Vermin War 8: Heavy Fighting Heavy Soakage

By: Ben H.

I clinched my CPS2100 closer to my shoulder and swept it to my left eying the foliage to my left along the path. Even though it was a very cool day of only 65 degrees, I had already begun to sweat, or maybe it was just the humidity. It had rained for almost a whole week intermittently prior to today and the terrain was saturated. Listening for enemy movements, I led my squad along the path towards Mueller Drive. We had left two grunts back at base with a Max-D Secret Strike and a modified CPS1-3-5 to guard the 100 or so waterballoons stored there. My squad hugged the right flank of the battlefield. We were to manuever through the lowlands and then cross the road, head up hill through my yard, and attack the enemies critical right flank which held the impenetrable Fort Salamandastron, originally constructed by my own team.

The other squad which was on our left, under my good friend. Cory (deadeye from V7) was to cross the road and hug the opposite side of the creek and travel through the lowlands there to attack the enemy right flank. As soon as we crossed into my yard, we spotted the enemy. They had only left a squad of three in the Tree Fort; the rest of the base was undefended. This was a critical mistake and we saw it. Fort Salamandastron had been built for a minimum of 8 defenders at which it would be almost impossible to take as demonstrated in Vermin War 3. However, three soldiers would be stuck up in the tree fort and could easily be surrounded. Our squad ran to the cluster of trees on the right side of the Fort and immediately opened up with well aimed shots. I took out a grunt with a Storm 2200e and a grunt with a Max-D5000 with two well aimed shots. The other soldier jumped out of the fort and was able to run to safety before we could catch him.

With the enemy’s left flank defences eliminated, we could rush downhill through the woods towards the creek where the enemy center was concentrated. While rechecking our supplies and regrouping before heading downhill, we were reinforced by legendary sniper and grenedier, Mathew Shaftner, and his CPS 2100. At this point my squad currently consisted of Matt, who was 14, myself, at 15, both with CPS 2100s, Seth, who was 10 and armed with an SC 500, and Alanna, who was 14 with her MaxD6000. At this point things were not fairing as well on the other side of the battlefield. The enemy commander had come up with a superb counter to Cory’s ingenious flanking attack. Instead of confronting their squad head on, he pulled back his troops into a bamboo thicket a little over ten yards from the creek bed. This way, Cory’s squad had to either jump across the gully which contained the creek or climb into it and climb back out on the other side. Either way would hinder them from accurately firing their weapons and or dodging; just at the right range for enemy riflemen to pick them off with CPS fire which is exactly what happened. Crystal and Sarah charged towards the creek and forced an enemy soldier to retreat, but then when they tried to ford the Creek, a radical enemy soldier jumped up from the bushes. This guy was crazy, he was wearing a ski mask, full camo, facepaint, a painted CPS 1200, an old school SS50, and 2 XP 220s attached by holsters around his waist. He cut the girls down with two easy shots from his CPS 1200. Suddenly the enemy leader took his squad, which was the enemy center and reinforced the enemy flank then pushed across the creek towards cory’s decimated group. The enemy quickly overan them and killed everyone but Cory, who they forced back through someones yard and up their driveway. Then he pulled off an awesome maneuver. With the huge CPS 3200, Cory got a shot off at the enemy, although it didn’t hit anyone. It only stalled them. Then, he took off on a maniacal run right past the enemy and jumped over the creek and right past the enemy lines up to our squad coming down the hill.

What should have happened next was a huge collision since the enemy center and right flank had combined (and their left flank was destroyed) and Cory had combined with our reinforced squad. Yet, I decided not to crush the enemy for fear that this war would be an insane victory for us and that nobody on their team would want to come back next time. I couldn’t have been any further from the truth. Instead, we went all the way back all the way to the fort and got the two other girls. On the way back to the battle grounds, we were ambushed in our own territory. The enemy leader and the three remaining Vermin hid in the bushes along the path and opened up CPS fire on our troops. A few of the girls panicked and we stalled, unable to go back because of the panic at the back, and unable to go forward or else we’d run into the enemy’s shots. I learned NEVER to put newbies as rear gaurds! Three of the girls were hit, and then we were able to move backwards. I ran to the left and hid behind a bush with Matt as Emily and a few others shot at the enemy straight on. Then we made our move, jumping up behind the enemy we opened fire with our 2100s. Matt killed one of the Vermin, but then was hit by a headshot from the enemy leader who I quickly took out with a shot to the thigh. The two remaining soldiers ran to the tree fort with their Storm rifles before I could get our team together to chase them.

