Backstab
by: SilentHunter, 10-30-99
The two men stand in the resupply room, staring into each other’s eyes. Viper and The Hunter have
been partners in combat many times before and this one is no different. Each one will risk his life
to steal the precious flag from the enemy. The only comfort one man has, is that the other will be
watching his back. They are the most hated of all men on the battlefield. They are spies.
"So what is the plan?" Viper asks as he disguises himself as an enemy engineer. The computerized
disguise washes over his body like a waterfall. “We swim through the water passage into the flag
room. To not attract any attention, we will head to the sniper deck and up those elevators, towards
our prize. Take out anybody that suspects us but try to gain the trust of as many people as we
can. The key is to get the flag and not to go on a killing spree.” The Hunter finishes his speech
and feels the tingling sensation as his new look fades over him. An engineer and a medic pick up
their backpacks and head to their destination.
* * *
The men come out of the water quickly and sneak out of the flag room. Viper leads the way up the
ramp towards the battlements. The hunter can see the hunger in his friend’s eyes, hi hunger for
blood. Viper probably wouldn’t go on these flag runs if it weren’t for his friendship with The
Hunter. All he cared about was taking the life of the enemy. That is the one thing that separated
these two friends.
The battlements were clear, which made Viper very mad. He cursed under his breath. “I hate it
when these little sitting ducks aren’t up here for the taking!” he muttered. They both climbed
onto the elevator and began to the attic. To their surprise, a sniper was gathering supplies and
had no clue of what they really were. The sniper stopped and stared at them and then began to move
on. Viper lunged quickly with his knife, his disguise fading immediately. The swing missed as the
sniper turned around with wide eyes. He began to set his rifle on auto but instead dropped it as
cold steel slid into his throat. He grabbed his throat and blood leaked between his fingers. The
poor man fell to his knees in a pool of blood. Viper stood over him, smiling and mocking the dying
enemy. “Let’s get moving!”
The Hunter changed his disguise to a soldier as his partner turned back into an engie. They stepped
on the elevator, their hearts pumping, wondering what they were going to see. The elevator rose to
the top floor and standing there was a heavy weapons guy. Across the catwalk was an engineer who
had built a sentry to guard the flag. The mechanical beast beeping and tracking everyone’s
movement. The Hunter tossed the HW guy an ammo pack, hoping he would fit in. Fatty looked down
and then waked towards the backpack. After picking it up he muttered a thank you. “You guys taking
over? D is getting very boring. Hope you have a good time, hahaha,” he chuckled as he left the
flag room. All that was left was the engineer and his pet.
“Viper, you distract the engineer, while I blow the sg. I’ll grab the flag and jump for the
water. Disguise yourself again and follow me. If anything happens, you pick up the flag. We must
get it back, at all costs,” he whispered. Viper went to the right half of the catwalk, over to the
engineer. He through him an ammo pack, then glanced at his comrade and nodded to the flag. The
Hunter walked casually to the room holding the flag. He primed two grenades and tossed them.
Before they exploded, he heard muffled screams but the exploding sentry soon drowned them out. He
opened the barred window, grabbed the flag and took a leap of faith into the water. The water
splashed as he slammed into it. He swam down the tunnel, dropping gas grenades behind him. The
Hunter climbed out of the water, making a mad dash across the enemy yard, to the bunker. He glanced
behind him and saw the red engineer following him, Viper. He dropped into the water on his team’s
side and headed for the capture point.
He was low on health from stray bullets penetrating his armor as he ran. The Hunter got out of the
water and stood at the doors to the cap point. Soon after Viper came into the room. “Our plan
worked, huh? Well here is the moment we have been waiting for?” He turned and opened the doors.
