Hydrowar: Vermin War XI War Story

It was about 2:45 in the afternoon, August 7th 2005... it was pretty hot outside, and the humidity was really getting to me. Our plan was to sneak up behind the enemy and attack their base from behind. To do this we had to hike about half a mile through the woods and swamp. Finally we came out to where we were supposed to be, on the four wheeler path; and we were only a couple hundred yards from their fort. It was crunch time. I looked through the scope on my CPS 1500 and signalled to the rest of my squad that the path

was clear. I had my whole team with me, we had left our fort unguarded in an attempt to overpower their squads one at a time. We moved off the path and into the pine woods near their fort. As we got closer I noticed that everything was quiet, too quiet. Nobody was in the fort. No one at all. Where had they gone? The scene was ripe for an ambush, in fact, it was screaming it. We surveyed the surrounding area, spreading out in groups of two. Suddenly Josh signalled me over past the other side of the fort. He motioned to some trampelled underbrush that I never would have saw on my own. Josh was an excelent pointman. We called the rest of the team over, and then we began to follow their tracks. The tracks led off into the woods and dissapeared where the ferns and grass began to thin out where there was more pinestraw. It was just enough of a lead to guess where they had gone. Either they were lurking about nearby, or they were headed towards our fort! We guessed the latter.

Instead of going back the way we had come we ran through the woods out onto the road and decided to follow it back towards our fort. I figured that they would stick to the cover of the woods and that we could at least travel on the road half the distance to fort Salamandastron without being spotted. Once we got to the creek we turned off the road and onto the path. Josh and I took point with several of our

more heavier armed comrades bringing up the rear. We spotted the enemy team scoping out the area around our fort and split into two groups to flank them. One group was led by Jason, and all the guys he brought. You could say Jason was a mercinary, he was a friend of a friend who was going to college nearby and mustered up a team of his own to bring to fight along side us since we were outnumbered. I have to tell you about this guy before I get into the actual battle, that way you understand just how hardcore his group was. Jason was dressed in a ghille face mask, BDUs, and ghille gloves; and he had armed himself with a power modded CPS 1500 and a Liquidator. The rest of his guys were also armed with CPS guns, mainly power modded 4100s and 1200s, with a few other guns rounding it out. Jason's squad hid in the woods near the creek and prepared themselves to ambush. Just then the enemy started darting around, they had spotted us! With our cover blown I decided to charge.

The decision was costly, but it worked, we had totally taken them off gaurd. Josh and I ran through the yard and isolated one guy with a CPS 1200. He took a few shots and us and then broke and ran. I hosed him with a 5x blast to the back. It felt so good to turn h

im into a spnonge! Robert and the rest of the guys in our group were having a little more trouble. Several of the vermin had jumped into the trenches around the treefort and were giving us a hard time. Usually you could just lob water into the trenches and they'd be soaked, but we had added on a back wall of sticks that came up over the trenches and protected them from so called "mortar fire" (water dropping down on you) so you couldn't do that anymore. I rushed over to where Robert was pinned behind a large oak tree and ducked down behind it. We didn't have any waterballoons, and we desperately needed them to knock out the guys in the trenches. We traded shots with them for about ten minutes or so, and it clearly became evident that they were running out of water. My squad, on the other hand, was able to run back to my house whenever we ran out of water. Eventually they were forced to make a tactical retreat back to their base... which was a long ways away.

What had started off as a tactical retreat quickly became disorganized. They ran down the path, through the woods, and towards the

creek... RIGHT INTO JASON'S SQUAD! Those guys were brutal. I know that's kinda silly to say about a watergun fight, but man those guys were brutal. The guys on the other team had just crossed the creek when Jason and his men popped up from the cane thickets and let out a barrage of CPS fire. It was like a wall of water, the vermin were totally soaked. Apparently nobody had taught these guys about the rules of war. After they let out their initial shots they ran out from their positions and

began pushing the enemy off the bank and into the creek. It was a steep bank, about 5 feet up, and that's a pretty long drop. Needless to say some of the guys on the other team were furious, and with good reason.

