Wargaming from Hertfordshire & Beyond!

Thursday, 20 September 2007

20th Sept 2007


John's fleet sets sail in the Action Stations game.

Battle is joined!
Not strictly part of the action, but they do look nice.

Wings of War derivative game and Jim gets Steve in his sights!



Friday, 7 September 2007

All Things Zombie - Where is Professor Hyde?


As agent Smith glided the black BMW shooting break in alongside the seemingly deserted patrol car, agent Jones surveyed the burned-out remains of Professor Hyde’s residence. While the two contemplated their next move, a large blue Porsche SUV appeared from no-where and careered into the side of the agent’s car. Agent Jones sprang from the passenger seat and ran round to the other vehicle, but the young woman driver appeared to be dead. Agent Smith struggled out of the disabled BMW and made his way to the gaping doorway of the smouldering Hyde residence. He wasn’t prepared for the sight that met his eyes. Seemingly before him, was a deputy sheriff, pulling out the intestines of a fellow officer and stuffing them into his mouth! Before he could stop himself, his pistol was out and firing, but the sheriff, although hit by the automatic pistol bullets, only appeared to stagger a bit. Agent Jones reacted in similar style, but only succeeded in knocking down the bloody form of the sheriff. It was left to SWAT officer Frank Brewer, to despatch the ghastly form of the sheriff, with a long burst of fire from his MP5 machine pistol.

A brief search of the burned-out house revealed little, except that clearly there had been a gun fight here, before the house was set alight. Turning to Professor Hyde’s burned out Mercedes, the agent’s only clue, was some partly burned papers, showing that the professor had some equipment stored in a nearby compound. As the bodies of the family were not here, then perhaps they had taken refuge there?

Mean while, the gunfire had appeared to attract more of these “crazies”. Officer Chuck Jugs tried to warn off a pair of “crazies”, who were coming down the side street, straight toward the officers, but they just kept coming! A blast from the pump-action, felled one, but it just got up again. Chuck then discharged a series of blasts from the pump-action and finally the pair had stopped moving, but there appeared to be more behind them!

“Get that wreckage out of the road”, commanded Agent Smith to Sergeant John Banks, pointing to the smashed cars and the abandoned patrol car. Then turning to the two SWAT team members, he growled, “follow me”, before storming down the street, toward the storage compound. Half way down the street, Smith was distracted by a dull thudding, emanating from the bank on his left. However, before the team could investigate further, three zombies appeared at the end of the street ahead of them, shambling straight toward them, with what looked like even more behind them.



Quickly eliminating these first three zombies, the team moved up the road, toward the storage compound, steadily thinning the approaching zombie procession in the street, with an appalling barrage of gunfire, but yet more seemed to be appearing behind them. Just as the team reached the gates of the storage compound, three zombies burst from left hand most of the large brown ISO containers inside the compound.

The team were now trapped in the entrance way of the compound and a desperate melee and ‘point blank’ gun battle erupted, during which Officer Dan Hops, of the SWAT team was badly injured , when he was smashed into one of the container doors by the charge of an unseen zombie.

For some inexplicable reason, for just a couple of crucial moments, the zombie onslaught seemed to slacken (bad karma on the dice!) and the team gained the upper hand sufficiently, to risk clearing the pile of corpses blocking the door to the second ISO container.

Just as Agent Jones pulled the last of the bodies clear of the container doors, out burst a man, dressed in a lab coat, a smartly dressed woman and a small girl, all snarling and trying to sink their teeth into the surprised agents. Although almost caught unawares, the two agents succeeded in pushing the three zombies back into the mouth of the open container, where they were dropped by a deafening burst of MP5 automatic fire from SWAT officer Frank. While the macabre forms struggled to regain their feet, agents Smith and Jones, quickly stepped in, to finish the three ex-members of the Hyde family, Agent Jones sadly observing that the youngest daughter appeared to be among the unfortunates before them.

Agent Smith gathered-up the Professor’s bag, noting with some satisfaction, that the Professor’s well known ‘little black book’ was still tucked inside, but where was the eldest daughter? They would need someone to help them understand the notebook.

Back in the street, there was now further commotion and gunfire, as yet more zombies were attracted to the compound. The agents looked desperately at one another, and hopelessly toward another grotesque wave of zombie forms, staggering toward them, blood lust across their decaying lips. Just then, the blue form of the large Chevrolet police SUV roared past the compound gates, smashing two of the zombies into a pulp, with barely a pause in its deadly progression.