While he was placing the flag in the capture point, he felt a warm pain as slugs from a shotgun
pumped into his stomach. The flag dropped to the ground. It happened so fast, The Hunter had no
clue what was going on. When he opened his eyes, he didn’t see his friend, but the same engie that
was in the enemies’ flag room. Those screams he heard must have been Viper’s no the enemy’s. The
Hunter closed his eyes as the pain rushed through him. The world turned into blackness and then
colors faded in. The Hunter was back I the resupply room. Viper was standing in the corner,
tapping his foot. “What took you so long and why didn’t you cap the flag?! Well nevermind that,
what is the plan this time?”
©1999 - "SilentHunter" - All Rights Reserved
TPK on "The Well"
by: Dasyati, 10-30-99
NOTE: The clan name [-FOR-] is meant to be entirely fictional. Any
similarity to a real clan of the same name is purely unintentional, so
there.
*
"OK, people," Dasyati exclaimed in the respawn room during the pre-game
assembly. "Tonight's game against [-FOR-] is taking place on The Well, my
personal favorite. We've studied their previous defensive strategies and
found that they take pride in their unusual front-door defense. We're going
to try and break through this barrier and get some Scouts past to do the
flag running."
The leader made his usual gestures to the visual aid behind him. "Now,
they'll probably still have a basic simple defense in the flag room, enough
to take out one enemy at a time. But let's see how they manage a
full-fledge 8-man rush. Coordination is the key here, people. All at once
or not at all."
nimrod. stood to the side, polishing off his pipebomb launcher with his
fingers and looking on with the most interest. "Are we going to take the
water entrance or what?"
Dasyati pointed again to the overhead map, circling the glowing green area
with his index finger. The underwater tunnel laid there, underneath the
peculiar water flowing through the canals of the map. "I suggest we blow
the grate later in the game, so that the outside defense doesn't catch onto
our motives until it's too late. I want us to use the water entrance
primarily as an escape route, so we won't need it opened until we actually
have the flag in our posession."
"Are we to expect zero offense from this group?" Big Giant Head asked.
"With me being the lead Engineer and all, what are my men gonna do?"
"The enemy's main offense usually consists of one or two moderately skilled
Spies. Anyone on defense should check for them constantly. Don't let
anybody get through any of the entrances without being checked."
"That'll be lots of fun," another Engineer in the back muttered
sarcastically. Chasing hasty teammates around brandishing a wrench is not
always a hardened player's idea of fun.
"You make it sound like this is a painstaking job or something," Dasyati
fired back. "But I do want people standing guard at every entrance. Don't
make this a casual side-job, this team has won most of its games with clever
Spy tactics." The enthused player looked around at his team. "Anybody want
to volunteer? Or should I bring out the straws?"
*
"Let's hustle people, let's go!" regolith cheered on as he merrily slapped
his teammates' on the back while they rushed through the front door. "Hey,
don't get dead out there, buddy, c'mon! Stay frosty! Go!"
Big Giant Head continued to giggle to himself as he built his sentry gun
behind the seemingly absent-minded Scout standing guard at the doorway.
"When you've exhausted your supply of encouraging movie quotes," he
protested, "have you ever bothered to think that of all the jobs you could
do, this is the most useless one you could possibly be stuck doing?"
regolith sneered in the Engineer's direction. "What are you getting at
anyway?" he remarked. "This is a damn important job I'm doing. I'm marking
new territory here; there needs to be more defensive Scouts in this league.
I think I'm doing my part to prove that it's worth doing."
"My ass. You've got less use here than your spraypaint logo. You should be
running flags!" Big Giant Head shook his head exaustedly and turned back to
his sentry to drop in ammunition.
"You just wish you could do what I can do," regolith said with a patronizing
smirk on his face, then went back to his job, although slightly disheartened
by Big Giant Head's good point. "Come on, guys, let's go, use the Force,
you!" He gave a hearty slap to another Demoman returning to resupply. His
hand landed about half an inch below the player's clothing, which phased out
of existence to show the black polyester robes of another Spy.
Big Giant Head watched in awe as his sentry quickly finished off the
intruder. "Or you could just stay here..."
