A Shot From The Dark

= Episode 4-1 Blue =

Ahhhh LosCons. A weekend of high-intensity competition and low-quantity sleep. The skill level of our erstwhile "clan" has been on a steady, steep increase since the old DOOM2 days. Kills are acheived just as frequently but we really have to work on them. Today's ops called for a 3v3 on the venerable 2fort5 battlefield. Team Red was Los(random class), Nat(Engineer) and Magic(Demoman) pitted against Doktor Chud (Demoman), Boresite(Heavy Weapons) and myself, WeaselBoy(Scout)on Team Blue. If I had to put money on one team over the other, I would have to go with Red. Los is acknowledged as the toughest of us all. Magic and Nat have caused me all manner of grief in our battles. Definitely a rough day was ahead of us Blue Meanies.

We got to our respective bunkers and I started my briefing for Team Blue. Pointing at the whiteboard diagram, "OK Settle down... You all know this map and all the maps like it. You have played them over and over but we are running through the briefing anyway. THIS is the ramp room. THESE are the Stairs. Keep these two straight when you call out enemy positions. THIS is the elevator. YES, I know this is common sense but in the middle of a battle, you WILL forget and you WILL confuse your teammates if you mix them up. I have seen it happen. Just trust me." I continue with the briefing, pointing out the key points of the battleground. "OK guys, let's mount up. We are using Voice-Activated mikes today so we wont have to bother with manual radio settings. Keep the information flowing at all times. Remember your training and you WILL return home alive!"

We scurry around the bunker picking up our supplies. As I am on scout detail, I keep it light. From my locker I grab my reinforced leather jacket and my trusty nailgun. Craftsman(tm), of course. Sears really made a mistake by selling me this with their Lifetime Warranty. They make up for the replacements with all the additional ammo, errr Home Improvement Nails I buy. I check the pressure in the freon tank and strap it to its titanium packframe. From the bowels of my locker I pull up a bandolier of "happy grenades," an even mix of concussion and flash. I love these things. It is so much better to irritate your opponent rather than kill him. I fill my shirt pockets with an even mix of StarBursts and Tootsie Rolls(mini) from a jar on my top shelf. A brief weapons check and a test burst of nails shows the freon is flowing correctly to the nailgun. I tape the monitor for my motion detector to the top of my nailgun. Never use the sights anyway. Either I am at 10ft range or I am spraying the area. The life of a scout is like that...

I glance over at my teammates outfitting themselves. They have a staggering array of heavy armor and MIRV grenades. Boresite is checking the balance on a monstrous piece of deforestation machinery he calls a chain gun. He is tweaking the ammo feed and checking the battery levels as Doktor Chud is giving his clip-fed 40mm grenade launcher a runthrough. I make a mental note to give him his training on DetPack usage. He hasn't used them yet in combat and it's high time he learned. My team tests the commo gear and we head out. It is GO TIME...

To Part 4.1-Red

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