While the agents and SWAT pair, had been fighting for their lives in the compound, Sergeant John Banks had managed to release the parking brake of the patrol car, which had been blocking the street. He had then succeeded in using the heavy bulk of the SUV, to barge the patrol car out of the way. All this time Officer Chuck Jugs had been covering John, with a murderous series of blasts from his deadly pump action shotgun. Sadly, as Sergeant Banks roared off down the street, to the aid of the stranded FBI Agents, Chuck’s attention was distracted just for a moment and he was grabbed from behind, by cold, rotting fingers. Sergeant Banks glanced in the rear-view mirror, only to glimpse Chuck disappearing under the bloody clutches of a baying zombie mob.
There was no time to grieve however, John slewed the SUV round in a ‘U’ turn in the street and ploughed back into the zombie mob, gathered at the compound gates, crushing one and knocking another to one side, where it was quickly finished off by agent Jones. Then Frank dragged the unconscious Dan to the SUV, where they bundled him into the back of the Chevrolet, before taking off down the street, toward the zombie mob, feasting on the downed form of Chuck. With a grim look of determination, John floored the accelerator of the SUV, sending it careering through the bloody mob. An entailed smeared hand smashed in, through the passenger window, only to be beaten out again by Frank, before the SUV succeeded in smashing its way through to the other side of the putrid mob, swerving down the street, spewing a hail of bullets at the hapless zombies.

John brought the big police SUV to a stop behind the garage, as the agents argued that they had to go back and look for the other daughter. Before John could argue, the agents had thrown the door open and charged in through the back door of the garage. John gave a resigned shrug and swung the SUV around, keeping his eyes on the distant zombie mob, now ambling slowly his way, “come on” he muttered under his breath!!

There was a burst of pistol shots, closely followed by a burst of MP5 machine gun fire, from the garage, after which the agents and the SWAT officer bundled out of the back door and into the waiting SUV. “Get us to the bank, but not the direct route” ordered agent Smith.

John manoeuvred the SUV out into the side street, making sure that the zombie mob could clearly see him. He then crawled up the alleyway opposite, all the time watching to make sure that the zombie mob were following, but not getting too close. As the SUV pulled past the back of the block of flats,opposite the bank, the heads of two zombies, disturbed from feasting on a corpse, appeared from behind a dumpster, only to disintegrate in mess of bone and brains, in response to a fusillade of shots, discharged from the SUV windows.

John then swung the SUV around the block, back down the main street, screeching to a stop across the front door of the bank. Under the cover of the big SUV, the agents and SWAT officer jumped from the vehicle and in through the front door of the bank. Once inside the agents could clearly see the source of the dull thudding, which they had heard earlier from the street. A group of three zombies were beating on the strong room door, one using the severed, half eaten leg of the ex-bank manager. The first round of shots appeared to do little to the zombies, until a blast of automatic fire from Frank’s MP5, knocked one down, then the other two were quickly felled and rapidly finished off, by point-blank pistol shots from the agents. The agents and SWAT officer stepped back and surveyed themselves, realising what a sorry sight they made, covered in congealed blood and gore. Agent Smith tried to calm his voice and call-out to reassure, as best he could, whoever was inside the strong room. After a pause for what seemed like a life-time, the lock on the door clicked open and a pretty young face peered out round a crack in the door. The agents quickly pushed inside the strong room and carefully avoiding the very large silver plated .44 magnum clutched in the girls right hand, guided her and her stuffed cuddly rabbit, out of the back door and into the waiting SUV.

Agent Smith barely had to utter the words “go, go, go”, before the SUV sped off down the street. As they drove off, Agent Smith glanced mournfully at the notebook and then at the beautiful young girl beside him and hoped the cost had been worth it? On the plus side, while there was blood all over Dan’s head, there did not seem to be any bite marks, which was more than could be said for Chuck, when they had last seen him spread out, all over the street. The world was falling apart!?

Cast:
Agent Smith & Agent Jones – Tony
Sgt. John Banks and Officer Chuck Jugs – Chris
SWAT Team, Frank Brewer and Dan Hops – Colin
Zombie Controller – KieranDirector – Phil