*
Dasyati motioned his team to strike.
A deluge of Demomen, HWGuys, and one Pyro streamed out of the middle bunker,
shooting like mad. The Pyro named Dasyati strode out in front with
incendiary rockets, scorching enemies across the canal. He leapt straight
over, whipping out his flamethrower as he landed next to a poor HWGuy,
blinded by flames. Stepping around behind him, Dasyati laughed sadistically
with a sick grin on his face as he poured napalm all over the unknowing
victim.
"Where are the Scouts?!" nimrod. shouted over the commotion. Dasyati
gestured behind him, where a pair of flag runners were leaned against the
wall, the bullets being hastily pulled out of their bodies by a pair of
Medics. nimrod. let out a large groan and made his way across the open
space to the canal.
No one from either side seemed to notice as the red streak of a third Scout
flew impossibly over the entire battle, a hundred feet above. The hollering
figure flailed through the sky, mercifully overshooting the battle and
landing directly in the sniper's nest above the front door. The acrobatic
madman landed with a large thud on top of a Sniper, who he promptly finished
with a shotgun shell before hobbling away in fear.
Several HWGuys were flung off the bridge by a pipebomb trap set up by the
defense. The sentry gun barely seen on the top of the building chose its
targets as the accompanying Engineer frantically repaired and restocked it.
nimrod. dove for cover in the canal as a MIRV grenade zipped over his head
and detonated.
Shaking himself alert from the force of the blast, he realized he was
underwater and found it interesting that he hadn't accidentally breathed in
any yet. Holding his breath for dear life, he scanned around for an escape
point. It was then that he noticed the unbroken grate of the Blue Team's
underwater entrance.
Creeping forward as fast as his legs could propel him through the heavy
liquid, nimrod. desperately moved over to the grate. Readying his detpack,
he decided to set it for a good 50 seconds, so he might be able to escape
through the tunnel at the other end of the canal instead of climbing up over
the side to his death.
*
Blue Team's ramp room seemed almost completely deserted as the enemy rushed
to hold up its end of the battle outside. regolith limped down the noisy
metal incline to the flag room entrance, trying desperately to ignore the
slight injury his amazing conc-jump caused. He was determined to make his
feat a memorable one. Big Giant Head was right, a Scout's place was up on
the front lines, scoring the points for the team. He would do his proper
job, and his team would be proud. And so he had left his post.
"The...enemy...has...your...flag."
"GOD DAMMIT WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO REG?!" Big Giant Head's voice crackled
angrily over the radio. "MY SENTRY IS DOWN AND SOME GOD DAMN SPY..."
regolith clicked off the radio to prevent the enemy from noticing his
presence. He would have a lot of explaining to do, but if he could make
this capture it would all be worth it.
The Scout creeped along the edge of the wall towards the donut-hallway
entrance to the flag room, the enormous vertical cavern that gave The Well
its name. Alert for the sounds of sentries, he peered his head down the
edge of the corridor and slipped inside.
Just then the sound of hurried footsteps could be heard from behind
regolith. A few cheers could be heard from newly respawned enemies as they
congratulated the Spy on his return. Damn, regolith thought, those guys are
a lot faster than they look.
The Spy turned the corner with the sparkling red flag stuffed in the back of
his shirt to meet an angry Scout with a rusty crowbar. "Should I recognize
you from the other fort?" regolith grunted before he flung the arced piece
of metal through the Spy's face, killing him with one swing. After
confirming that his foe had been finished off, the victor decided that he
might be able to prevent the flag's capture after all. And so he waited
beside the flag, chuckling at the thought that he was back on defense after
all.
*
"Find that damn flag," Dasyati barked into his radio as he respawned along
with his teammates. Half of the team had succumbed to one simple EMP
grenade from above, and the unfortunate Pyro felt especially pissed off that
he couldn't last long enough to stop the Spy in his tracks. Miraculously,
the flag had been dropped in some remote location unknown; and so the team
had bigger things to worry about than venting their anger on the missing
Scout.
