANNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.



Goose Chase

BLUFOR Commander

The first time being Commander and in one of the harder missions. Thankfully I did not support the Socialist regime, but rather switched over to Democracy and promptly got support by everybody. That means they guided me through the mission and it took me glorious 20 minutes to set up 2 markers, but not after discussing things with my newly gained followers. So the initial plan was to move to a staging point and wait for a ping.
What followed was disastrous. OPFOR went in every direction and I desperately mark LZs which, apparently, could be seen by OPFOR, so I decided to call everybody back half-way through the landing process and make them move up to the (new) pings.
Bravo from the North, Alpha from the West. Desperately trying to coordinate things, Bravo got 2 hostages and moved to extract, which prompted me to tell Alpha to rush to glory and get the third hostage. They kinda died.
Did I tell you about the sweet little guy right next to me in the helo? His name was artificial intelligence number #2. We got shot at by a technical, and he, the sweet little guy he was, chewed all the bullets for me. What greeted me was a bloody face looking right in my eyes.
So once we moved to extract as TH1 we picked up the hostages and took off.
BOOM WHAT THE FUCK ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
First reaction to dying. I just saw tracer fire and then everything went dark.
Turns out we got shot at by yet another technical.

Spectating, mingomangothingythingwhateveryournameis got Kefirz back to base. Kefirz being Kefirz, instead of running for safety he's all like "Hey guys lets each brunch together after this 'kay? Here's my number, BAI!". That's where the mission ended.
OPFOR got 1 hostage.
1 hostage died.
BLUFOR got 1 hostage. (YAY!)

Poctalon

Alpha 1 Fireteam Leader

So I stepped down a notch after the grand failure of Goose Chase.

Things start off well by Darkknight not seeing our helicopter and I'm frantically shouting at him all the time "GET IN THE HELO GOGOGOGOGOOGOGOGOG OH GOD WRONG HELO" and I try to get Alpha to stay a bit more until somebody told me "he's not seeing the helo". So he relogs and we move off to the LZ, land successfully and all that.
As we move up Darkknight rejoins us and I get a nice little formation up. Then we just wait, with no idea where the Crash Site is, and after some time we move Northwest and spot black smoke. Thinking it's the crash site we move off, only to find an EI patrol. We successfully engage them, and after shifting towards Devil's Castle things start to get really fun. Everybody rushes and gets slaughtered, but I stood back and watched with my FT. After some time everybody is either dead or wounded, AND IT IS TIME FOR GLORIOUS ALPHA 1 TO MOVE. We save SuperU, and our AT dude got a direct hit on the BRDM from behind. We fix up like 3 guys and move back, and then a stream of new people join me. I now kinda command an 8 man fireteam.

As we take fire from the North we pull back, and Charlie and Command found the wreck by now. SuperU ordered himself to get an extract helo whilst I organize my now 7 man fireteam (including me) in a nice column and we rushed for the COs position. Once we reached the CO we got orders to take up defensive positions and THINGS STARTED TO GO WRONG HERE. I use my extremely-super-tactical-mind as shown in Goose Chase to organize my guys, 2 guys watching 1 direction. Once we were done the transfer started, and stuff started to spawn.
Did I tell you about the technical that bumrushed us out of nowhere? I just saw a rocket FLYING RIGHT PAST MY HEAD before I even noticed the technical.
The occupants escaped and surrendered. Funny. Think they can surrender and all that.
Luckily they already organized themselves in a nice line. So all I had to do was put some magazines into them. LIKE WE LET PEOPLE SURRENDER.

