SAS Live Ops

A “D’oh!” moment admid success :-/

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Today launched operation breadsticks, a little mission meant to explore the idea, “What if the Haitian earthquake was man made?”. First map was Made of Stone, a map I haven’t really played since before joining [SAS]. I setup the `Tactical Operations Command` centre near the spawn point, and adapted the callsign Valkyrie 62, much like in the LO to China.

Everything went fairly smooth, search team rescued the secret hostage and moved deeper into the building, took a few hard to avoid causalities, and we aced the op. Where things went hairy, was the second map. For some reason only Escrt could spawn correctly and all the terrorists were missing :-S. So after plan B to hot fix it went belly up, I called for plan C and let the members have fun on the first map.

I’m taking the week off from everything except ‘work’ (lol), but intend to sort things in my rest time. Ok, so hacking up a map in unreal ed is not restful… but it’ll be worth it. Because we need to be able to spawn, I have to fix the map to *properly* support multiplayer, it was necessary to postpone map #2. Since there were no tangos either, I’ll have to create a proper scenario; in the mean time, I can just release a tangoless version that people can train on. Then when things are ready, any given weekend, we’re back in action!

🙂

DINNER OUT, best live op I’ve had in years

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Today was the go date for [SAS]_Trp_Walkers Live Op, DINNER OUT. The first one he’s made actually, and doubtlessly, one of the best I’ve gotten to participate in, in quite a while lol. It really was a good LO.

When I saw the floor plans he attached today, I remembered a note I had scribbled down last year from [SAS]_SSM_Medic. He used it for some SNCO duties, and I got to thinkin’, what if it supported loading external images into it? Well sure enough, it did :-D. Spent a while playing with our `new’ish` toy, Walker and DUKE helping with the testing. It also fell on my head to lead the live operation, since Walker delegated it to the highest head on the totem poll.

After the call for the LO came up, I got everyone into the briefing software, and conducted a mission briefing. The plan was quite simple, Alpha and Bravo would link up on the top floor, Alpha providing support fire for the entry, and Bravo silently securing the flank—then taking position for a hard entry. After the “CHEESE GO” signal was to be given, we would’ve launched our raid: Bravo doing a breach bang entry while Alpha supported with tear gas and marksmen fire. That was the plan anyway, and we would’ve setup a similar assault in the next choke point on “PIZZA GO”.

What really happened, in manoeuvring Bravo into position, we came to a rather sticky set of situations. The areas we had to clear were surrounded with grated catwalks overhead; we took care of the first entry like clock work, but it was the second area… our rally point for after cheese. There was two doors leading into the RP, the right one with an X-Ray having his buttocks planted firmly to the doorway, and a buddy standing on the stairs next to him. The right door, had spotty obstacles and another X-Ray within arms reach of the door. I made the call to maintain the stealth, and informed [SAS]_Sgt_Duke comming Alpha, that we may be compromised within the next 15 secs; he was ready. We stacked on the left door, aiming to drop the sentry without much alarm; we did that and took care of the guys on the other side, before moving into the freezer behind our way point: a double door to be wedged before the take down on cheese. When we got there, the door was open and we took a lot of flak, [SAS]_Trp_COT going down almost on the spot… a hostage was shot in the distance before we could get the situation locked down—Alpha went GREEN and took out the shooters. Once I got bravo to our final assaulting position, commu with Duke showed we should have little resistance, so I signalled our entry with just a quick bang clear. While working around a bullet proof cage to kill a remaining shooter, I got quick draw mcgrawed out of the action without a chance to fire lol. In a couple minutes, Bravo was down to [SAS]_Trp_ESCRT while [SAS]_Sgt_Duke and [SAS]_LCpl_DeCapi took charge of the clearing effort. Soon after that, ESCRT went down leaving just Duke & DeCapi, when DC crashed, it left Duke to save the day on his own lol.

In retrospect, I should have changed the plan on the spot, split my Bravo team into RED and BLUE on each door: breach bang entries and push on, having Alpha engage cheese while that was happening. Instead, I aimed to keep things on the hush & hush, rather then take the gamble on hostages getting off’ed.