Even after that massacre my brother was still on the loose. I have to admit that he's one of the best fighters out there, and he's even better at daring escapes. There's been so many times he's been cornered only to dissapear right before your eyes. I saw him running up the hill in the opposite direction of the rest of his team, back towards our house. He turned around when he saw me chasing him. I took a few shots at him with my CPS 1500, but he easily dodged those. Kirk dropped behind a big sweet gum tree and fired back with his CPS 2100. I'd been in this situation many times before. When your enemy is behind a tree keep them ducking, keep them hiding; that way you can get close. I kept firing quick bursts from my 1500 all the while moving from side to side like i was going to attack him from that side. It totally worked. He kept behind the tree and I was able to get within ten feet where I totally obliterated his dryness and turned him into a human sponge! Heck yeah!

2nd Battle

With the first battle over we all went back to our bases. This time, we planned to do the exact opposite of the previous battle. I left Robert

with most of the team to man the actual fort while Jason's men hid in the woods behind them. According to the plan Josh and I were going to patrol the area along the creek between the road and my neighbors yard. I decided that it was best for me to be on scout patrol with Josh, since I would be able to tell what was going on as soon as it happened. I have always believed that a commander should be in the thick of the battle, that way he can tell what's going on. Anyway, we waited for what seemed like hours, patrolling the boarder back and forth back and forth. Finally we saw some movement on the path coming from another road. I ran back and let Robert know that we had an incoming squad on our right. When I got back to Josh he motioned for me to crouch down behind a fallen tree. The enemy squad had stopped on the other side of the creek and one of the guys was talking to someone over a walkie talkie. Although I couldn't make out what was happening I suspected a trap. It just didn't make sense, why would they stop this close to our fort! Salamandastron was only on the top of the Hill, and I suspected that Robert and the rest of the guys up there could probably see them by now. We waited for about five more minutes until I noticed a crackling sound behind us. Josh must have noticed it, because in that very split second we both jumped up and whirled around to find the rest of the vermin army crouched no more than 40 yards behind us. We scrambled up the side of the hill towards Salamandastron, only to be outflanked by the other squad. Whether they spotted us and were calling in the other

squad to attack us from behind, or whether it was all a matter of chance I'll never know. Kirk wouldn't tell me. I didn't think we

were going to be able to make it to the fort in time, but just then Jason came out of nowhere with about 3 other guys and ambushed our attackers. The guy who was closest to us was totally soaked. We were outnumbered about 2 to 1, so we fired a few shots and retreated back towards the fort. Any attempt at an organized battle was lost from here on out. Because we had been waiting so long two of the guys in the tree fort had been acting up, being incredibly silly. I'm not sure what happened, but they knocked over two of the big gallon containers of water that we kept up there. Robert made them go fill the jugs back up and they were just returning when we rushed into the yard. The two guys (whose names I'm not going to mention just in case they're reading this) were in their first waterwar and were pretty much caught off gaurd. When they saw several enemy soldiers chasing me they dropped their jugs and started pumping their guns ready to fire.

It was too late, with in a few seconds they were soaking wet, and the vermin were still on my tail. I ran around the side of the house and ducked behind the side. This was an old tactic I used to use in soakfests around the house. Two of the guys chasing me burst around the corner only to be hosed down at point blank range. I was sure there were a few other people after me, so I ran under the deck (you can kinda see it in the picture to the right) and hid behind some giant rubber storage tubs that contained dogfood or who knows what. Daniel (Viper)

Battle 2 (continued)
(pictured to the left) came around the corner with another guy, and the two guys I had just shot told them where I was hiding. They sprayed the area down, but saw that my cover was too good to get me from that far out. The other guy kept me ducking while Daniel ran around behind me. Just as I had shot that one guy I noticed Daniel was about to crawl under the deck from under the steps. I made a hunch run and a crazy dive to the wheel barrow, the only cover between Daniel and I. He had just made it

out from under the steps when I hit the wheel barrow. And hit it I did. The wheel barrow toppled over on its side and hit Daniel just as he was sliding for

me. The metal on the axle made a gash on his shin, but he got me with his CPS 1200. I went to get some first aid for Daniel, but he insisted that I wait until after the battle was over. Since I couldn't stop him from playing I went and grabbed my digital camera. Some of the pictures you see here, like the one of Robert and the guys in the treefort is a result of that.

With most of the people protecting the perimiter of the fort eliminitated it was just Robert and a few guys who were left. They ended up getting stuck in the tree fort, and it was only a matter of time before they were out. We called it quits on two battles, because it was about time for some supper and partying. The next war will see who the real victor was!

More Pics:

j
jxx