Mission:
Those who served:
Caverick
Malchyrntyne (Christian)
Berklesnort (Greg)
Ivan
And featuring the triumphant return of Jiang (Josh)!
--
We lay in the grass on a hillside. The forest across the valley flickered with the flames of our downed helo, and smoke spiralled into the starry night. Our pilots could have been dead in the wreckage, or have fled like us, we didn't know. An enemy helicopter prowled over the forest, searchlight sweeping the trees. Its loudspeaker blared that escape was futile, and that we should surrender.
We took stock. We each had our silenced rifles, but no NVGs or heavy weaponry. On the other side of a hill a campfire beckoned, and we made our way toward it.
Several OPFOR soldiers manned a small outpost between two buildings. They seemed to be well supplied- if we could take the outpost it could give us the goods to escape. We bellied closer, counting off numbers and assigning targets. We were preparing to fire when their sentry spotted Greg. They both fired, and both went down.
I crawled to Greg and soon had him back on his feet, and we scrambled to take cover behind one of the buildings. I pressed the assault too soon, trying to use the other building to shield my approach, but was hit and respawned.
We switched tactics, flanking to the south. A couple of us laid down a base of fire from longer range while others (myself included) bellied in and threw grenades into the camp. Soon it was clear, and ours.
Once I had a sniper rifle with a nightstalker scope in my hands, I figured it was time to see what had happened to our pilots. The enemy helo had left, so we crept across the valley and into the forest. Our chopper had settled into a gulley, a few flames still flickering amid the wreckage. My scope showed the heat signatures of two OPFOR soldiers alongside it.
Christian arrived next to me in a rustle of leaves. He took the right soldier, I took the left, and they died in unison. I moved in to see the blue glow of a laptop. What information did it hold?
Suddenly shots rang out- it was a trap! I fell next to the laptop as tracers criscrossed through the trees. We eliminated the enemy force, I was patched up, and I could get a look at our prize. Some quick hacking and their recent files started to download.
It was grim news. Our pilots had been captured and were being held somewhere in the region of Thronos, the castle atop the highest peak on all of Altis.
We hiked out of the forest and across the fields until we were within sight of the castle. Two enemy snipers watched for us.
Once we'd found good firing positions Ivan, Christian and I lined them up and fired. I hit one but the other ducked out of sight. We waited for a counterattack to pour down from the castle, but it never came.
Christian and I moved up the road toward the castle, watching for movement and heat. Suddenly we were showered with explosives and shrapnel. An enemy armoured car had approached from the east along the road behind us, and caught us napping! Greg attempted to get to us but was also cut down. Ivan and Josh were forced to wait for it to pass before bringing us around.
Humbled, we approached the mountain. Thronos loomed in front of us.
I crept inside, Christian at my back. I dispatched one OPFOR trooper, and Christian engaged in a shootout with another as the armour came back and blanketed the rest of SPLAT with HE. Once it was gone I revived them, then we all cleared the castle. Just as Ivan dispatched the last of the castle defenders with a well-placed grenade the armoured car appeared and blew us all to hell!
Dusting ourselves off at the spawn point, we dejectedly walked to the supply dump and started gearing up again. That car was INSANE. I didn't know how it could-...
The sound of an engine interrupted my musing. No way. No @#$ WAY...
I spluttered a warning to my comrades, too late. Grenades showered onto the supply dump as our evil nemesis found us. I survived the initial barrage by diving behind a house, and was readying a rocket when it got me too.
Humiliated, we trudged back to the supply dump. The Hellcar had gone. I swore I heard cackling floating across the valley.
Having cleared the castle of Thronos, we deduced that our pilots must have been held somewhere in the town of Dreokastro. We hiked cross-country toward it, staying away from the roads.
The torches of patrols probed the rocks around the hilltop town. SPLAT hit them from long range while I successfully used the rocks to creep up and get into one of the buildings. I attempted to use this to cover the approach of my comrades, when I was suddenly machinegunned by... that accursed car.
We all inflicted heavy casualties at this point, but I lay in a doorway through it all, bleeding. My sense of helplessness was eased by the deep thump of an explosion as Ivan put a rocket into our armoured nemesis. The Hellcar was no more!
Once I was revived we pressed the attack house to house. I shot two guards at the chapel, burst inside and found our missing men!
We secured the surrounding area (with difficulty), then I selected a clear EP and called in our extraction chopper.
We all jumped into the helo, but one of the hostages paid no attention and started wandering over the hills looking for wildflowers, obviously in PTSD. What had those bastards in OPFOR done to the man during his captivity?
I got out of the chopper and with some coaxing got him to climb in, but then its pilot refused to take off. What on earth was going on?
I radioed for another chopper, and it soon arrived. however once Ivan climbed in the pilot took off and tried to kill him, hitting a tree and a building before coming down on a fence.
We tried again, but were met once more with refusal from the pilot.
The terrible truth dawned on us. The enemy had intercepted our transmissions, and had sent their own chopper!
Ivan wreaked a terrible revenge for them trying to kill him, shooting the pilot at point blank range. I threw him out on the dusty road, climbed into the cockpit and we lifted off Altis. Angry bullets came our way as the valley dropped beneath us and we flew to freedom.
