11.12.2009 ~ Soft, airey

« May 2012 »

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

On Twitter

Sun, 13 May 2012 08:16:44

Keep low, keep quiet. Let them come for you. Cover your mates and they'll cover you. Remember your areas of responsibility and call your targets. And remember - short, controlled bursts!

I'm in a shallow trench, a CQB specialised shortened M-4 carbine wedded to a silencer cradled in my arms. Kev is squatted beside me, a para version of the G-3 rifle held close. He checks and rechecks his magazine and quietly mentions he's worried about ammunition feed. Time will tell.

Behind, above and to the right of us Baz and Gav are prone behind a slight incline providing overwatch. Baz is exposed - his M-16 purposely poised down-range. Gav keeps low, his SCAR prepared to be a nasty little surprise for the red force when the time comes. Baz, Gav and I can share magazines, Kev isn't so lucky.

The plan is pretty simple. We've found a natural choke point - the red team have to pass to the left or right of us if they wish to achieve their objective. Both directions of advance are split by a briar hedge, intersected by the trench Kev and I are squatting, allowing us to engage targets on each side. Baz and Gav have a clear line of sight up the right approach, and can support Kev and I if the reds get too close on the left. We can do likewise should anything unexpected happen to the right. Deflide is provided by a tree borne sniper wielding an Accuracy International L96A1 about 100 metres to our rear. We know they'll come to us, all we have to do is wait.

Inbound

I'm watching a very serious looking 4-man squad advance to my left, lots of olive drab and grenade launchers slung under Ak-47s when I hear a series of clicks coming from Baz. We have many reds inbound on the right hand side. "About 20" Kev whispers. I check my pouches, four secured large pouches means I have 5 full rifle magazines to play it. I pat my backup piece, a Sig 226 fastened to my lower abdomen with 3 spare clips. I toggle my red-dot sight. We agree to stay concealed for 30 seconds after Baz starts to fire... figuring this will maximise surprise.

Target rich environment

Then the firing starts. Staccato bursts towards and away from us. One mississippi, two mississippi... We start to see rounds hit around Bazs position as he punches out round after round. Gav comes online and quickly empties his first clip. Kev and I have no idea how diminished the reds numbers are. Twelve mississippi ... thirteen mississippi ... Baz's gun gives an empty click. Close enough!

The reds are rushing forward to swamp our two reloading comrades when Kev and I break cover ...

Shouldered rifles spit fire. One, two, three bad guys begin to fall. The reds have been caught off axis and desperate to turn and return fire. Our guns click dry and we duck to reload as Baz and Gav resume pushing fire downrange. Any red caught in the kill zone is quickly taken out. My element stands up to see 7 of the initial 20 retreat. Our 4 man group had just trumped 5 to 1 odds!

Reach out and touch

I stow my silencer (I find it lengthens the gun unnecessarily, especially in the confines of our little trench) and slam in a fresh magazine, all the while making sure I leave the used magazine pouch cover loose to differentiate it from the more useful full ones. Kev begins the laborious process of filling his clip 1 round at a time. I turn my attention to our left flank. Two of the four man group I'd noticed earlier are under fire from a building further up the battlespace. I draw a bead on my team mates assailant and fire a burst.

The first round clips the sniping reds cover, the second and third pass harmlessly over his shoulder. The attacker reacts, looking around to find the source of the impacts, fails to spot me and continues his attack. I sight in and try again, firing a long burst across the reds position. Two rounds fall short, a further four hit their mark and the target goes down. That's eleven I giggle to myself, despite promising I wouldn't keep count. I get a thumbs up from my teammates for the effort as they rush forward. Then I hear a long report from my 3 o'clock.

Kev stands high, his weapon still locked on his victim, a heavily camouflaged red team member who'd managed to get danger close. Not that it matters anymore! My two elements look around ... no enemies in sight. Baz joins us in our trench and suggests we advance. Kev and Gav volunteer to hold the line while Baz takes point and we begin to move forward.

Oscar Mike

We sprint from covering position to covering position, taking turns in an aggressive bounding overwatch. Baz disappears past a building to my right as I wait for his call, all the while scanning for contacts. Too many seconds have past when a tango sprints left from the same building. I lead as best I can and squeeze the trigger, my first burst trailing right and high off the sprinting target. I drop to a knee and line up for a second shot as the tango raises his rifle in my direction. My second burst misses, as does his response.

Then something odd happened. The red drops his rifle and draws his pistol, a colt .45. Another two bursts brush past him as he adopts the weaver stance and returns fire. His first round passes by my head as burst after burst misses him. I'm running out of ammo and he's got me bracketed, time to think about moving! Another round passes just off my rifle. Suddenly behind the building to my right seems like a better place to be. Another round flies between my legs, it's no secret where the next will land. I fire a long wild burst and begin to move for cover when a long punishing burst of fire pour over my aggressor and he goes down.

"I got ya Bro!" Baz yells, grinning from ear to ear!

We regroup and move back towards our choke point, that happy little home from home on this battlefield. Gav and Kev are still in-situ, Kev shares a salute, still tinkering with his faulty mag. All our little four man team have made it this far! Baz suggests we repeat our advance and I slide a full clip in-place in response.

Enfilade

It all happened very quickly. Baz and I are concentrating on advance, looking for immediate threats to our 12 o'clock. Kev and Gav are fiddling with the misbehaving G-3 magazine. No-one had noticed the camouflaged red who'd burrowed his way up our right flank. Gav and Kev are shot at point blank range, Baz and I follow an instant later. Four single shots in quick succession, four quick kills. Oswald was a fag!*

Walking wounded

What a great day! Websters dictionary defines airsoft as 'The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above'. A more useful response would have been 'Airsoft is a team based sport like paintball where replica firearms which shoot 6mm plastic balls are used in simulated, skirmish based combat scenarios'. And it's a hell of a lot of fun!

The yearn above is from my second skirmish, an event that I fondly recount over beers from time to time. The game rewards team play, brains and an eye for terrain as much as accuracy and physical fitness.

More airsoft info

Irish airsoft association
HRTA - the battlespace illustrated above

* McManus preparing to snipe in the fantastic 'The Usual Suspects'

Tags: 08, airsoft, amusing, games, guard, guns, war.

Deziddon.com

Welcome to the personal web-site of Dez Iddon, a web-site developer / designer residing in Clonmel, Ireland. Come in, Stay a while, Stay Forever!!