I chose Duke to lead Alpha team, because I wanted my best man ready in case things blew up in my face… and I knew his level head could cope with the pressure up there in the OP lol. While it would be easier for me to manage the assault team (Bravo) if I was up front where the action was. It was watching Duke and DeCapi clearing the map together, that really impressed me, for the first time in quite a while. Watching them in action was like looking at the epitome of [SAS] teamwork and tactics in action. Two [SAS] members knee deep in trouble with no real shortage of OPFOR to shoot at, and Duke brought order to chaos in the end.

A little bit ago, I sent an exaltational e-mail up the CoC, recommending them both for medals in the new awards matrix. There display of how we work together, and Dukes actions during the LO was that good – I generally don’t send recommendations for such things lol. But I think, after all the Live Opeartions I’ve been in, Duke deserves a citation for his effort, and DeCapi is also worthy of commendation. There virtual battlefield action really was awesome. Since our refined awards matrix is more focused towards live ops and trainers, Duke just made my first two cents for our equivalents of battle field commendations.

In [SAS], the only people I’ve ever felt worthy of serious recognition for their contribution to the team, are [SAS]_Maj_WIZ and [SAS]_CO_Random, because I know they’ve given more to [SAS] then most of us combined. WIZ in particular, I’ve been around to see better then most, how much he’s put into this group. Those that know me, I don’t do so highly very lightly lol.

Without a doubt, best live op I’ve had in ages!!!

Rolling an idea into an operation!

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Well, my live operation is all but completely setup for Sunday; all I have to do is zip up & attach the intel photos, get the map files ready to rock, etc. I think I’ve taken about eight to ten hours in prep for it :-/. It takes me all of like, five minutes to come up with an idea for a live operation, then I spend time cooking up more details and brain storming…. once them creative juices get flowing, watch out! You just never know where we’ll end up before zero hour lol. As stressful as it can get when Murphy leaps out of no where, I really do love LOs in SAS.

I posted a short message in the LO forum on SAS this afternoon, and spent parts of the afternoon / morning working on the details, including an OPORD. This one is going to have two maps to it, assuming the element doesn’t die two minutes after insertion or fall down a vent shaft, haha! I am very tired of how many delays we often bump into with the start of a LO lately, so this time out, I’ve enacted a stricture—you come late, you sit this one out in the TOC or can go buzz off. This live ops beginning strictly on time, if I’ve gotta grease the wheels and push; considering that I’ve given everyone ~48 hours notice of the launch window, and will be tapping the assault team at least 15 minutes early for setup / briefing; there are no excuses!!! I think the assault team is going to have an interesting feeling, if they make it to the end of the first map, muhuahauhauahuhaaua!!!!

You know, I could make a fortune if people would pay me to think of contingency plans and potential attack vectors, just look at my service record with the EVR lol.

LO: Scorpian

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Joined TG#1 today, PG#1 was mostly full and I didn’t want to take a slot from
the SAS friends there. Managed to get a bit of a warm up, then Carter joined
and I had to shift my brain from skills-focused training mode to team-focused
mode :. We finally hit the end of our launch envelope, just before 2230Z came
around. I think, I forgot just how much stress it is on the server admins and
live op conductor…. hehe. But it was a great Live Operation.

We had some problems with the first map, so Medic pulls out his plan B. When I
saw the map name, I started shouting “where the hell did you find that map!”,
for a moment I thought he found my secret storage place… *sigh*, now I need a
new map one for LO: Vengeance #1 — Vipers Edge. It was good though,m to
finally set foot on that map again, and see it in Live Op action! We finally
got everyone in the server, organized swiftly into to combat teams by JB, and
ready to rock. I was a bit disappointed by the insertion, but I expected it
because I know the maps spawn point lol. It is the kind of map, you have to
cover 360′ degrees at all times or you get screwed up bad. And even then, you
risk getting rolled hard from several angels at once — most of the map is like
a staircse, a 3-Dimenisional death trap! The problem we had at spawn, it’s
mostly a psychological thing IMHO. People tend to bog down and become confused
in those kind of insertions, the old “Where are they”, “What am I doing”, “What
is expected of me”, “What am I doing here”, et cetera. Once everyone
got past their initial confusion, and made a coheisive response — we lit up
the enemies world like hellfire.

We managed to put down the enemy threat and freak’em out. Once we got the team
moving out of the area, we secured safer ground and sprang out along the
paraemter streets — cutting down snipers (Headshot!) and X-Rays along the way.
Then we made it into the subway without further incident, and ended up forking
into 2 scout-assault groups.