Once we got to the Fort, we teamed up with Cory and attacked. Astonishingly, their Storm Rifles were able to hit us hard. None of the girls had any courage to attack the fort at first so Cory and I shot into the tree fort with our CPSs. However, we were unable to hit them as they were hiding behind the walls. There was only one way to kill them, mass assault. Emily took her Max-D Secret Strike and led a gallant charge against the fort. Yet, for some reason, the newbies didn’t follow orders and Cory had other plans. We turned around to see that we were the only ones charging the fort… too late, before we got in range to hit them they had already soaked us. Soon afterwards, the survivors on both sides called a truce as there was no way we could kill them in the tree fort and they would be killed if they tried to get out of the tree fort since they were surrounded.

Second Campaign

We had decided to play defensive this time. With so many newbies, it was impossible to c-oordinate a good offensive movement. Matt and Jacob crouched about 50 meters from the path in the brush on top of the hill about 250 meters in front of the fort. I crouched in the bushes parallel to them and about 200 meters to their left with my CPS2100. The idea was that the enemy would come between us and we’d take them out before they got to the fort. Sure enough, we heard their warcries as they charged up the hill through the canebreak and bamboo towards us. The enemy second in command was leading the way with his captured CPS3200. Immediately, Matt and Jacob began raining waterballoons on their advancing column. However, most of the balloons exploded harmlessly on the foliage above the enemy. Jacob crept up closer and hurled his last balloon straight into the enemy this time instead of lobbing it. It found its mark. The balloon hit a kid carrying a Max-D5000 and knocked him down! I took advantage of this moment to attack the faultering column before they overan Matt and Jacob. Jumping up, I screamed a warcry and charged straight into the enemy and opened fire into the enemy ranks. A few of the enemy greenies ran away from me and I shot one of them down before their second in command (who had much more charisma then their leader) rallied them. All of that happened in 5 short seconds. I high tailed it out of there with shots coming inches from my back. However, it had worked, Jacob and Matt escaped into the underbrush away from the enemy and I had killed their third in command.

Running back to the fort, I yelled, “They’re coming! They’re coming!” and then took position in front of the fort. What happened next reminded me alot of the scene from The Fellowship of the Ring when the Goblins bust through the door in Moria. The enemy column was less than a minute behind me and charged up the hill into the woods at us screaming. The kid in the bunker was annihilated immediately. The enemy second in command jumped on top of the mound in front of him while the kid shot at enemy soldiers behind him. The poor guy turned around to see the enemy second in command in front of him screaming; but before he could fire he was hit by two waterballoons and a huge 20x beam that knocked the dude back. At the same time, I fended off a few eager enemy greenies who charged ahead of the rest of the group, but as soon as Red Scorpion opened fire on them, ran. I realized I’d make it better inside the fort walls. Where was Jacob and Matt? It shouldnt’t take this long to get back to the fort, we still had tons of waterballoons left inside it, anyway. The enemy was upon us and the only veteran I had with me was Cristina. The carnage, or I should say the soaking, was immense! The newbies that did keep charging were blasted back by a torrent of water from all of us behind the walls firing at the same time. However, the more experienced enemy soldiers attacked from the sides and lured our newbies outside the walls of the fort. Unable to fire bac,k they rushed out only to be surrounded and soaked.

