OPERATION FROSTFIRE

A paintballer's diary....

As usual, the day started early. For this paintballer to make it to the field on time, it meant kissing my girlfriend goodbye and out of the house by about 6:15. First stop, Sgt. Tomahawk's place. He had generously offered to drive from North Jersey out to the field, and I graciously accepted. We left his house at about 7am, still too early for his wife or even their dog to be out of bed. Next stop, L.I. We had already decided to meet the rest of the team on the field.

8:30 arrival time, we were so early I got number 12, and Tomahawk got 9 (RED of course!). Dave showed up closer to 9am with the cardiac Kid and Captain Underpants in tow. All the Loaded Crows who were playing this day were here. The team strapped on gear in parking lot, as we looked each other up and down one thought repeated everyone's mind, "Yeah we're ready for this."

As we entered the staging area, weeks worth of trash talking from the web forums was playing in the back of my mind. It was going to be a hard fight at best. We had made the command decision to stick with the Red Team we had played on last year. If one were to believe the forums, the Reds didn't have a chance. Most of the other Scenario teams had joined the hated Blues. Although we received the invitation as well, we had decided the Loaded Crows were anything but turncoats. We would go down, but we'd do so fighting honorably, and with as much good humor as possible.

9:35, the rules are being read to us, we start looking at the rest of the Reds and Blues. Joining us, we have another Scenario team, Team Pain and quite a few regular faces. In a surprise decision we were joined on Red by another two teams known as the Ruckus Raiders, and Praetorian Elite. Along with Team Pain, they comprised the RSA (Ruckus Scenario Alliance) . Hmm, I began to think, not only are we going to put up a good fight, we might actually win. Along side those crazy Blues, lead by Kenn and his GotKills? team were NYOC, and Team CAGG (the Assassin's Guild) three of the larger teams, and a ton of other guys they intimidated into joining them.

10:15, the game begins with a classic trench start. Not really my preference, but its kind of a tradition at High Velocity. Starting only fifteen minutes late in paintball, with that many people at a scenario game is something of a minor miracle, so our hats are off to the guys on OrionTPT (the organizing scenario team), and High Velocity. We send half our squad into the woods to the right of the trenches, and the other half is still in them fighting. Wack, 15 minutes in, I'm out and have to hoof it back to the staging area.

10:30, I see other Loaded Crows had equally bad luck; although Dave, who decided he needed to get shot a few times, managed to eliminate several Blues including MadMike from NYOC on the breakout! Ok, back on the field, I rejoined our forces in the Woods, and still not having many clear shots, I swept back to the trenches to see if I could link up with any of my fellow Loaded Crows. I find Tomahawk, and stand with him behind a truck just behind the trenches. We took a few long ball shots into the force on the far side, wack I got one! My first kill of the day, and it’s already nearly 11am, wow a slow day indeed. Good thing there is no lunch break, cuts into our playing time. Wack, Tomahawk gets another one. Where the hell is the rest of my team? Damn, well that's something we need to work on, mark it in the back of my head. Wack, I'm hit again, crap, damn long ballers, heh it was perfectly fine when I was doing it, but damn does it suck getting hit with a round that came from far outside "normal range." Well, I start humping it back to the staging area, and hope to see some more Loaded Crows to link up with.

I think it’s somewhere around 11:30 when I find Dave - he's doing a lot better than me today, racking up kills left and right. Well, he's playing a more forward position than me, and decided to forego the distance of the flatline for the accuracy of his J&J . I start walking back on the field with Captain Underpants, we hear they need to be reinforced in the rear woods, so we hoof it on over. Move up to the front, damn it - these kids aren't pushing hard enough. "We got them, we can take the flag", if they'd only listen to me. Well, finally we took it, but it was a bloody battle and both sides suffered very heavy losses. So many that, it even changed the position of the main battle. Towards the back of the rear woods, and onto the airplane field, with spillover still in the trenches.

I link up with Dave, Sgt. Tomahawk, The Kid, and Captain Underpants later on in the early afternoon. We have the whole squad together, and offer to hold down the trenches ourselves. After about 10 minutes or so, it becomes apparent our fellow Reds aren't going to fall. We've planned that they would, and have dug in pretty well, fanned out properly and should be able to successfully defend against at least 3 times our number with little casualties. Well, time to move on and into the fight. At this point we get the call that entry points are going to be swapped pretty soon, so Captain Underpants and I took up rear positions to help cover our six, as the Blue team was soon going to be entering the field behind us. Dave, Tomahawk, and the Cardiac Kid remained in the trenches.

The end of the day found us in the muck. By this point it was raining, but did we leave? Hell no. We held the Blues on the World War II field, now their insertion point. They kept pouring onto the field like rats; we lined 'em up and shot 'em down. It was one the toughest battles I saw all day. They just kept coming and coming. Eventually the rain became a bit more than a light drizzle. Goggles fogged up, paint stopped shooting straight, the Blues took the flag and held us back from regaining it. We did manage to move it back to at least a neutral position, and kept it that way until the game was finally called over due to the rain at 2:30.

Back to the staging area, we began to pack up. The awards were handed out, and the raffle was held. One member of the Loaded Crows won a mask, and excellent backup the Proto Switch EL. All in all, we couldn't have asked for a better day of paintball, high 50's temperature, awesome competition, good paint, great camaraderie, and honorable players. Oh yeah and against all odds, despite weeks worth of trash talking against it, RED WON!!!!!!

Check back, the next big scenario is in two months, and this paintballer is already counting down the days.

Major. Nancy - Red 12
Dave - Red 182
Sgt Tomahawk - Red 9
Cardiac Kid - Red
Captain Underpants - Red