The EL took our main body right, I was on point-cover to our left with a backup
man (MB & his SAW). I usually try and makes use of our radio commu to ease the
confusion, so we don’t get lulls where people are waiting for instructions:
when I can I try and reduce the Element Leaders workload, so he doesn’t have to
be reading over my shoulder in order to keep me in line with his plan of attack
lol. Once my scouting order came through, me and MB headed up and got the
clearence to take the high ground above. I figured, getting up here will
probably do nothing more then get my ass shot…. but it was a great spot.
Well protected, about the only place on the map that you can put a
sharpshooter, without making him a sitting duck lol. We didn’t expect to see
any threats from there, but I was hopeful that I’d be able to provide JB enough
intel and overwatch, that the elements main body could clear out their AoR
without getting overwelemd by a QRF.

Later on, I’m like, “I think I can see Ghost from over here”, so I lower my
gun, and you could say gave the proverbial wave in my minds eye lol. JB
summery turned around, and shot me twice in the head on reflex, seeing nothing
but a head (in our teams camo) looking at him from the roof top. Never mind the
fact, that we were feeding them the positional information to avoid that kind
of incident…. Intentions completed (support the teams efforts), but got shot
by a confused teammate in the process lol. The team then went on to secure the
last threats; we took about 30% casualties at the insertion, one down during
the street to street fighting, and JB took off my avatars head by mistake >_<. Maybe next time, I should use Smoke. I didn't want to puff one on the roof, because it would've just gotten any remaining snipers looking at us; and I expected to get shot on the way up anyway lol. If I had puffed a smoke grenade on our roof, when the other team was closer, and called it over TS to mark it.... Rather then telling them WHERE we were (the maps big, but not really that big lol), mayhbe it would've eased the confusion... And drawn more enemy fire our way.

Once people got it sorted at the insert, everything went pretty well. It’s a
mission that is some what, close to our problem domain but also far enough from
most peoples general training, that the unexpected can hit them hard. What was
really needed, I feel, is for Element Leaders to anticpate such a situation and
be snap to it [faster]; directing people where they need to be, in order to cut
down the confusion and get people responding to the situation again. Enlist
their 2nd in commands to assist would help to, especially when (like in this
Live Op) there are/were multiple teams involved.

You’ve got to get things organized so no one gets cut off in the corners alone,
or bunched up waiting for spec fire to grind their ass. People need to have the
initiative to react FAST, and deal with things without direction. The problem
is, when people hit a situation like the one we spawned into on that map; most
people expect direction from EL, and naturally become mentally “slow” until
they get past the initial shock of the engagement, or you pop’em over the head
with an idea (any idea) and get them back into the action. Like wise, most seasoned ELs tend to know better then try to micromanage people that know how to cover their sectors; but dealing with team confusion :.

That’s been my experience after 3 years of Element Leader, dealing with
everything from noobs screwing up our plans, to live ops with deep recon of the
enemy. I actually had it drilled into me during ops training to respond this
way to bad situations: take control of the situation QUICKLY or people
die.

Hmm, I still remember one Live Op I did when I was a young trooper. The Lance
Corporal took Element Lead, since he was the highest head on the totem poll and
we were still just a few months out of the Selection Course. We went through
each phase of the mission smoothly, our CQB training combined with the ELs much
greater green field experience got us through it like clock work. But when we
got the VIP to the car, surprise! A third map loads, the escape car as been
sabotaged, and every tom, dick, and harry with an AK47 was out for blood. The
element was quickly overwhelmed and destroyed, leaving the VIP to the opposing
force; mission failed, after such a successful run lol. Like our Sergeant
drilled into us all after that — don’t bog down, take control. If LCpl Rand
had come out of the surprise faster, and shouted at us young Troopers into a
proper response, we
might’ve survived that Live Op; we had a perfect position to use our Tactical
Aids and man power to slow down, evade, and flank the enemy from our own
ground. Most members present that day (~3 years ago) chalked it up as a
critical lesson learned. That’s also when contact drills entered our young
minds, hehe.