We took fire from EVERYWHERE, with the southeast going down first. We pull back to the barn, with lots of people going down left and right. Charlie and Alpha & ARTY & MMG are now clustered in the barn. I have NO IDEA WHERE THE FRIKKIN LZ IS, so I just eventually tell my guys "RUSH NORTH GOATDAMNIT". What follows is an intense action movie. I go down, only to be immobile for quite some time. As I turn around to crawl, I see SuperU and Command take off with the Intel. Being left behind I shout for my team, crawling up to them. All I see is dead people, and after crying in silence (:() I move further.
By now SuperU and mingomangothingythingwhateveryournameis organize a rescue mission.
I had 4 EI infront of me + 2 technicals, but the AI didn't seem to notice me at all. After unsuccessfully shooting at them, I see SuperU and mingomangothingythingwhateveryournameis come for my rescue. YAY.
They promptly get shot down and land right ontop of the barn, exploding.
Seeing no hope, I called in Draakon for a fire mission right ontop of myself because I was surrounded with people.
And that is how I died. RIP.

[Ferrard Carson]

Let's keep this thread nice and readable, if you please - and let's also put some meat on these posts. The world wants to know what your thoughts and decisions were, not just what your helmet-cam saw.

Berezino Clearance
Deployed as Bravo Squad Leader
Clearing up through Berezino from the south... I've had this dream before. A dream of snow. Red Snow.

Except this time we have guns!

Under Comrade Fer's steady leadership, Bravo Squad advanced into the fray in the meadows and orchards of Berezino. We cleared our first cache under fire while Alpha and Charlie were off gallivanting in the woods, then shifted to the left flank in steady bounding while bullets snapped over our heads (and into the unfortunate B1) every step of the way. At Fer's polite request, we commandeered a small farm-house, two fire teams arrayed on the road beneath it, watching East to cover Alpha's movements, and a third fire-team in the woods to our west, pulling security. Our massed fire destroyed a motorized patrol and drew fire off of Alpha until a second cache went up in flames and The Party declared total victory! And asked us to walk back home. 'Cuz someone shot up our rides. I thought this was Berezino, not Detroit!

Overall, Bravo's movements were textbook, with my lovely, lovely team leaders responding quickly and adroitly to my every request. "Bravo two, cover while one and three bound!" "Technical and three dudes, 300 meters to our north, kill 'em!" "Fetch me my coffee and paper!"

<<Placeholder for Video>>

Goose Chase
Deployed as IndFor Alpha 1 AAR PKM Technical Gunner
So five people can pile into one PKM technical. I, by dint of being a mostly useless rifleman, took the gun on this misadventure to retrieve some bitchin' rides from the quiet little massacre site curiously abandoned hamlet of Pusta. Maybe the residents didn't like the water here. Then we found out that AudioX has really shitty audio, Draith somehow didn't have VOIP in the first place, and Syn heard a knock at the door and was never heard from again and returned just before we left with our decidedly unfriendly little convoy of civilian vehicles. Navigating was very, very confusing, to say the least.

At this point, it was down to Mamba and me in the PKM truck, and we turned into one hell of a well-oiled machine, me taking periodic glimpses at my map to help set him on the pathway to where our comrades awaited their plush rides with leather seats, heated steering wheels, and spinners. Boy were they going to be disappointed with these ghetto hoopties our so-called "friends" lent us instead. Blazing through Mogilevka to the rendezvous, we arrived, heading the convoy of cars in which we were to make our daring escape. Then we listened over the radio as our Bravo comrades showed their lack of patriotism by dying to such a silly, unpatriotic thing as enemy bullets. Unfortunately, Bravo was guarding all three of our hostages. Something something eggs-in-one-basket? Time for Alpha to save the day!

Err... die. Gloriously. On a hill. Mamba and I did a number on the circling Sea Hawks, working with our DShKM armed brother to bring half of BluFor's hopes and dreams crashing to the ground, but our ground-pounders were thoroughly trounced by the Imperialists. In the end, as Fer lay gasping his last revolutionary breath on the ground, the technical that I had pretty much turned into my personal fiefdom was the only remnant of our once proud numbers, strategically advancing in the opposite direction. Navigating the highways northward to freedom, Mamba drove on while I knelt down by the sliding back window to have a chat with our hostage. Turns out, our hostage was an established arms dealer, and very sympathetic to our cause, to boot. Welcome to the glorious revolution, Comrade Kaze! May your bullets be the propaganda leaflets of our future!