Big Giant Head stood to the side while a Medic made short work of his
shrapnel wounds. "Damn Spies and their damn grenades. When that regolith
shows his face again I swear I'm gonna..."
"Dasy..." nimrod. had been checking his watch, timing how long it had been
since the flag was dropped.
"Your...flag...has...returned."
*
Content that his defense had held up, regolith marched onward. Strange that
a flag runner would be dumb enough not to mention where the flag was dropped
so his teammates could retrieve it for him.
Inching slowly to the corner of the donut-hallway, the Scout sank down to
his knees and pressed against the cool surface of the next wall. Snapping
his head around the corner and back, he counted two sentries and an HWGuy on
the top level of the flag room. Another conc-jump, he thought to himself.
regolith waited until no one was looking, then snaked his way out from
behind the wall and cautiously set himself down in the water. Once
submerged, he pulled out his little green package of propulsion and laid it
down, primed and ready to blow. At the last second the daring player thrust
himself forward and caught the blast perfectly, sending him up past the top
level undetected.
Unfortunately he once again overshot his target and flew further up, up into
the vast vertical expansion of the room, past where the main lighting
stopped, to a point only highlighted by flourescent red markers along the
walls. Seeing as these markers were just a smidgen too small to stand on,
the rules of gravity finally took effect and reversed regolith's direction,
much to the dismay of regolith. After several hundred feet of falling, he
landed squarely on the HWGuy, knocking him to the ground and breaking his
neck.
Painfully forcing himself to his feet, the Scout was now on the top level,
out of sight of one sentry next to the flag and just barely out of range of
the second on the other side of the room, which was only a level one.
Pulling out his nailgun, he took aim and made short work of the latter
sentry, then crept up against the corner leading into the flag chamber to
draw a careful bead on the former.
The actual flag chamber itself was constricting compared to the rest of the
flag room, the only alternate exit being a set of sliding bars behind the
flag's perch. Trembling with the fear of failure and having to respawn
underneath the wrath of his team, regolith's nailgun shook violently in his
hand as his forehead discarded bullets of cold sweat. He hugged the wall
tightly as he ever so slowly pointed his nailgun around the corner. Just a
small correction of his aim and he wouldn't have to worry about sentry guns
anymore.
The drone of the level three sentry was silenced by a gut-wrenching beep as
its radar locked onto the target behind it. Intent to splatter the
unwelcome guest's brains with a rocket, it steadily swung its body around on
its tripod to face the Scout.
Not knowing what to do, regolith dove out from cover and managed to run
around behind the sentry before it could line up its barrels on its target.
Making a sprint for the flag, he bashed his hand against the button on the
side that slid up the bars, and jumped out of the window, falling to an
uncertain fate on the bottom level of the flag room.
The freshly respawned HWGuy returned in time to see regolith's tremendous
splash in the green-illuminated water. Diving in after, the obese defender
struggled to keep up as the Scout made his desperate escape.
Rounding the corner, the flag carrier took in a breath of air and submerged
himself so as to find the underwater tunnel that led into the canal outside.
The HWGuy behind him did the same, pulling out his shotgun so as to keep up
instead of slowing himself down with the recoil of his assault cannon.
Thirty feet more and regolith was home free. At twenty feet and he barely
noticed the buckshot pinging off the walls around him. Ten feet and he was
in need of oxygen.
The brave Scout finally rounded the last corner of the passage to discover
the worst possible situation he could imagine: the grate covering the
tunnel was still intact, and he had no way out. Then he noticed the reason
why it had not yet been blown: both a disaster and a godsend all wrapped in
one.