I’m the kind of person, shit happens, deal with it now, panic later. Only way I
know to be lol. Every member of Elite Virtual
Regiment is extremly skilled within the scope of our games. But most
people, haven’t been exposed to enough hard action in game or in real life, to
deal with a nasty fire fight like that outright: the team spawned into the
game in such a way, we almost had a man shot before anyone could phyiscally
pull a trigger: such was the map deesign of todays live op. Whenever I can, if
I see people loosing the initiative to DO, rather then have the EL hold their
hand; I try to get the people around me working and reduce the Element Leaders
thought-load, so he can focus on getting us the heck out of the there lool.

A keen battlespace awareness is crictical! But it’s something that has to be both educated into people, and drilled sensely into them. Hey wait, that’s what we do…. hehe :-). It’s jsut it takes longer to work on it in game, then it does in live combat.

Day 1, the new doctrine

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Well I’ve gotten almost absolutely nothing done but it’s been a generally peaceful day, rather then a hectic one. I’m really not looking forward to work tomorrow either :-(, Mondays is afternoon to evening.

Still pushing “personal best” records for operating on a minimal of sleep. I don’t really have much problem, never really have been comfortable any way. What I miss at night I make up for the next day if necessary 0.o

Managed to get all of my pictures transfered to the file server by way of my desktops card reader. Only to end up having to take a few more later lol. Our cameras documentation does a bad job of assuming that your only ever going to use it with there Windows software but once the camera is set up to use USB/Mass Storage rather then USB/PTP it’s easy to use it 🙂

Just hooked it up to my laptops USB port and powered it on, simple FAT16 mount operation. The only problem though is only root can mount my da devices : so I’ll have to fix that later in devfs.* files.

My laptop has a card reader but sadly it doesn’t work with FreeBSD :-(. I still need to transfer the kernel over from my test machine to the test FreeBSD 7.0-Release install here so I can test one of the drivers… If that doesn’t work I need to look at trying to write a driver or give up on my dream of using my spare SD Card for file transfer :@

Coco and Willow

I still need to learn about touching up photo’s in GIMP, don’t think the dogs like being photographed lol. Then again I don’t really like being *in* pictures either, haha that reminds me of a picture of my Dad. He was working on the van, sticking his tongue out in disgust at Ma coming by with the camera <_<.

Spent some time in TG#3 kicking in with Flashbangs after lunch. Been at least a week since I’ve had a serious round but the rust don’t build that fast when you’ve had as many ours in the virtual shoot house as I have… Noah ran a Live Op this afternoon on TG#1; Most people were a bit disoriented that Wiz had team radar and team names disabled, we don’t usually train that way although we go in without team radar on Live Ops fairly often. I was like, ok he’s standing near our AoR, he’s holding a G36K, and he’s got a stock armpatch, and he more like Noer then JB so I knew who to follow.
Without the team names on it’s hard to tell who is who but between equipment, armmpatach, body language, and mission plan it is not impossible to do so in a tight element.

It was a good operation even if it went to pot fast.

The plan was that Wiz, Noer (EL+TL), and Me would move up to the first van and cover. While Bravo team (Ambu, JB (EL), and Noah) moved around the side alley to the store room. The tangos heard Bravo moving across the front door (our Point of Entry) and they blew the door out with a frag on us.

Noer ordered Bravo team to move in with Flashbangs and clear to store front while Alpha was to take over there AoR out back. So Wiz started off running and we dogged it to the west side of the map gunning down threats as they came. Not sure how many casualties were on Bravo but in Alpha we only had maybe one man injured (Noers Arm :).

We did a quick bang entry into the store room, passing along the left office wall. Our person of interest (1 of the hostages) came running out fleeing. I ducked my head into the room to see if there was any threat, because I might have to cover 90 degres to it’s left. Looked clear, was about to report that there was a second room inside over comms when a tango waltzed out. Put a burst of shots his way and as usual for RvS, none did squat, he ran through the bullets into the back room. And gunned down a second hostage and I could see the gun of another tango in there flagging around the corner 🙁

Live Op Failure.

It was nice to get to see *some* of the inside of the mission. I knew the map because I used it for Live Op “IRA Sting” like last year. But I spent that Live Operation out side with a Snipers Rifle rather then in a cushy TOC when the first entry team was gunned down by the get away driver 0.o

We might have failed the LO but it was well executed IMHO. Noer planned out the assault and coordinated the teams before we moved out and all we had for floor plans. Was a sketch (not very detailed) that Noah did of the area on a piece of notebook paper.