BOOM WHAT THE FUCK ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
First reaction to dying. I just saw tracer fire and then everything went dark.

Check 11:32 below for your answer!


Poctalon (coop)
Deployed as Alpha 3 FTL
Transport was a horrible mess of confusion, with me accidentally joining a different fire-team and leaving Alpha 3 decapitated until we landed once more and I sorted things out. We also left one of our number behind when he took so many drugs that he somehow could not see the whirling deathtrap helicopter right in front of his face. Then, we landed in some anonymous clearing, and our chopper pilots were told to dump out of their bucket seats and join us lowly infantrymen with their deadly fully-automatic assault-bizons. Yeah. Rock on, SMG dudes!

Under advisement from Command, Alpha traipsed through the (thankfully) unpopulated forests and meadows, stopping momentarily to erase a small foot-patrol off the map, then dashing forth to Bravo's aid where we all slaughtered a BRDM. Wait a second, that's not right. The BRDM mowed us down in droves before one of the few survivors put a second RPG into it and ended its reign of terror.


From the afterlife, we watched SuperU, the squad leader, demonstrate extreme proficiency with flying a chopper (When the heck did you get flying lessons, sergeant?) but significantly less proficiency in letting go of the trigger. The tank is dead, son, let the dead rest in peace, not pieces! Oh the humanity!



2 Days to Retirement (Vybor)
Deployed as Rocker Band 1 Lead Singer
The classic rockers built Vybor on Rock n' Roll. We true musicians wrested this town from their oppressive ways, then defended it from the post-avant-grungists who descended from their Seattle coffeeshops like a horde of rabid latte-wielding hipsters. Lana Del Ray and patriotic fervor blasted from the church steeples, and everything was right. Then the cops came. Apparently we had been disturbing the peace with our long hair, loud garage practicing at 2am, and wanton murder. Since when was any of that illegal? It's just The Man trying to keep us down!

But we were waiting. Oh we were waiting. My band took up position in a nice, confined courtyard where the uncooked bacon would funnel to their deaths (and a frying pan). My solo was cut tragically short after only one verse by a fermata to my windpipe, but my drummer and back-up guitar rocked the face off of the po-po. Our fellow musicians finished off The Man elsewhere (Tigershark came from behind as always), and our evening was triumphantly ended with a rousing chorus of our favorite song!



Many thanks to the comrades, both new, sorta-new, and older-than-the-sun who showed up today! A special shoutout to my awesome FTLs in Berezino Clearance, Mamba the Manic Driver, and my bandmates, may they enjoy all the hookers and blow in the world in my stead!

~ Ferrard

[Draith]

Excellent time was had this evening, thanks guys.

[Dogface]

Great sesh all round! Let's see here.

berezinoClearance - Bravo 1 FTL. Black Mamba AR, daf saboteur, Nigel Wants KFC AAR. Ferrard Carson BSL.

Although I'm used to being massacred in Berezino in Red Snow, this one actually went much better! We took our three full squads to an LZ south of town by helicopter, landing and disembarking in sequence with great aplomb before heading north over some fields and woods. Ferrard kept us neatly in formation as we and Charlie split off to the right, with Alpha taking the lest hand side. B and C supported eachother nicely, moving through some buildings to approach the first cache location -- methodically taking out small patrols and filling technicals with bullets -- while Alpha dealt with some resistance on our western flank.

After a slight detour to a walled compound that I mistook for the target, we swung around to the actual enemy enampment. It was empty, but as soon as we reached it we came under a hail of PKM gunfire from close north (a vodnik?). Whatever it was did quite a number on us, killing our saboteur daf outright, wounding many of us, and keeping us heavily suppressed as we tried to deal with the situation. Fortunately most of the platoon was nearby and was able to take it out quickly, so our casualties could get healed up, save for poor daf. I respectfully pillaged his body, planting his favourite satchel charge on the nearby arms cache, both justifying his heroic sacrifice and serving as a particularly spectacular funeral pyre.

