3may8

MAY 2003 @ SAC page 8.

As I watched, 2 dark figures moved up the hill 150m away, heading to the south fenceline. I told Mantis and Capt to deny them the cover of the trees and move up there to ambush them. While I moved into a dip in the ground, in support. After a while I could hear movement from the small clump of trees and Mantis telling Capt to �Shut Up!� (well not his exact words!). A minute or two later, there was the distinct report of Mantis� PDW breaking the calm. His gun chugged on semi auto and I could hear his tragets scattering for cover. They then returned fire and pellets could be heard zinging off the trees. A torch came on and we all fired at it�s location. Rounds were going everywhere from around 6 guns and I kept low.

Mantis broke cover and ran back along the fenceline to a fall back position, soon followed by Capt. I saw them pull back and gave cover. Then the attackers pushed forward into the trees and assumed the abandoned positon. I was laying down some limited fire, but now got the full attention of Team 2.

DAY 2

I was awoken by the sound of Spectre�s bivy bag being shot. Shouting straight away, �I�m HIT! I�m Hit!� I decided to avoid the humiliation of a Touch Tag. The raiding team were in the camp and started looking for our bergen tags, at which I informed them that mine was not here. Spectre told them that they should report to the Marshal that they had captured his bergen tag (as he did not have one on his kit). I counted at least 4 on the raiding party and started to wonder if Team 2�s base was defended. �Night , Night!� I joked and rolled over in my bag. They moved off and I decided that I would get up and see if I could beat them back to their camp. checking my watch it was 6:40am. Getting out of my sleeping bag, I pulled on just my bootliners and magnums. Pulling the laces tight, one of them snapped, so I just tied it in place, not wanting to waste any time replacing them. I decided that I would move faster without a gun and set off completely unarmed.Moving off at pace, I jogged upto the TAG ZONE near the pillbox, after filling in the Tag sheet as quickly as possible, I secured the lid and looked around for an ambush. Seeing no-one, I declared �Back in!� and sprinted off towards the bottom of the Plateau. Moving up the Plateau quickly, with little noise, I soon found myself at the crest of the hillock. Sneaking forward, I could see an occupied bivy bag sticking out of the bunker 2m away. Deciding that I should pay for myself now, I slapped my hand onto the bottom of the bag, saying, �Good morning, your tagged!� However the occupant had his boots on and it hurt my hand somewhat. Razer looked out and smiled.

We got ourselves together and set off with the flag (once we found Nete, who was asleep). Reaching the stash, all of the 69th set off to sleep in the Safe Zone. While Nitrox said his farewells and left for the carpark (4 hours later than planned). The rest of us grabbed our kit and moved off. Hiding the flag next to a tree on the way, we entered another treeline and decided to camp there. Stinger and Soap left for the Safe Zone aswell, leaving only 3 of us. We discussed if we should just use Bivy Bags, but decided due to the forecast of thunder storms, that we would put up 2 bashas. We knew that this would probably mean we would be found in the morning, but were willing to risk it. Spectre�s basha was an A-frame, while Mantis and I shared a Flat Sheet, that was much closer to the ground. Mantis and I hid our webbing sets (with bergen tags) 100m away.

Once we were ready, we turned in for the night, but the loud music coming from the Safe Zone, kept all 3 of us awake until after 3.30am, by which time the dawn chorus had started and the sky was getting lighter. We expected to be found in the morning, but hoped the kit and flag would not.

Taking fire and being illuminated by a torch, I pulled back and got into hard cover 15m away. Indeed the position was like sitting behind a wall and there was no chance of being hit from uphill. I fired sporadically, but had no idea where my rounds were going, due to all the fiddling with my HOP earlier. I could also hear movement below me and it was heading towards the east fenceline, where Nilz and Sab were positioned. After 5 minutes, we heard both Nilz and Sab open fire downhill, their pellets could be heard hitting the metal fence downhill. After 100 rounds or so, the attackers pulled back and out of range.

As their footsteps could be heard leaving, there was a sudden volley of semi automatic fire and 2 shouts of �HIT!� I guessed straight away that it was friendly fire and laughed. I knew the game would end in a stalemate, as there was no weakness in our defence, so rolled a cig in the dark, listening. Every now and again, I recieved fire from 30m uphill and later on from down 40m below. Some of which was incredibly close, including 1 volley of three rounds that landed all round me. I was cheeky and held my fire, just sticking my cig in a crevis in the wall and smoking it as covertly as possible.

After a while the firing stopped altogether and I suspected Team 2 had realised that they could not get in. Yet, it was too risky to leave our positions and I knew we just had to sit it out till midnight, despite the cold. I saw a torch moving off near the OP and guessed it to be our attackers withdrawing.

Spectre saw the torch coming and lay in wait. As they approached to pointblank range, he was blinded by the torch. Unable to shoot, he reeled back completely dazzled. The AIR HORN blew for mignight (Cease Fire) and Spectre cursed his luck. Yet was amazed to find that the guys with the torch were 69th Airsoft (Nilz and Sab) who unknown to me, had left their positions due to the cold and hunger.

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