When that front door went up in smoke we had to do some thing, he sent in the closest team and swapped the AoRs to compensate. Taking us from a stealth infiltration to a dynamic blow and go. I think he did a fine job, it’s just that one of the hostages didn’t make it out :

Todays live ops and my history

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Todays live op went s’ok, a bit sticky at first getting every thing organized. Every thing went quite well other then Chester getting killed on the first floor…. We cleared room by room and it was ok until Duke and Lake went down on the fourth floor.. I was the last smoe still in one piece and that only lasted until about 2 stair wells down.

I saw the tango make as if to flee, so instead of using my last stinger I leaned out to fire… BUt instead of kicking out the door and running away as Tangos usually do in S4 when they flee. He shot me through the metal railing with an MP5, you could hear the bullets blink off it haha. Second time I’ve gotten ‘stung’ for being so stupid lately… Next time I just call up the tac aids.

I think this is about the dozen’th live op I’ve set up, I know there are 2 Live Ops on the site I’ve yet to do. Went through and compiled a summery of my own live op history. Kind of nice to be able to review my record… Usually if I look into live op history it’s because of compiling peoples service records.

live op name (position if noted/remembered). All the ones I created include (TOC) in the position notes. The rest I only participated in. The creators of the various live ops vary between James, Myself, En4cer, Wiz, Noer, Rasa, Sniper, Lake, and Yuke I think.

My live op history:

747 Hostage Rescue (Sniper+Blue 2)
CP Peaks
Operation Black Gold (EL)
Codename Deep Water (Red 2)
Arctic Recon (TOC)
Fallen Angel (EL)
Mogadishu Mile (EL)
Hostage Rescue (Red 2)
Save the Prince (Independant Tech+TOC)
IRA Sting (TOC+Sniper)
Codename: Legal Eagle (Red 1)
Operation Drug Lab (Red 1)
Operation Nightlance (EL)
Dockside Dragons (TOC)
Bavarian Bandits (TOC+Spotter)
Operation Amazon Assault (Sniper)
Operation Blizzard Assault
Street Sweep (Red 2)
Highland Prison (EL+TOC)
Hunting Klaus: Island Fury (Red 2+TOC)
Hunting Klaus: Safe House (Sniper+TOC)
Hunting Klaus: Trial by Fire (TOC)
Operation: Avenue Sweep
Creeping Death Part I (Blue 2)
Hacks and Daggers (TOC+Blue 2)
Operation Worst X-Mas (EL)
London Library Under Seige (Blue 1+TOC)

I think Iw as downed in about 12 of them 🙁 As I usally remember after a successful live op, “At least this time I didn’t get shot in the tookus” lool. The 747 op was actually my very first. Cobra was EL and James was conducting, we had two assault teams. One would be blasting in from the main hatch; the other from the lower access way. Cobra and I with PSG-1 rifle and P228 pistol in hand paved the way to the jet and secured the cargo hold before taking up the 3rd aslt position from the lower-access ladders.

Recon was the only one to survive the assault, while most of us lived a fair way through it. The graphics card intense siege and tangos sliding between chairs eventually caused a lot of causties. He managed to get the pilot out and hunt down the Co-Pilot in the next building saving the day.

Most of the other Live Ops I was in gave me a good chance to enjoy live ops, although I don’t consider most of my participations successful because in most, win or fail, survival or KiA, I usually got shot up one way or the other… I remember Noer’s Mogadishu Mile live op, I was EL and we lost 2 people very quickly. It ended with Me and Lazko as the last men standing, bleeding to death if you noted our health bars, and a handful of bullets left between us! Think he had an M4 and I had a Sniper Rifle + Glock about to go dry. A lot of guys have made live ops over 30 since I joined [SAS], more then I’ve been able to participate in lol.

Arctic Recon, Save the Prince, IRA Sting, Dockside Dragons, Bavarian Bandits, Highland Prison, and the three Hunting Klaus live ops: Island Fury, Safe House, Trial by Fire were all apart of my live campaign and have inter connected stories. I conducted them and tried to avoid being in the Element. That reminds me Operation Vengeance, the 3-part finally still needs to be launched !! The only thing holding it up is finding a sound-clip to mix in for an Air Strike.

