Page 6
Simulated Future
By Nigel DoyleI decided to get some cover in a nearby forest. I wondered how far the SA-7 squad was from me, as I just know those guys love getting "Frags" on downed pilots even more than planes. As soon as I enter the forest, I hear a voice call on the SAR frequency, "HALT, Blue Force Password Of The Day". I take a quick look around but I can't see anybody; I kept still and give the password.
As my luck would have it, a Special Forces team had been dropped in by helicopter earlier in the day to try and find the SA-7 teams in the area. The guys came out of their hides and told me get in the woods ASAP. I heard the Team leader say on the SAR frequency that they had picked me up and ask for co-ords for the chopper pickup. I called up my map and could see that a new waypoint route had been given to an end point in the next valley. He said "our job is to get you to waypoint "X" in 15mins for a helicopter pickup".
Along the route I found out that these guys played regularly as team and were indeed all based in the USA. The landscape was just as good on the ground as it was from the air with plenty of places for ambush along our route. The team sent two scouts ahead and they reported back to the TEAM leader on a separate channel when the way ahead was clear.
We arrived at our destination without any hassle; the team's online rating would have gone up while mine would have shown another count to my ejection table. I thanked the guys and made a note of their unit so that I could send them some email and visit their web site. No sooner had we arrived, when another voice came up on the SAR channel: it was the helo driver amd he was inbound to our location in a Black-Hawk with an Apache Gun-Ship as escort.
I boarded the helo and we took off at low level for home base. The Helo pilot told we to switch to the ground TAC frequency so that I could listen to the battle that had developed over the past hour or so.
As we started to egress the valley I heard some Armoured Cavalry come up on channel asking for fire support. Our support Apache responded and said that he was in the area, the Black-Hawk pilot cleared him to break formation and help out. I switched to my ACTION camera and followed the Apache in for the fight.
Phew what a battle, there were Tanks, APC's, humvee's and soldiers all over the place, all human controlled and all fighting the enemy who were similarly equipped.