With the first objective clear we started moving out to the next one. Bravo crossed behind Alpha and started moving up the west side of the AO, along a treeline overlooking the main area. Our FT valiantly unleashed a hail of bullets on a (gunless) enemy UAZ, then moved onto a spur to snipe a few more distant enemies, covering Alpha (and Charlie?) as best we could while they moved in and destroyed the second cache.

Great victory!


Goose Chase - INDFOR Bravo 1 FTL. Stoner AR, and.. some other folks.

The return of a hostage-extraction mission which usually proves a lot of fun! Our team had the hostages, and had to get them from the center of the map to one of various points on the outskirts, while BLUFOR hunted us to try and retrieve them. Bravo was tasked with keeping hold of the hostages in the starting village, while Alpha went out to collect some vehicles for us from the nearby outposts. B1 took up positions on the south, getting spooked by helicopters circling us and landing at various points, but we staunchly held our fire until Alpha started returning. At this point the enemy were closing in fast, and we had to quickly organize and carry out the plan, to split the hostages and lead them away from eachother on foot while the technicals served as distractions and mobile AA batteries.

Unfortunately this didn't quite seem to happen as all three hostages ended up coming with us, I believe, as we trudged north. Just as we tried to persuade them up a steep hill, a BLUFOR squad crested the rise ahead of us and promptly massacred us.

The rest of the match was quite amusing to watch. I think two of the hostages were intially being chased by BLUFOR, but INDFOR was able to counterattack and take one of them back -- the first being taken to a chopper extraction and the latter being spirited away in a technical. The third seemed to escape, and be picked up by a chopper, but it was promptly perforated by MG fire, killing him and at least some of the aircrew.


Poctalon - B1 FTL again I think! Lead by Wafflynumber this time. The ever-reliable Stoner was my AR again, along with AkKind(?) as AT and.. someone else.

This mission was epic, simply put, even if I didn't get to do much. We had a large, randomly-chosen area of Chernarus to search for a downed chopper, retrieve the data and escape with it. We inserted south of the AO, slowly sweeping upwards in an attempt to find the site, while our three rocket-equipped transport choppers scouted for it. As we moved, encountering light resistance, we the swish of rockets and then a loud explosion as one chopper took 'terminal attack vector' a little too seriously, crashing into the ground, followed by another one crashing not long after.

At this point we hadn't located the crash-site, and were sitting pretty along a fairly unremarkable treeline, so I suggested we take a trip up to the nearby hilltop castle to reconnoiter the AO and visit the gift shop. It seemed like such a peaceful trip, until I noticed a strange olive-coloured box tucked away among some trees to our north. "Hmm, I wonder if that's a BRDM," I thought to myself. "That looks like a BRDM, maybe?" I said. "But it doesn't seem to be... OH GOD IT'S FIRING ON US RUN MY MINIONS," I shouted. Things quickly went bullet-shaped, as almost all of Bravo was turned into a writhing mass of injured bodies. My AT guy nervously edged into the smoke to try and take a shot at it, but was downed too. As Wafflynumber pleaded with us to drag ourselves back into the ridgeline, another burst of fire ended my promising career.

The foul machine ended up taking down many more folks (including Alpha?) before finally being rocketed to fuck. At this point Charlie had managed to get north and were close to the crashsite, but as they moved in and started downloading the data, they came under heavy attack. Alpha and the two survivors from Bravo headed up to meet them, as SuperU trekked back to the LZ to pick up the one remaining chopper. I believe Charlie managed to get Draakon (who ended up with the data) to the transport chopper and away, while Alpha(?) ended up trapped in what turned out to the World's Deadliest Barn. After being thoroughly hosed down with enemy fire, steadily losing man after man, SuperU's extract flight passed overhead and unleashed an epic blitz of rockets that probably hit at least something one presumes, before returning later to attempt a heroic rescue, the explosion of his crashing chopper under a half-dozen MGs sealing the survivors' fate.