Hacks and Daggers and London Library Under Siege were two live ops I just had an itch to do one and went out and made them. The others were mostly planned… I always try to be helpful to my fellow members when they are doing a LO because I’ve done enough on both ends of the pond to know a fair bit lol.

Live Ops are one of the things I love about [SAS], you get a map, a mission, and one chance to save the day — which will it be?

Most of the live ops I created were successful and when they were not, usually a grade A disaster!

I think some thing most of my peers don’t know is that in real life, big special forces operations can and probably often fail just as often as they succeed. I never have really paid attention to our track-record as a team because the records only go back so far into our history, [SAS] was founded in ~2001 after all. I do have fairly detailed records for the live ops I’ve done for the live campaign though.

Live Ops !!

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Wowsa, two live ops today and great after action reports to follow them, just got to post them.

Mission was a sucess so I’ll give the RvS guys more Intel for their super-live op event coming up hehehe.

I’ve also got a bit of a making of going and I’m working on creating some post-campaigne statistics that summerise the missions.

It’s been over a year of work, it’s gone from 2 maps to 12 but heck it’s been fun !

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*SIGH* It seems like every time I want to sit down and type some thing for my blog. I always end up AFK =/

Being the healthest sick person in the house, I guess thats to be expected…. That or I just need to learn how to build my self a sound proof bunker lol.

*sighs*….

Being Busy yet still not getting any thing done sucks. At least I did get ONE thing useful done today, sent GCHQ a new recruit checklist to nit pick. With about 30-40 items on it hehe.

Not to mention I need to get up for work and out the door around 0700 every day til Tuesday (when I get to sleep in till almost 0830). And hopefully a Day off come September 28th. If I’m lucky, maybe the 6th and 7th of October. I’d like to try and put together a Live Op for SWAT4 around then, because all the ones I have been setting up have been for RvS. The problem, it’s hard to get a decent map for a Live Op in SWAT4. And to make it worse without a Mic I can’t even play test the map…

Usually when I do a Live Op, I play it a little in Custom Mission mode (RvS) and will use the ghost cam to take some screen shots for Intel, likethe 8 I did for Saving The Prince. And during the Live Op itself, I usually try to serve as an Operator at the Tactical Operations Centre, providing support via the Radio. In SWAT4, I can’t take any intel photo’s like that (Fuuy) and if I play test the map. Because theres no real spectator mode thats worth a damn. I would have to probably communicate only via XFire with the Element as they clear the map — because I can’t talk on without a Mic!. And If I’m in the server but not playing the map, that robs some one a slot who could be in the Op. Not to mention, if I don’t play test the map before using it for the Live Op, I have no way of knowing what situation the guys will walk into. And therefore no way to provide any briefing…. Which kind’ve takes the point out of it. Since a Live Op is supposed to be as close to the real thing as we can get.

Raged Spiders

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Well, the live op was a master scaled disaster.

The planning started in March, the Live Op was to be marvelous. The map was huge, 5 levels worth and three huge buildings plus larger areas connecting them. Plus a bell tower with a sniper. Two hostages and a Bomb !

The scenario was pretty simple, HRH Prince Charles of Wales got kidnapped and was tracked down. At the direction of MI5, Armed Police kicked in the door on a house where the Residents were suspected of being terrorists. After a heck of a fight, they link up with lots of others and take over U.W.A. A big university in south Wales. Two strike choppers of the Royal Protection Squad taken out of the sky in a quick rescue attempt gone bad.

I stayed up all night to make the Intel doc’s we used for this simulation. 8 Photo’s with detailed comments so people could plan the map, about the only aid that we got lol. I even saved a last photo for an ‘in mission update’ showing the primary hostage, complete with bomb.

The [SAS] Element was to enter the fortress sized building, overcome the enemy, locate the royal hostage, optionally an injured pilot (from the RPS rescue attempt). And extract. I’d clear the roof area and get the tech squad to destroy the SAM sites on the roofs so we can get a Helicopter extraction. Then redeploy, go dynamic and frag every hostile on the map (reloaded to a tango hunt).

So, what went wrong?

Before the Live Op started, every one was supposed to be briefed, the last Intel was posted a day or two before the deadline.

