800*600
Report on Our First Paintball Outing.
The IKV Melota our first paintball skirmish. In the process, we picked up Dr. Gizmo (Mark Alcala) as a new recruit. We met at veteran's Park and geared up. Present for this first outing on a rainy day were:
Dr. Gizmo (first time for any klingon event)
Lord Captain3
Person1
Rotok
Krell (disabled list) Neutral Observer
Salek (myself)
We geared up, loaded up, and headed to "the bowl". There we managed to have 3 skirmishes in the short amount of time that we had before our ship's meeting.
TO&E:
Dr. Gizmo had to borrow an armory weapon because his awesome weapon had blown a seal.
Rotok took Dr. Gizmo's tank to use on his 1 day old semi-auto.
Person1 used his personal equipment. 40 round hopper.
Captain3 used his personal equipment. 200 round hopper.
I used my personal equipment, 10 shot cigar tube.
Only Rotok had a semi-auto at this point. The rest of us had an even single pump playing field.
Krell pitched a chair and Gatorade in the middle of the "bowl" so he could see most of the turf.
Since Dr. Gizmo has had some serious surgeries, and I (apparently) had a weapons handicap, we teamed up for the first two skirmishes. We walked into the bush to play defense while Person1, Rotok and Captain3 were to assault us. Dr. Gizmo, being even my senior had the experience of years of paintball, and the treachery that comes with age. As soon as we hit the bush he just vaporized. I'm glad we were on a team together. During each of the three battles, Dr. Gizmo would simply phase in like Jem'Hadar and shoot, then phase out. By then it was too late.
That first battle was really embarrassing for me. I wound up being the first kill by a person wearing a white T-shirt. And of all the places to take the hit, the ball splattered in the armpit of my ballastic vest where there is no armor. And, no, I did not take him with me. His weapon jammed effectively putting him out of the battle. Person1 and Captain3 encountered Dr. Gizmo. I did not see this, but the sounds were brutal. Apparently, Dr. Gizmo's borrowed armory weapon was not feeding and he was hosing the area with CO2 thus the repeated shots. At some point, Captain3 managed to walk within 2 meters when Dr. Gizmo phased in for the attack. With a tree in the way, and only firing blanks, there was a lot of gunshots with no results until Dr. Gizmo eventually put a ball on Captain3. I don't know what happened to Person1 but he was out before Rotok and I approached to observe.
The second was really good. It had some sniping, some sneakiness, some old fashion military training put to use. And finally, violation of rule and tactics because we kept going so long. Again Dr. Gizmo goes out of phase and waits. I am sitting in a reentrant waiting to sacrifice myself to take out 1 of the 3. That would make the odds 2:1 against Dr. Gizmo, which for him, is even odds. Rotok walks past the reentrant without checking it and I shot him in the butt. Expecting to be assaulted now that my position was blown, I ran down the reentrant into a "bunker" in the middle of the bowl waiting for the inevitable attack that never came. I could only listen because my facemask had fogged over. I heard shots fired and returned up a different reentrant to snipe whoever was assaulting Dr. Gizmo. I could not see squat for how fogged my facemask was. Being technically blind all my life does have its advantages. Though I could not see a target through my face mask, I could sense movement and I popped up and put one round through that movement. As I popped up for another shot it was unnecessary as Captain3 called the "death" with some new language. He had managed to kill Dr. Gizmo when Gizmo phased into our space time continuium for a shot. That left Person1 and myself. (and a fogged face mask) Since these were nonlethal weapons I broke protocol and walked openly down into the middle of the bowl to entice Person1 into a shot thereby giving away his position. Which he did. We then got into a duel with him hiding and moving in the tree line at the edge of the bowl and myself in the grass in the middle. At one point, I had broken my rifle into a pistol discarding the stock and extra ammo taking my 8 remaining shots with me. We had a serious duel with him changing positions in the bushes and me doing what the army taught me as we worked ourselves within 3 meters of each other. At that point, my mask was so fogged that I could not see him to shoot, nor he I. We both backed off and I later had to again stand up and entice the shot. We started another long range sniping duel. He took off his mask to see and therefore shot me before I could close enough to see through the fog. Having three balls left, I expended 2 on sure kills, and 5 during our "duel".
I'm no longer worried about cigar tubes. I'm conservative and don't miss when I can see. After the "fog of war" became ensconsed in my own mask, I have to concede that I missed 5 times at ranges from 15 to 3 meters. That is embarrassing.
The Observer and the "deaders" were all gathered in bottom of the bowl during this exchange providing running commentary with both surviving players and themselves. Krell was taking pictures. At one point, I crawled a little too close to the deaders and Observer and was asked to wander off, thus I did. I was really trying to close on Person1 but I must admit that it nearly put them in the crossfire so they were right.
The third bout, Rotok joined Dr. Gizmo and I, and we became the aggressors. Dr. Gizmo phased in an took Person1 early on, but out of line of sight of RotokQ and myself. Then it was the two of us pursuing Captain3. Rotok and I cornered the Captain3 and the semi-auto showed its advantage over our pumps. Captain3 lost to a hail of fire while I closed in on his side.
At this point, not knowing that Person1 was out or where Dr. Gizmo was, Rotok and I wound up pursuing Dr. Gizmo. As I was yelling "IFF! IFF!", The semi-auto fratracidally took out our partner when he phased into IFF Friendly. By then it was too late.
We had a darn good time! I like this new (to me) sport even if I am sporting one gnarly bruise.
This was only from my perspective. We need the perspectives of the other Combatants and the Neutral Observer.
Strength and Honor
Lt. Cdr Salek Sutai
Ship's Brewer
An Approved Brewmaster of the Empire
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