Thursday, November 22, 2007

My Adventure Begins

The date is August 14, 2020 and this is my online diary playing as Lieutenant Jake Dunn of the United States Army Delta Force in the EA game Crysis. My fellow comrades simply call me Nomad.

If you asked me twenty years ago if I would be spending the week of my mother's 75th birthday in the Lingshan Islands located in the Philippine Sea, I would have not been surprised. After all, they call me Nomad for a reason. I've been all over the world the last twenty years, moving up the Army power train in order to find myself being a member of Delta Force. I still remember watching some corny movie with Chuck Norris called Delta Force when I was a kid - maybe that's why I ended up here. Man, how things have changed since the 1980's cinema!



At any rate, the North Korean Army decided to capture a group of American scientists about a week ago on the islands - just after they made some kind of amazing discovery. Since we've not heard a word from anyone since the distress call, they are sending the Delta Team I am a member of in to investigate. Of course, this is a covert mission ... so no possibility for others to join the cause - at least, not yet.

One of my team members, code named Psycho (for a reason), feels like we should go in blasting a path before us until we find the scientists. Me, I am much more the low key kind of person who would prefer to let technology and stealth skills help us reach our objective of locating the American scientists.

So, we suited up and departed toward the main island under the cover of darkness. Our entry point will be from the sky, several thousand feet above sea level, to quietly descend onto the island.

Man, it is dark out here tonight. When it gets this dark, I like to toggle my Nightvision on and off - just to make sure everything is working. I know that's the Old School way of handling your equipment, but when I started doing these kind of night jumps years ago, we didn't have the sensor technology to let one know when the equipment isn't working.

Just as I flipped on the Nightvision, I saw what appeared to be an object flying toward me at a high rate of speed.



Before I knew what happened, the thing hit me and caused my parachute to malfunction. Yeah, this is great, I am zooming toward the earth at what feels like the speed of sound and my main chute isn't working. I know ... relax ... wait for your backup parachute.

Okay ... panic now, because that thing isn't working either!!!

My suit has malfunctioned in the hit too. What the heck was that thing, any way?

Okay ... focus on the problems at hand, we can figure out what hit me later.

Good news ... well, sort of. There is a huge ocean below me. I've never been much of a high-diver, but I guess this cold, thick pond of water is going to be my only hope to survive.

If I survive, I will continue. If not, well, I guess I will not continue. Wish me luck.


Nomad ... signing out.

Divided We Fall

Well ... the water managed to break my fall without breaking me. So, it looks like I survived after all. My suit is coming back online now.



If you check the image above, you can see at least part of me ... my shadow is on the sand.

My objective is to hook up with my other team members. From what I can tell, at least two of them landed safely, while another member (Aztec) is caught up in a tree. Of course, I was the only one who had the pleasure of taking a midnight swim this evening.

I strolled past a turtle and some crabs on the seaside, which was kind of cool and started to make my way inland. I am following a blip on the lower corner of my helmet. Who needs a compass when you get to wear this million dollar Nanosuit.

After squeezing through some bunkers, I ran into a group of North Korean soldiers. These guys have no clue that we've landed. Furthermore, the first soldier had no idea I was even coming up behind him as he strolled down the rock.



I equipped my silencer, took aim and knocked out the soldier before he noticed me. There were a few more who came over to investigate and ran into the same fate. I increased my weapon count by one when I snagged a FY71 from one of the North Koreans now resting on the beach. I loaded up the ammo from the other guns too. For now, I am in pretty good shape.

They had lit a flare on the oceanside, so I decided to toss it into the ocean to make my visit a little less obvious. (Gotta love the new Crytek engine for allowing me to toss a flare into the ocean and continue to render the physics in a very cool way.)



I joined up with a fellow soldier, Jester, in order to attempt to rescue Aztec - our Delta Team member caught in the trees. Along the way, we heard this wicked sound pass above us and the trees moved like crazy all around us. Man, I wonder if it was that thing that made my parachute fail?

When we arrived, Aztec was there, but he was no longer alive. He was still haning from the tree. There were North Korean soliders on the ground around him, dead as well. Whatever got one of them, got them all. My money is on the thing that made the trees move and freak me out a little bit.

We said our respects and the Nanosuit was vaporized from our Control Center. At that point, with only four team members left, we had to split up to cover more ground. I picked up the ammo from Aztec's SCAR in order to take something of his with me. Who knows, it might just come in handy on this mission.

I moved further inland, toward my destination. I came across a couple more North Korean soldiers. This time, I decided to go into stealth mode for a few seconds, so that I could check them out with my binoculars.



They had no clue I was even there, nor did they realize how close I was too them.

After some precision use of the FY71, I was able to move toward the last known point where the scientists radio'd for help.

New objective phoned in. It appears they have a single jammer on the other side of this hill. Guess who gets to take it out? That's right, yours truly.

Let me get over there and see what type of recon I can do from the top of the hill.

Nomad ... signing out.