There should’ve been a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in command ready before the mission took place and a special Dynamic aslt plan prepared (the Immediate Action Plan) in place the Live Op had to launch early (Shots fired, hostage in danger, GO GO GO!).

It took forever for them to read the Intel -> but they did very good with the 15min time limit to plan the op.

Several people mis-installed the map because I didn’t have time to make a Click Team installer for it, just a batch file to install the files to the default paths for those who had it. Rest had to do it manually. Map was like 68MB, zipped down to 17.7MB.

During this time I was arguing with my mom, she used the phone and it caused my (aDSL/Ethernet) network connection to drop (A little problem we have here). So I had to storm out and devliever AJ (my nephew). They were nice enough to wait for me… Unforutintly Pittman couldn’t hang around it took to long.

Every one f@#king died

Leaving a bunch of Old School [SAS] in Royal Protection Squad Uniforms to come out of my imagination and save the day.

I’ve worked hard for months (March-September) setting up this live op. I wanted it to be some thing special for the guys, a real good live op. But it was hell on wheels from where I sat.

To top it all off, my family has all but tried to sabotage the freaking live op most of the afternoon. When I’ve gone through the trouble of arranging FOUR MONTHS in advance to have ONE DAY to spend on the computer. Gone through the hoopla of getting 7 people organised into for a single advent, planned down to the polish on the boots.

I freaking expect to be there with the time I scheduled to be rightfully mine to try & use!

Only GOD has a right to control my life without my permission.

The day before, when we scheduled to have me cart my nephew (my sisters bird) over there. I specified BEFORE 2 or in the Evening after the live op. We had every thing arranged like clock work the day before,, perfect I would be able to do what they wanted + get to hold the Live Op.

What happens? She’s not ready of bed by 3pm. My mother is going ape because she wants the loud mouth bird out of hear so she can work (his bird cage was in the way). So I’ve got to hold up the dang live op. It could have been easily done after the live op, simple. But no, they can’t wait for some thing planned months before there plans were even on the to do list.

All because two people can’t follow a schedule. They can’t do what they’ve agreed, they can’t deal with “Your late, then you wait”, well frag’em. Hell, I can’t even have a conversation with some one without my family interfering.

//— Start Rant —//
Not fit for human consumption
//— End Ran —//

Most of the time I ever do get to play games with my friends, it’s because my family is driving me too crazy to get stuff done. Or I’m not physically and mentally up to the task, so I send a few rounds with my friends then drop to get back to work. Most of the other times, it’s because some one asked me to Join them for a few games. I’m thankful for it.

I’ve had enough, if my family won’t respect me as I respect them. Then they can suck off before I show them the behavior I prefer to. They want to be bastards, then I should be a Monster. An Iron Fist. But I’m not that kind of person…. Unlike the rest of my family (IMHO), I think controlling your self before you allow yourself to hurt some one you care for is a thing that we should try.. I don’t like to hurt people, it’s not who I am. I like to be ‘me’, I like to be free. But not to the extent that I rip up other people.

I think if I ever get married, I would have more to apologize to my wife for then be thankful for of what place my experiences in Family life have had an effect on me. After nearly 20 years of being around people, they rub off on you…. Even things you try to avoid. Needless to say, much of whats gone on in my Family…. Is not what I want a future generation to ever know what it’s like.

The result? Some times I’m like a monster… Like I’ve seen them, at least in the same spirit of. The difference? I don’t want to be… I see it for what it is, wrong. I don’t like to be ‘mean’, it’s just not who I am on the inside. But it’s the rage they bring out in me. The rage I’ve learned from being around my family…

*sigh*.

No matter what I do, they always hurt me…. but I don’t want to hurt them back, even if I feel I should at times. And even thinking that way for a few minutes (to inflict on them what they inflict on me) is some thing I’m sorrowful about when I calm down.

One of the reasons why I work to try and serve the [SAS] and it’s Membership, is because it’s not like my family. It’s a good place, one where I would be honored to see my Children become involved in it; if I ever live to have any.

Of my travel through live, the best things to happen to me…

Finding GOD

My time with the SAS

Learning to read

And learning every thing I can about the things that interest me.