Fantastic.


2 Days to Retirement - ROCKFOR head honcho.

The police thought they had a simple cholo on their hands, but in fact, they had a complicated one, and it was in our hands. Our two main sub-gangs holed up around the center of town, while me, Tigershark and dudeIcan'tevenrememberhisnameIwassohammered spread out on the outskirts as scouts. Some engines to the south gave us the PCP jitters for a while, until the report of Tigershark's AR rang out and he reported two coppers dead. Some more filtered in and started a ruckus with the main group in the centre, while I spotted one last car coming to me at the gas station in the west. I hid in a bush and started laying out the approaching piggies one by one, as Tiger and some reinforcements closed in as backup. With a lil' creepin' and a lil' thing I like to call cholo, we wiped them all out, as they deserved. PCP IS NOT FOR SHARING.

[Dathknight]

Boy! What an evening! It was my first time ever to join a real arma-online-game (these 1-hour-running-in-circles-and-get-shoot-by-a-tk-sniper-public-server-sessions don't count)!

Berezinoclearance
I was a assistant rifleman in alpha or so. I was happy, no really important position.
After a nice hiking tour through the woods, we heard a awesome firefight, while we were watching trees near a building. After attacking said house my FTL and my self got soot. I survived somehow (I think I screamed for help in german, sry about that ) and someone dragged me in cover and "healed" me. The following minutes alpha heroically defended that building, while everyone else was fighting, because we didn't noticed our FTL was gone. In the moment we finally were leaving our position the mission was over.

Goosechase
I this mission I was the guy at the mg in beta. After we landed, we instantly found the hostages. I tried my best to give some suppression fire during the rescue, but I got shoot in the process. And again somehow I survived, healed up and got hit by a grenade, healed up and and (during the retreat) got hit by a grenade again and survived even that! This time no one was alive to help me. So I emptied my magazine in the direction the grenade was coming from and started to crawl my way towards the last known position of surviving allies. During that the mission ended. I survived ... barely.

Poctalon
(MG in Alpha)
This mission started with a panic attack, sort of ... We was told to mount up, but everybody was standing grouped up, so I stand next to them, thinking the helos were flying in or something. Then tryteyker started to yell at me to get in the chopper, so I ran to the only choppers I saw, the 2 deco-hinds. But tryteyker wont stop yelling, at this point I was utterly confused and wanted to shoot my virtual self

After relogging, a nice flight in the cockpit and sprinting through the wood to meeting up, there was the next moment of confusion! I was told to suppress EI in the south, but there was no EI! After a few second someon started to shoot and the EI was moving west, where I finally saw them and emptied my mag. I positioned my self a bit wrong and a tree was in my line of sight

A few minutes later beta was murdered at the castle. I was told to cover west but a surviver crawled up to me, begging for help. But I couldn't help because I was the cover and the medic was supposed to help the wounded. It was horrible ... After ages we were told to 'just heal everyone up'. In the second I started first-aid we were shoot. As soon as possible I laid down some heavy fire to cover the retread. (I think I've shoot a rabbit in the process)

At the barn I was covering south and got shoot in the process, but survived long enough to get shoot following tryteyker 'rushing north'.

I had a lot of fun and will probably join you again! But I need training spotting enemies, I saw maybe 10 people the hole evening

...

Oh and I am now 0.01% better in holding the formation I've installed that STHud-thingy

[Dannysaysnoo]

Berezino Clearance - Second Pilot

After a takeoff interspersed with me commanding my passengers into silence, Chopper 2 made a rather splendid landing at LZ London, where upon the pilot shouted his passengers off the chopper. This led to a spinaround of the target zone, keeping WELL out of the field of danger. Soon after, all 3 choppers were parked at the LZ, whereupon the chopper pilots came together in one chopper, and did a few laps of the target zone to spot bad guys. They didn't.