My friend ran up to her boyfriend who was the second of command and tried to slam a waterballoon on him. It backfired and he took the waterballoon and smashed it on her head. I felt kind of awkward because even though I could have shot him, it would have created a conflict of interest. Just then Matt and Jacob arrived on the scene and ran right past the enemy from behind and jumped over the low back walls and down into the fort. Taking waterballoons, they helped to stall the enemy assault…at least momentarily. The enemy was raining down water onto the greenies who were running about like chickens with their heads cut off, it was horrible. Every minute, one of them would be out and soon we were just down to 5 soldiers. We then decided we had to take the fight to the enemy. I charged out the gate and shot the first enemy soldier in sight. For a few seconds, they backed off and it seemed like we had broken through, but they regrouped and met us with firm resistance. Cristina was on the edge of the squad using a modified 1-3-5 when a radical, with a CPS1200, SS50, and 2 XP 220s, took her out. Matt turned around and shot him with his CPS2100, but he was taken out by the enemy second in command. I charged him and just as he turned around, he tripped and fell on his back. Pumping frantically, he tried to get a shot off at me with his CPS3200, but it was too late I had a balloon in each hand and I nailed him twice then shot him in the chest with a 5x beam for good measure, overkill. It was just Jacob and I now and we were pushed back to the fort. The enemy commander jumped over the low walls at the back of the fort and grabbed our waterballoons. “BROKEN ARROW!” Too late, it didn’t matter we both knew it and there was nothing we could do to stop it. I took out the enemy commander, but was shot by another soldier. Jacob ran away to our backup fort, but it didn’t matter. They had our main fort and he was the only one left, that campaign was over.

Third Campaign

We decided that after they took our fort, the best thing we could do was to attack theirs. Since after each battle everybody gets regenerated so to speak (until they get shot in the next battle) we got reorganized to attack. After walking back to my house, the enemy saw our intentions and withdrew back to their fort. They set up a defensive perimeter on the opposite side of the creek before their fort. Instead of attacking their fort, we decided to flank them. I sent Jacob and Matt to create a diversion directly in front of the enemy and pick off anyone who tried to cross the creek. While they took off, I took the rest of the team down a path to the right of the enemy and prepared to cross the creek and attack them from behind. However, before we got to the ford, we encountered an enemy sentry post set up behind a wall on the path. We assaulted the two sentries who signalled that we were here. At first, they put up a good fight since they were behind the wall and peppered us with flour bombs, but then we overpowered them and they took off running. I ran ahead of the rest of the team and shot them both in the back

Soon we joined Jacob and Matt who had kept the enemy team from crossing the creek. Both teams took positions behind trees and soon a barrage of water was going back and forth across the creek. The enemy began to move into the canebreak to the left to get better hiding position. To let them do this would make it alot harder for us to hit them. We hadn’t lost a single person yet, but the next idea was very risky. In order to keep them out of it, we’d either have to take the cain break or annihilate them and to do that meant to cross the creek. I called everyone to a huddle out of the range of enemy fire although they kept shooting at us. After everyone got the gameplan, we pumped up and took an initial volley and then charged across the creek. The enemy was vulnerable because they were not behind the trees anymore nor were they in the canebrake yet. We lost 2 grunts but we pushed them back. The enemy commander tried to rally his troops, but I shot him in the back. Crystal gunned down the second in command with her Max-D5000 and the few people unsoaked ran off to the road. We were free to take their fort and not only that but they had left ours as well!

Fourth Campaign

The last battle happened when we went back to our fort. Jacob had to go, and since he and Matt usually were our scouts/snipers, I had to take their place even though I was commander. Soon I saw that the enemy was trailing us and we quickly formulated a plan. We decided to high tail it and actually leave the fort open and hide nearby to ambush them. I chose Eric and Wes as Snipers since they were veterans and both had CPS1200s. The area we chose to hide in was a cherry thicket and was very thick. We watched the enemy come up the hill to the right of the fort. Just when we thought we had them, Eric and Wes gave us away! They got up out of the bunker and ran towards us. Even still, we were able to keep some surprise. The enemy went over to our fort and inspected it. Then all of a sudden we let out a long Waaooooohhhhh and rushed through the woods straight towards them. The enemy second in command was way out ahead of everyone else with his CPS3200. He shot three of our soldiers in 10 seconds before I brought him down with a 5x blast! The enemy commander was to the right and was dodging everything and firing back with 1.5x shots. However, he wasn’t so effective this time as Eric and Wes kept him at bay with their CPS1200s. Just then, the enemy radical broke through our ranks with a gun in each hand and shot all of our newbies before we eliminated him. I took out another soldier with a head blast. As soon as I turned around, an old enemy, Kacy, shot me straight on with a CPS1000. However, Eric and Wes wouldn’t go down without a fight. Running to the nearest clump of bushes, Eric dropped down and positioned himself to take out anyone coming along the path. Sure enough, the enemy came running after Wes and they opened fire with CPS1200s and then charged them. The result was disasterous for the enemy. All the remaining Vermin were annihilated!