Well time to face the music yes? Once again I hope I didn't bork this up, say something If I did ladies and gents
BACK IN THE SADDLE
I had been with World of Warships since day one of the closed Beta Test, at the time I was stoked even though all I had to play on was a toaster of a computer. It had been a very rough start the first few months but I finally managed to get the game working right after so much rage, and the cries of 'BULLSHIT' ringing through my house.
Cut to a few years later, several years of college and lots of hand cramps from drawing practice and here I find myself in front of my computer again staring at the icon. It had been a while, certainly a few months since I had touched it after I had finished grinding out the German Battleship tree for the KMS Scharnhorst my best(Read: the one I die the least in) ship in the game by far.
I had been neglecting her.
Now that in of itself was probably an irrational thought, but the Scharnhorst was mine. There might have been other players who owned a Scharnhorst but this was one I had sacrificed many hours to acquire and to me that meant a lot. Regardless, I was proud to sail her even though she was just bits of data.
Either way I had a game to play.
I double clicked the shortcut and fired up the game. The night was still young, for me at least as someone who didn't have to work all day. There were perks to being a 'night owl' after all.
The familiar loading screen popped up in place of my desktop and as in the past the game loaded up. I logged in to see the Scharnhorst, she was fully upgraded and as far as I was concerned she was deadly. Her guns might have been small when compared to something like the Bismarck or the Iowa but they had a fire rate that was rather high amongst Battleships.
I moved the camera about the ship panning about inspecting every inch of her that was above the water line, she almost looked rearing for a fight. I was eager to oblige.
Without wasting more time I hit the big 'BATTLE' button at the top of the screen which sent me into MM and like always it was only a few seconds before I was taken into battle.
Well that's odd, there is no one on the enemy team...
I was tempted to close the game and restart it since it sometimes had hiccups like this. I decided against it and a few minutes later the familiar 10 second countdown started.
It was when the timer hit 0 that everything went black…
*Some time later*
Regaining consciousness was rather… terrifying, you know after passing out for no reason. So when I bolted up from the ground I looked around to find myself not on ground, in fact I'm pretty sure there was no land nearby. Instead I was on a ship a big damn ship at that, in fact this was probably the biggest ship I've ever had the opportunity to set foot on. It was glorious.
It was definitely a warship with there being two rather obvious large and menacing looking super firing turrets mounted on the fore section almost like…
Scharnhorst, the ship. The actual German battleship I enjoyed commanding and here it was right under my feet. No, that wasn't right… more like I'm under my feet. I could feel the steel, the ebb and flow of the sea, hell I could even see through the firing directors mounted all over the place!
"You've got to be shitting me." I said to no one in particular.
"Indeed," voiced someone behind me.
I spun around almost tripping but managed to regain balance so I didn't make a fool of myself. Before me stood a man wearing the uniform of the now extinct Kriegsmarine, the navy that served the German war machine in the Second World War. He looked middle age, old enough to have earned all those medals and what looked to be a high rank.
"Welcome commander," the man said in perfect English.
"Uuuh… have we met before?" I asked.
"No, not in person at least but we have met in a sense," he said with a slight smile.
"Why am I here?"
"To the point as always commander? Simply put you are here to fight as you have longed to. You desired power now you have it, now it is up to you to do the rest. The rest of us have faith in you even when you stumble, Gods speed," He finished before quickly fading.
I stood there slack jawed for who knows how long, what the hell just happened?
"Goddamn ROB, you glorious bastard!" I said before letting out a manic laugh.
I should be mad, no I should be furious, or sad but there was only one emotion pure elation.
For the DAKKA was real and it was mine.
I set my new bodies speed to cruise at 19kts moving towards the closest landmass I could 'sense' in the far off distance. This experience would either be maddening or fun, either way it looked like I was in for a hell of a ride.
Notsoarmoredjaberwocky has arrived…