After this, Pilot 2 grew disenfranchised with piloting, and wanted to take a little break. He landed with the collection of choppers, and hopped off, along with his passengers, and took a tail gunner position. A few laps later, a reddening engine light caused the pilot team to land. While landed, Pilot 2 had an ND, and caused the manslaughter of Pilot 1. Pilot 2 is still seeing his face in the crowds.

Pilots 2 and 3 agreed to venture forth, with 2 in the side gunner seat, and 3 in the pilot chair. Unfortunately, Pilot 3 misunderestimated the DShKM's abilities, and engines were soon red again. A second chopper swap, with same positions, led to another spin around the target sight. Engines went red again, as Pilot 2 asked why altitude was dropping so quickly.

*Boom*



Goosechase - Alhpa Medic

Taking up the glorious positon of Fer's medic, we went for romps in the woods with Nigel. This ended with Fer being shot. As I asked him to crawl over to me, I too was shot. :E

Potalcon - Chopper ? Assistant

I can't remember exactly what chopper I was assistant to, but it was definately Kales. Once we took off and landed, we realized we had landed badly. We were told by command t to take off, so we did. This led to losing control, and exploding.

[wolfenswan]

Berezino Clearance - Alpha 3 FTL

The initial approach into the AO went as smooth as it could, with Alpha Squad mostly providing cover and later taking out a technical and static dhskm at the flanks of Bravo/Charlie. It was only later, when approaching the second cache, that things went bottom up. Moving through a forest uphill wasn't the best approach it turned out and Alpha got hammered, but taking way less losses than we should have. After Bravo had moved up into what must have somewhat resembled a pincer movement we recovered and moved towards the second cache.

I wasn't sure what exactly was going on at A1/A2s side but the panicking shouts spoke for themselves. The situation was pretty dire. On my left my sister fireteams were being massacred, on the right I had an open field covered by distant enemy emplacements and to top it all my entire fireteam was pretty low on ammo. So, I decided to do the only reasonable thing and ordered to attach bayonets, sprinting towards the few building to my NW, hoping to be able to attack whatever it was that was engaging A1/A2 from the flank.

Moving through the town one of the guys was shot at the spot I had stood seconds ago, I flanked to turn out the aggressor and just as I ordered the rest of my FT to form up I made out another guerilla in the bushes. Which incidentally was the last thing I saw as an alive player in that mission.

A good mission but I'm not sure if the AI was at the level they were supposed to be or somehow vanilla again. But it could just be the combination of green colored NAPA and chernarussian woods that gave us a hard time.

Shout out to Kaze, Jerry (?) and Cam for being an amazing fireteam.

Goosechase - Bravo SL

We snacked a bit in the village and watched helicopters passing over us. When we moved out I was just about to reorder my FTs and send one further up the hill when we got hit from all sides by BLUFOR. It was carnage and in hindsight I probably should have taken a different approach direction or insisted on getting vehicle support straight away.

Poctalon - Charlie SL

tba.

2 Days to Retirement - Gang FTL

[Adynod]

Hey Guys, I had an awesome time last night. Wish I could make it more often! Here are my recollections:

Berezinoclearance:
As part of Alpha 1 I didn't see much action until after the first cache had been cleared where I was shot and wounded as I ran into open ground attempting to take position at a nearby house. Everyone retreated and I crawled back to the relative safety of the woods where our friendly neighbourhood medic patched me up. Once we had regrouped we made another push and made it to the house. There were about 3 fire teams huddled around the back of this place, all pinned to the spot by suppressive fire from another house further up the hill to our left. At this point I realised the rest of my fire team were rolling around screaming in pain. A few smokes were popped and myself and the others there ran out to drag the wounded into cover. We patched everyone up but after standing around a bit wondering what my orders were I realised our brave ftl had pegged it and I was his replacement. I was a bit daunted being a bit of a noob at organised Arma play, but luckily all I had to do was charge along the road for a bit before the mission ended abruptly. It was a bit of an anti-climactic ending as I wasn't aware we were any where near close to finishing, but it was a memorable mission for the fight at the house and the heroic rescue attempts. Also this might be the first mission I've survived to the end. Still no kills though (I swear I got one of them!).

