BIRD OF PREY
Comms Alpha
Andy: Comms Alpha is a military outpost on the edge of a dormant volcano. I’ll be assaulting it in an Mi-48 Kajman attack chopper. I spawn a few miles away then slowly make my way towards the base. I wish there was an option to play ‘Ride of the Valkyries’.
Tom: Ah, the cowardice challenge—I’ve got this. At one end of the base there’s a huge building shaped like a golf ball. I’m certain Andy won’t be able to resist destroying that first. In fact, I think buildings are generally a death sentence here, so I pick a bush on the outskirts of the base, lie on my stomach, and roll into the roots as far as I can. In first-person view I can see a wall. From third-person I can only see leaves. I’m not moving.
Andy: I realize how bad I am at flying helicopters. Precise Gatling gun fire is out of the equation, so I just pummel the base with rockets and hope for the best. Of course I destroy the giant golf ball first.
Phil: Unbeknownst to me, I’ve hidden in the same bush as Tom. As Andy rains hellfire down upon the buildings, I wedge myself further into my leafy sanctuary. Suddenly, unexpectedly, I’m dead. I ask Andy if my movement had tipped him off. It turns out no. The downside to lying in the grass as an attack helicopter flies overhead is that there’s nothing to protect you from a stray rocket. Writing that sentence down after the fact, it sounds really obvious.
Samuel: I get in the nearest building, because it’s so obvious I don’t think Andy will search there first. I see the smoke as Andy destroys the building next to me—this is like a survival horror game where the monster is a chopper. It’s genuinely tense. Andy clips me with ricocheting bullets but I heal myself as he restocks.
Chris: I’ve got a plan. We can’t shoot each other, or Andy, but there’s more to an Arma character than guns. I hide in a building overlooking Tom’s bush. I suspect he’s safe down there, so as Andy flies over I attempt to throw a red smoke grenade down at him. It bounces off the inside of the window and goes off at my feet. Shit. I flee and enact plan B: hide from Andy by running directly beneath him. This does not work because helicopters are faster than people. As he fires at the containers I’m hiding behind, I take a hit. I just about manage to heal and sprint away.
There is a lot of scary noise, but all I can see is the bush I’m in. Save me, sweet bush.
I hide in one of the perimeter huts, but Andy gets close, so I move to one of the bushes on the far side of the base. It’s there that I get clipped by a stray round, crippling my ability to sprint. I’ve got one last shot at revealing Tom: I’ve got to find Phil’s body. I walk-crawl across the base, miraculously making it to the other side. There, in the bushes, I find Phil’s corpse. I loot it for grenades, and locate Tom by the squadmate indicator on my HUD. I throw first the red smoke and then the white smoke towards him. All I need to do now is wait. I take cover next to Phil... and am killed as Andy strafes towards Tom’s position.
I had no idea that Chris did this until I saw the replay. It’s a fitting act of revenge. We’re all square, so I’m sure this will be the end of it. Yes, very sure.
It turns out the building I hid in was impossible to destroy, which is Andy’s fault. So I win.
“ANDY RAINS HELLFIRE DOWN AS I WEDGE INTO MY LEAFY SANCTUARY”