Dark Elite Part One

By: Dark Elite

The situation was Close Quarters, enough said. I had my brand-new Storm 2500 and was keen to see how it performed against top-notch XPs and some lower CPS cannons.

Straight to it then, I won't bother with too much background info now. My new squad (Ickle, Scott and me) were geared up and ready to rock on our limited battleground. We were on the second green, lots of bush cover, we were going to need it. After checking over our blasters, the other team came into view. It was Callum, Dean and Faulkner. Ickle's Storm 2500, along with mine, could match Dean's Max-D (or so we hoped). Callum was with an XP70 (not exactly intimidating, but he's good with it) and Faulkner had two pistols I couldn't ID at this range. Scott had a CPS1000. As they neared the battlefield, we moved into position, ready to rumble. They got into their positions and after a few seconds, all seven blasters shot into the air for a sustained shot until our chambers ran dry. This allowed me, aside from letting us know that battle was imminent, to evaluate Faulkner's mystery pistols. They both seemed to be 2X or thereabouts. Bring it on.

Let The Battle Begin!

First shot, as nearly always was the case, was Dean's Max-D, blasting at 45 degrees to wake us up a bit. Scott immediately returned fire, blasting until his chamber was empty but missing (big mistake in this kind of battle). Callum moved towards me, letting loose a sustained blast from his XP70. I ducked out of the way, still dry, and returned fire with my main nozzle. Cal
wasn't quick enough and caught it in the chest. He backed away, re-pumping to go after someone else. I ran towards Faulkner, let's see how good those pistols are! I caught him by surprise, got him in the back with my main nozzle, and quickly leapt back three paces and re-pumped rapidly. He span around and returned fire with both his pistols, I saw that one was a Liquidator and the other was a Pressurizer. I got hit this time, in the stomach, and flicked my gun to Blast, pumping with the trigger down. The result was a riot-blast and my main nozzle shot, getting him in the stomach and chest. He yelped and ducked behind a bush. I don't think so! I ran forwards and ripped out a quick shotgun-blast without bothering with my main nozzle. He fell over and lay in the bush. I looked up to see what was going on.

My squad was losing! Ickle was hiding behind a bush, trying to squeeze some water into his blaster from his sodden sweatshirt! I ran, low down, over to him and gave him some water out of my tank. He told me that Dean had hid behind a bush and as Ickle had advanced, he had been hit full-on all over his torso by Dean and Callum. He'd wasted nearly all his water shooting the bushes. Scott was nowhere to be seen. We moved forwards, coming across Callum, who swore loudly when he saw two big Storm 2500s pointed right at him. He started to back off, but we both unleashed full power with main and blast nozzles. Callum was totally drenched, out of water and depleted of his morale. He turned and ran to cover, dropping his blaster on the way. We came across Scott in another bush, he wasn't looking too good.. He was totally soaked and out of water. I could hear his dry valves whining as he tried to pump. I checked my water level, and it wasn't good. I was nearly out. Ickle had even less.

"I'm sorry Scott, I'm nearly empty! Refill off Callum's gun, he dropped it! " I shouted as I moved towards Dean.

Dean still seemed to have a lot of water left, nearly two-thirds of a tank. He seemed to be glancing at the bushes more often than was natural, but I didn't have time for that. I signalled for Ickle to stay put whilst I moved forward to Dean. He spotted me immediately, switched to nozzle two and got into 45-degree position. He started pulse-lobbing at me, and I let rip with
my main nozzle. I got pretty wet, but so did he. Eventually he backed down, but all the water I seemed to have left now was in the pressure chamber!

As I followed Dean, I suddenly got hit in the back of the head by a double stream! What the. It was Faulkner! He'd only faked surrendering! I'll make it real this time. I ran for him, ready with blast on. I got him once more with a Blast shot to the head, and this time he wasn't faking. He turned and ran, hands over his head. I went off in search of Dean with all the
half-chamber I had. I met Ickle hiding in a bush, he was still fairly dry. I ordered him to go ahead and find Dean. As I walked behind him, a sudden stream of water shot out of a bush. It missed, but only just. Dean stepped out, laughing. Ickle spun around and fired, but only got a mist shot! It was up to me. I ran forwards and straight past him.

Just as he thought What is he doing!?? I had decided I needed to empty his tank. The best way is to constantly dodge erratically so that they miss and waste water. Or let them soak you until they run dry, but I wasn't intending to get drenched. So I ran for my dryness, ducking under bushes and around Dean's shots. Eventually I started to hear the sound of mist shots from behind me. I had a small amount of water in my tank, so as Dean turned to run, I ran up to him and fired the last of my water in Blast mode against the back of his head. He nearly fell over in shock, but managed to keep running back to his house, Max-D 6000 held over his head in surrender.

I found Scott and Ickle, both starting to dry out a bit, and we all went back to my house to dry off fully. I knew the war between our two teams had just begun, but we could celebrate this victory until the next battle.

Posted: 20040630