The choking HWGuy yanked out his assault cannon as he pulled around the
corner to find the Scout waiting for him. Acting on instinct, regolith gave
as hard of a punch to the HWGuy's face as he could underwater, then grabbed
his heavy body by the shoulders of his shirt and flung him as hard as he
could head-first into the grate. With his head stuck in the large metallic
barrier, the unlucky fool finally saw what the Scout had seen, and gaped in
an almost relaxed form of shock as the small red and black package on the
other side of the grate began to overload.
*
The Blue Sniper's attention was drawn immediately to the loud bang that
erupted to his right. He grumbled silently as he swung his rifle around,
only to be splattered against the wall by another red dot.
The spray from the canal rose several feet in the air and soaked several
nearby defenders. As they got back up, they puzzledly looked into the
opaque, radiant green water. One HWGuy calmly acknowledged through his
radio that the team's grate entrance had been blown open.
Twenty feet away, regolith slowly and silently raised his head above the
water's surface and took in a careful but deep breath of air from underneath
the concealing concrete of the bridge. He then continued underwater,
downstream with the flag to the safety of the tunnel at the end of the
canal.
©1999 - "Dasyati" - All Rights Reserved
E_z
by: Dasyati, 10-30-99
The two offensive fighters stood precariously at the threshold of their
inevitable doom, listening carefully with their ears up against the light
metal barrier that separated them from their objective. Off in the distance
more explosions could be heard as the enemy continued to administer a
beating on Red Team's final remaining command point. This was their final
chance to make a difference.
Then the enemy Scout made the mistake of leaning against his base's door.
As the door slid open an HWGuy rolled underneath, with armor maxed out and a
shotgun at the ready so as to preserve his already limited speed. Following
him was a Demoman with pipebomb launcher in hand.
Seeing as the Demoman was a bigger threat than a fat man with a shotgun, the
six newly healed defenders opened fire with all the nails and bullets they
could pump out of their guns. The HWGuy took every shot, barely slowing
down to a quick stagger but visibly strained to his limits. As he continued
to move forward, the Demoman behind him positioned himself so he could fire
off his explosives without taking bullet wounds.
"Hang on, E_z, we're going to make it!" the Demoman yelled over the
commotion as he pushed his friend up the steps to the Command Center,
tossing a MIRV grenade into the corner opposite while he was at it.
Just then another unsuspecting Scout came out of his respawn room and
instantly found himself behind the Demoman as he turned the corner.
Readying his crowbar, he crept backwards to stay behind the duo as they
backed in the direction of the Command Center, and got ready to swing.
Turning his head, the hero caught the flashing jagged metal piece across the
side of the head, knocking himself against the wall but only succeeding in
pissing him off. As the Scout took another swing, the Demo grabbed the
crowbar in mid-air and headbutted the Scout, forcing him backward with his
other arm until he was up against the Command Center door. Giving him a
second and a third headbutt, the Scout was rendered unconscious.
The door rattled as it dumbly granted access to its enemy, and the air was
suddenly quiet the minute the Demo dove in. Looking back, he could feel
through the dividing wall that the defenders had a defeated look on their
faces. Pulling out his detpack, he looked over to see the HWGuy, E_z -
Target, overcome with a look of dismay as he leaned against the cement of
the far wall.
"Come on, E_z, get in here!" the Demo hollered. "E_Z!!" E_z just looked
on, his eyes tired and bloodshot, as the bullets in his body displaced more
and more of his vital fluids. His partner observed his wounds with shock as
his blood ran down the wall and mixed with the contrasting blue stripes of
the base. But as he saw the victory his sacrifice had caused, the HWGuy
gave a weak coughing chuckle in his friend's direction, then collapsed to
his rest on the cold floor.
The door slid closed, and the bomber turned back to his job with a solemn
face. The detpack wound up, and he dashed for cover behind the computer
console, taking a final look at the almost fully blue map on the opposite
wall, and seeing that Red Team still held its final point. It would be a
hard task to find a teammate willing to do what E_z just did, he thought to
himself as he ducked his head.
©1999 - "Dasyati" - All Rights Reserved
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