I know a lot of us showed up, only to be dismayed by the AA auth server being down. About 15 minutes after the majority of the people left the TS server, it of course went back up, and I joined.

We played the Village map first, and I have to say I had the most fun on that map. The darkness paired with eerie fog and ambient sound is a perfect stage for a memorable TG experience. On one particular round, my team was decimated at a very premature point in the mission, and I was the only one left of four (it was now 1v4). I decided to take a defensive position, and somehow managed to take pick off, in quick succession, their main attack squad of three! Basically, I kept going ring-around-the-rosie, very slowly and quietly, around one of the clusters of rocks, and got the drop on each of them, using sound.

Then it came to the me versus the last OPFOR, who had a SAW. I snuck around and snuck around until I was so tense that my mouse hand was drenched in sweat and my heart was pounding. Where was he? I couldn't see anything.. All the rocks looked like enemies. Making almost an entire 360 degree sweep of the camp, I decide it's time to move in. I smoke the weapon stash, and crouch-move in. I'm about 15% finished 'prepping the bomb site' when I'm shot twice from somewhere behind me. I drop prone, bullets flying all around me in the smoke. Whoever was shooting at me couldn't see me. I continue to prep the site. 80 percent. 90 percent. The screen display indicates that the site has 'been prepared' and I, feeling the enemy's desperation, quickly stand up and start to run, without looking back. Bullets fly, and this time I'm sure I'm spotted. As I near cover, a stray bullet strikes me again and this time it's bad. I'm deep amber, and bleeding badly. I jump behind some rocks, and continue running until I reach the tent, which I crouch in, waiting for the detonation.

Why isn't that damn thing blowing up, I thought. Oh my god, why isn't it blowing up? I was in the dark red now, still bleeding badly. 'I'm going to bleed out,' I grimly reported over TeamSpeak, 'is this thing gonna blow or what?!'

A moments pause, and then, 'Did you throw your thermal nade?' comes back over TS.

The implications weighed down on me, as I understood that now I must return to the stash to compete the mission. Still bleeding, and nearly dead now, I run (slow as heck at this point) back to the site. It's all or nothing now, as I prep the thermal. I take aim, and throw. Keeeoooowwwshhh. Nothing. I freakin missed. I now have a prepped bombsite, no way to detonate it, an opfor hidden that knows my location, and I'm nearly dead.

I slowly creep to the last area that I suspected an enemy was, and as I start to approach, suddenly the opfor is there in front of me, crouched in a tree not three feet from me, and has turned and started firing at me! Somehow, he missed his first few shots and I down him.

Mission complete.

I let out a breath that I didn't know I had held, and wipe the sweat off of my hands. What a riot.

I know this story doesn't embody the ideas of teamplay that we all have come to love here, and I certainly don't mean to brag, but that round was, quite possibly, more intense than any round of AA I've ever played, and I just wanted to share my good experience . Thanks again, all. See you on friday.

-aes0p r0ck