Goosechase:
I was part of Alpha 1 again. The main peak of action here was a fire fight across a wooded valley. Pretty sure I shot a few here but the stat screen at the end is so quick I have no idea. I think this might also be the first time I've spotted enemies before being shot in these sessions too. However, only after this exchange we were informed Bravo were perilously close to the area we were firing at so I may have been in negatives had I seen my score. Who knows I might have been the one to got the hostage! After that we all ran into open fields in chase of the remaining hostage but came under heavy fire before reaching decent cover. Somehow I survived, presumably the small bush I lay down in did the trick. I lay there until pretty much the end of the mission as I thought my ft were all lying around in the field with me (as their diamond indicators still appearing led me to believe). After a period of stillness and quiet that felt just a bit too long, I got up and realised why they were all so still and quiet.

Poctalon:
This was my favourite mission of the night. It started with everyone running away from our chopper at the LZ screaming "GET AWAY FROM THE CHOPPER!" as it spazzed out or something. I wasn't quite sure what was going on there, all I knew was that if I wanted to survive I needed to get away from the chopper. Later on my will to survive was tested to the extreme as I happened to be part of the ill fated Bravo team. After another quiet trek through woodland we ran up to a nearby castle to get a look of the surrounding region. I distinctly remember someone saying "no need for cover, there's no-one around here" so quiet had it been. So it was that we ran out into the open toward the castle. I couldn't see a thing, just comrades falling around me but as AT my ftl (Dogface, I think) informed me it was a vehicle and that I should shoot it. I couldn't see anything so I ran off up the hill, rocket at the ready... and was shot to bits. I was shot so much that I was unable to even crawl back to safety (is that a bug? or was I just too badly shot up?). A brave medic came to heal me with not a care for the hail of bullets pocking the dirt around me and, unsurprisingly, he too fell wounded. I lay on the floor for a good while, watching the mass of writhing wounded bodies in the field before the cavalry came to the rescue. I was patched up and along with the one other remaining member of my fire team we were drafted into a ragtag band of heroes and hobblers. I honestly couldn't believe I survived that encounter but had I known what was to come I probably would have wished I hadn't. Off we dashed from castle to barn where after a few quiet minutes of watching a road disappear into a wood, act 2 of Bullets, Screaming and Explosions played out around me. It came from behind me to start with. My fellow road watcher was taken down so I crawled over to patch him up. After that we ran for the nearest bit of cover which happened to be the Barn of Death (see Draith's vid above). You can see me lying down by the door at one point, eventually attempting to AT a vehicle way off in the distance. I missed, I ran, I died. I felt like Butch Cassidy.

2 Days to Retirement:
Oink! As a relative newcomer to Arma, I love that you can be part of something huge like the mission above and also something so much more small scale but no less epic. After all it started with a car crash and fiery flames in the fog as we sped along the road. We pulled over to offer help but the burning man inside (SuperU I believe, also our Commander) informed us he couldn't get out and that we should carry on the plan. That involved half our team heading in the wrong direction while we lost patience and headed in without them. After spying a gang member scouting for us in the distant fog we all held fire as between us we only had shotguns and makarovs. That was one lucky gang member. We followed him back into town where a shoot out in a shop front ended up going badly. I lost my fellow police buddies and retreating, was shot from an unknown direction. Lying wounded the dirty no good bastard came over and put me out of my misery.

There were a few missions played after most people had left which involved a couple of police defending something against the odds. First time around I was very confused when I got in a car and realised my driver looked like a Bad Guy. Queue Mitchell & Webb-esque scene where I question whether I am one of the Good Guys or not. Next time around I was made one of the defenders for being a Folk ARPS noob basically which involved me ending up alone in warehouse at night before around 3-4 terrorists broke in and gunned me down. Terrifying.

Looking forward to the next one! (which will probably be next Sunday)