Location: An Overwatch Position 400
meters east of Solnichniy
Time: roughly 2300 hours
Conditions: Clear/full moon
Sometimes in this game you just get
lucky, other times you get shafted and are dead right when you log
in. And other times there are opportunities that you could have
taken that would have benefited you greatly. This story is about all
3, and how they played out in one scenario.
The Midnight Truck
Overwatch or “camping” as its more
commonly known can be boring, and in many people's eyes it is looked
down on. But I am a sniper in a post-apocalyptic land, observation
is all that separates me from the dead and infected. So there I am
in my over watch position looking down upon Solnichniy. A very
peaceful town at night, waves lightly breaking on the shore near by,
the soft sound of leaves rustling in the distance... Perhaps it
would be a place to consider retiring if the world wasn’t faced
with flesh eating zeds. I’m listening more then watching. Keeping
my ears open for the sound of gunshots that would alert me to the
presence of a person down below. While keeping a constant scan of
the area looking for general movement I spot a beam of light emerging
from the tree line blow. Intrigued I zoom in with the scope of my
CZ550 to see what appears to be a new player inspecting the factory
with his flashlight.
He is standing perfectly still 300
meters away, I have the shot. But I hold off, I could waist a
precious round on this poor newbie and then bask in the limited glory
of killing a fresh spawn or I could see what the situation unfolds
into. So I waited and I watch this guy with a hatchet and flashlight
enter the factory. As he enters a few near by infected are alerted to
his presence and follow him in. And just like the civilized infected
that they are, they cue up and enter the factory at a modest pace,
single file. The survivor's flash light is clearly visible from
within the factory, and then all of a sudden the sound of shots echo
from within. At first I think nothing of it, but then I realize, you
cannot hold a weapon with your flashlight out..there is more then one
person in the factory. The situation was beginning to unfold.
Shots ring loudly from down below and
with every shot more infected seem to converge on the factory. The
situation looks rather desperate as the bodies start visibly piling
up at the doorways. And then I see it, 2 people emerge from the
south side of the factory and immediately cut towards the main road.
A stream of zombies following them as they change direction now
running north along the road. From my position I see the weapon that
the previously unidentified survivor was carrying. An M14, which
would explain the unusually large amount of infected attracted to the
factory with every shot. For those of you who don’t know, the M14
is a hybrid sniper/assault rifle. It has all the power and loudness
of a rifle but boasts a faster fire rate and scope more suited for
medium engagements.
As the two survivors pass over the
bridge on the north end of town I, lose them in the crowd of
infected. The only thing that lets me know they are still in the area
is the constant sound of shots being fired. Scanning the cost line
franticly, I'm having a hard time distinguishing infected targets and
survivor targets. Suddenly 2 bright torch lights appear in the middle
of the fray. There is a vehicle down there. The beams of light are
coming from a pickup truck that was masked by the darkness just
seconds before. Suddenly it all makes sense! They were looking for
car parts in the factory, they parked out of town to minimize the
attraction of infected. Not that maintaining a low profile was really
working our for them at this point, but it seems that desperate times
call for desperate measures. The truck began moving back and fourth
trying to run over infected who had started mobbing the truck after
it was turned on.
Just then an idea popped into my head,
If I can just incapacitate/kill one of there survivors, the other
would have a hard time reasonably fighting all the infected and I
could steal the truck. Or even if he managed to fight off the horde I
could then pick him off at range or close quarters.
The my goal was to target the guy
driving the truck, for 2 reasons. Mainly because I wanted to keep
the truck there as long a possible. I set my sights on the driver's
side window. My first shot sails though the air to a target 450
meters away. I score a direct hit on the window but the truck is
still moving slowly. I had missed the driver. I fire again, this
time I hit just below the window. The guy driving the truck jumps
out and starts to run north. At the same time his buddy goes to the
back of the truck to grab a new weapon. I size the target and fire
again. I miss completely, sending the round clear over his head.
Later I would learn that I was not zeroed properly causing me to miss
my shots.
To this day I am not quite sure what
caused the last part of this story, but after I sent the bullet over
that guys head both survivors started spiriting north along the shore
line leaving the truck near the bridge. Were they running because I
was shooting them? Or was the truck disabled from infected/sniper
rounds. I was over 450 meters away, it is possible they didn’t
hear my gun fire although that is unlikely. But after they left I had
a choice to make. Do I want to combat waves of infected to check out
and possibly steal the truck? Or continue watch? Or just accept
failure and leave? I chose abort the mission all together. As much
as I wanted to check out the truck there were tons of infected in the
area, there was no way I could make it down to the truck with out
firing my weapon. Also where had the survivors gone? Surely they
would not leave their vehicle for a lone sniper to take, and why
would they run from it if it was still drivable? These questions lead
me to believe that the truck was disabled and trying to investigate
would be more risky then it was worth. So as much as I hated it, I
had to leave the area.
My inability to eliminate a target kept
me from possibly stealing a truck and all the goodies that could have
been stashed in side. On the other hand had I just open fire on the
player with the flashlight in the beginning, I would more then likely
have killed him, but then this story would have never unfolded.
Perhaps with more practice the next
time I encounter this situation, I will put my self in a position to
reap the benefits.
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