STAR GATE
The Rise of Appophis
Orbital Paintball
24 hour Role Playing Scenario Game
By Cecil "Thunder1" Brackett
Photos courtesy Orbital Paintball and Cecil Brackett

This war will take you far from home and you may not make it back!

The false God Appophis, played by Jeremy Gadbell of Team Trigger Happy, has returned to planet P3G472, to gain strength, and weapons, in his attempt to take over the earth. With his loyal army of Jaffa warriors made up from members of teams: X F - extreme fanatics, Team Smite, Zero Tolerance, Splatter Proof, an others, he is making a final bid for our home world, earth..

The only thing standing in the way of Appophis is the Star Gate command led by General Hammond played by Bob "Snooker" Kinney of the Gladiators, and his teams of Star Gate soldiers made up from team members of the Screaming Munkeys, Team Clean Sweep, the Gladiators, members of Paintball Park, Ft. Myers, Fla., and other walk on and guest players, one in particular was Mr.Bill (Duncan) Dunlop (more on his missions later.) Each team had an engineer, for special assignments. The battle will be fought on the planet, P3G472, known to all as having several stashes of advanced weapons and superior technology that could be used to destroy any resistance on earth and lead to the end of the human race, as we know it. Or, if found by the S G command, they well could turn the tide in the ongoing battle with the Jaffa, and the false god Appophis..

An all out effort has been initiated to stop Appophis from gaining control of the equipment on P3G472. The Star Gate teams are traveling to this distant planet to remove or destroy as much of what lays there as they can find. They must also stop Appophis from invading Earth and turning it into a planet of slaves. The Star Gate command is the last line of defense between Appophis and the end of all free humanity.

Extreme paintball in extreme conditions. You got to love the sport to come out in a full summer sun in central Florida, dressed in black BDU's and or camouflage. By the start of the game the sky was clear, with a slow breeze coming from the west, in the shade temperature was already 88 degrees and still climbing. Extreme Paintball by Extreme Paintball players.

It was 1200 hours sharp as Rick McDaniel Orbital Paintball's Game Director, fired off the sky rocket to begin the day's play.

The first mission came into the Jaffa base camp, intelligence had picked up a signal that the Star Gate had been activated, sweep the field to the south and intercept S G command. Take them out fast and hard. The Jaffa warriors raced out of their home base in a flying wing formation toward the fort, tower and sand pit area. As they reached their destinations they began a forward advance sweeping the field of intruders.

On the other side of the field the Star Gate command received their first mission. The soldiers spread out in a skirmish line defense formation spanning from the star gate through the air ball bunkers all the way to the northern boundary. Their mission was to scout for weapons, technology, and search for any Jaffa on the planet. If Jaffa were found, they were to be eliminated before reinforcements could be summoned. General Hammond had learned that a mother ship may be in the area. This was a high priority of concern. The S G command were cautioned to be ever watching and listening for this ship.

The sound of automatics was deafening, along mid field. The Jaffa were advancing as the S G command stumbled in the fierce onslaught of the enemy troops. Hit, hit, hit, one after the other were calling themselves out. The referees were on the side lines observing, taking pictures and very little to do, when the players checked themselves.

There were a few yells of; "Check 'em ref!" But, from my perspective I've not seen game play like this in many years. I'm a certified N A P R A, and Lively Productions referee, and I've reffed the Florida Captains Council circuit, I've been the Ultimate Judge with Ken "Hollywood" Gilder in the Florida State Championships. I've reffed at the Masters tournament in Tennessee, and the IAO in Pennsylvania. The game play here at Orbital Paintball was clean, honest, and fun!

In the early afternoon I watched a Jaffa warrior pick his way into a dense covered area. While there he alone amassed over a dozen eliminations as the S G command slowly walked into his field of fire. One shot, one hit, another player headed for the staging area.

In this game each time you were eliminated you had to check in with the base referee. From there you were to walk off the field and wait for the next insertion time, these time intervals were every half hour, an example would be 1400 hours, 1430 hours and so on.

As the day went on the temperature rose to a sweltering 91 degrees in the shade with little or no breeze, and a clear sun filled sky. The referees were reminding the players to get plenty of liquids. In Florida, it's a very good idea to wear a camel pack, that's a water bottle strapped to your back with a bite tube to drink through, you can't take your goggles off the drink from a canteen.

Bill "Duncan" Dunlop, traded in his photography role for an opportunity to work with the S G command. Duncan went through the star gate and sprinted wide right to the side boundary. He then worked his way around the outside perimeter. Duncan was fierce in his advance, taking out defenders. He worked his way up to the base camp of Appophis. From there he took out the body guards and Appophis. Then Duncan was taken out. As he

an Jeremy were walking out, Jeremy told Duncan that was pretty good, but that won't ever happen again! At the next insertion Duncan went in and repeated the same movements and again sent Appophis to the sideline.

At 1800 hours another sky rocket was fired which signaled the dinner break. Just a few minutes later, the welcome relief of rain came, along with some lightning and thunder. By 2000 hours the rain had ceased and the water was soaked up by the sandy soil. A sky rocket signaled the start of play. As the players came out of their bases a new sound was heard deep in the woods a cheer went up from the Jaffa warriors, and a rumble of emotion in the SG command was heard. Almost in unison SG command shouted where's an engineer the mother ship is coming!
The mother ship is motorized and it has the ability to fire a fixed LAW cannon and two turret mounted cannons for paint balls.

 The SG command took care of business with minimal effort as the mother ship was contained and put out of action. The battles raged all night as the missions were given to the commanders.

At 0600 hours the game again was halted for breakfast. At 0800 hours the game started up again. This lasted until 1200 hours. There was a cease fire and a game summary. At that point the SG command was ahead in points. The Jaffa warriors had to win the last battle or the earth was safe.

As the last battle unfolded here's the set up. The Jaffa warriors were entrenched in their fort, sand pit and tower areas respectfully. The warriors spread out all along the edge of the woods and the tower guards pin pointed movement for the Jaffa to attack.

The SG command needed to drive the Jaffa back long enough for an engineer to blow up the fort taking out the Jaffa warriors inside. Then occupy the fort at the end of the thirty minute period. The SG command soldiers tried several hit and run maneuvers, which all resulted in failure. As the seconds ticked down a suicide rush was staged. An all out attack by all the remaining SG players resulted in the Jaffa warriors holding them off and ultimately winning the game and enslaving the earth's forces.

The winning general was Appophis played by Jeremy Gadball of Team Trigger Happy. He received the winning generals trophy. Jeremy said everyone deserves the tropy because it was a team effort. He also stated Team Smite was indispensable, as were the rest of the teams under his command, the choice was hard but, the most valuable team for the Jaffa warriors were X F (extreme fanatics), during the game team XF completed 16 of 17 missions. The Jaffa Sportsmanship award went to team Zero Tolerance.

Robert Kinney, the S G commander chose as his most valuable team the Screaming Munkeys. And for Sportsmanship the Gladiators. Both generals raved at how clean and stand up the play was. Everyone commented on how awesome the game was, and everyone is looking forward for the next time.
Jeff McDaniel, owner of Orbital Paintball thanked everyone who came out to play. He also thanked everyone for their stand up, clean play. Door prizes were awarded as well as a Piranha STS. Another scenario game is in the works and will be on the web site in the near future.

 
Sponsors for the game were Orbital Paintball, and Paintball Park of Ft. Myers.
Orbital Paintball is located on North 301, about 7 miles north of East I-4, Tampa, Fla.
Jeff McDaniel, is the owner, you can reach him at Jeff@OrbitalPaintball.com.