The miserable part? My family has had very little positive involvement or influence in any of it, other then learning to read… =S While other people have…

by

I’ve got such a monster live op planned, the only problem is finding the right day or weekend to do it. We’ve got three maps, a Hostage Rescue, Mission, and Mission.

I had origenally begun planning this op last year. I was thinking, wouldn’t it be interesting if the we had to respond to a local attack. So I found a nice MOUT map, we could use the scenario very well. It’s a large urban complex where you really have to watch your back, using bangs, frags, smoke, gas, and claymores are good ideas. The hostages are not to hard but staying alive is. The little subway station is pretty crappy… but well enough for the live op.

Then I tried to think about how I could create a string of related live operations from it. While still trying to figure out where my first map would take place I cooked up a plan. The [SAS] would travel to Russia in search of intelligence. Which would in turn lead them to find proof of the terrorist actions, and end in a show down.

I found a nice snowbase map with a mission that supported what I needed. A military/terrorist base like map, with a laptop computer to bug. The mission also had lots of crates and hostages hidden around. So Live Operation Arctic Recon was born. Random lead the covert op, laptop was bugged but the owner was no where to be found. The team placed a tracking device in a weapons crate and extracted… When Wiz heard voices in a locker room, the Element came in for a dynamic assault. All went well, one hostage safe, two tangos down, and Wiz killed a second hostage %_%.

As a stop gap, I cooked up an hostage rescue mission using another old Rainbow Six map. Where the [SAS] had to deal with some really pissed off IRA guys that just bungled a bank robbery for funds. They took so freaking long to get ready, I added a condition that the Terrorists would execute a hostage every 5 minutes starting ‘now’, came and gone, several hostages down. But after the rest of his Element was cut down, Miles of the Blue Team stormed the complex and saved the day.

I had found a nice map with a mission with a huge fortress of a map. The Live Op? Prince Charles was kidnapped and the [SAS] gets first crack at the rescue. I hope the op gets done sooon. Should the [SAS] team fail, well an Element of the Royal Protection Squad made up of old school [SAS] Members will suddenly appear out of no where and save the day. Valroe has furnished me with after-action report attachments for both cases, hope we complete this op hehe ^_^

I came up with a nice recon mission, I think the real SAS did some similar ops during the unpleasantness with the IRA. The team was ordered to recon a warehouse, mark weapon caches with GPS Bombs (tracking devices included) and leave un detected. The bombs would be blown via remote once the destinations were known. They also had to bring back any intel they could find, I think they nabbed 5/6 docs.

After playing the map with (C)The_Baroness, (C)Destro, and Grishenko one night I hashed out a live op. The Team would go to Bavaria to knock out an Arms dealer. The guys found so many docs on the last map, it was just too good to pass up. Besides I know the [SAS] Members love to C4 things xD

The final live op, is a monster. Three missions where the [SAS] has been called upon to launch a counter attack and push the terrorists off the map.

Operation Vengeance (RvS) Mission Objectives:

Map #1 — Vipers Edge
1. Neutralise all terrorists
2. Secure the subway station
3. Prevent bomb detonations
4. Prevent civilian casualties.

Map #2 — Leviathans
1. Secure the area
2. Laser designate enemy stronghold
3. Reach the extraction point

Map #3 — Dragons fury
1. Prevent bomb detonations
2. Eliminate the Terrorist Leader
3. Reach the LZ and signal for extraction
4. Neutralise all threats (Optional)

The first map I think will be pretty easy as long as they don’t get killed. The second has a little trick to it. The Element will have a good chance to go above and beyond the call of duty. There will be an optional objective and a secret objective *muhauahuaha*. The last operation is not to hard if you can avoid getting killed getting across the map but I expect the ‘secret’ objective and harsh time limit will cause the Element to fail the op, at least if they take the Optional objective.

Only one of these maps has enough that I intend to allow them to do some pre-planning, a short 10-15 minutes. There won’t be time to sit back and have a beer over the briefing. The guys playing this live op will have to dog it through 3 tough maps, destroy the enemy which is estimated to be company size in strength, well armed, on alert and ready to shoot at the drop of a pin. And they have to do it QUICKLY, regular forces get stuck with a mopping up action at best hehe #_#

Not to mention several secret objectives and optional objectives that will effect the mission outcome. This is a huge live op, 3 maps in one op… One day to do it.