NOTE: This is a modified text of the mission, re-written to be easier to read, be slightly more interesting, and be in the third person instead of the second person. If you wish, you can view the raw log of the mission, including all out-of-game comments, here.

Werewolf is sitting next to Adder on the bleachers at the edge of a baseball diamond, waiting for a briefing on the next mission. Another 13 people (making a total of 15 present) are sitting on the bleachers, waiting also. To either side of the bleachers are large plastic containers holding the weapons they'd be using.

The training sergeant from the previous day's practice comes walking towards them at a brisk pace, a small stack of papers under his arm. "All right, Privates! Your first mission has come in -- garrison duty!"

All of them moan as one at such a monotonous task. Adder raises an eyebrow, unexcitedly.

"There have been some concentrated strikes on base Gamma-4," he continues, "It's under construction slightly northwest of Sennin Park."

Adder raises his hand, prompting a sigh from the Sergeant. "What is it?"

Adder decides not to ask him. "Sorry sir, never mind."

The Sergeant mumbles under his breath before continuing. "As you may know, we're a platoon and a half. I would have liked to make it two and have Sgt. Warwick lead the group, but he's already taking a small force on a special mission."

Adder remembers Sgt. Warwick. Nice guy, but he only recently earned the rank of Sergeant. How he did it Adder didn't know . . .

The Sergeant looks around. "That's all! Grab your weapons and fall in."

Adder and werewolf quickly make their way to the buckets and search the selection of weapons, revealing one CPS 2500, one CPS 1500, one XP 250, two XP 150s, three XP 110s, and two XP 40s in each of the two containers. Werewolf calmly takes one of the 110s as Adder rushes forward and grabs one of the 2500s before they're both taken. He examines the weapon to find it filled and unpressurized. The two both begin pumping their weapons as the Sergeant shoulders a 1500 and begins walking away. The unit begins following, their weapons at the ready.

The group has an uneventful hike along an open path to Sennin Park. Suddenly the Sergeant grabs a radio from his belt and holds it to his ear. Adder tries to listen in but can't make out any sound. After speaking into the radio a bit, the Sergeant turns to the rest of the unit and begins to speak.

"I've been called away on urgent business, but you'll all have to continue. It's that way" (here he motions with his hand) "you've just got to guard the base." With that, he turns and runs off in a totally different direction.

Before anybody can react, Adder simply says "Let's just follow orders. C'mon."

The group, with werewolf quickly seizing the opportunity to take the lead, begins moving through the light woods separating the park from the construction site -- a short walk.

As they near the construction site, they can hear the cries of battle and the splatter of water against wood. Hurrying forward, they see that the site is under attack by five soldiers bearing the insignia of Red Herring Army, each armed with a CPS 2500. The construction workers appear to be unarmed.

After a short period of mental planning, Adder shouts out "Let's storm them!"

The enemy soldiers immediately spring their necks to face the new opponents, then race off into the woods in the opposite direction. The construction workers look over and begin to take notice of their new defenders. One of the workers, apparently in charge, steps forward and greets them.

"I'm so glad you're here!" the senior architect expresses enthusiastically, "that's the second attack this week, and we have only minimal weapons available and very little training in combat."

The group surveys the construction site. The workers are building up around two trees, each about two feet in diameter and around 7 feet apart. They've set up some small barricades on the ground near the trees, three of them, each large enough for one defender. On the site above, they've got a platform in place between the two trees, with knotted ropes leading up on either side. A rope ladder or two in a jumble off to the side indicates that the ropes currently in place are only temporary. The workers seem to be working on creating a wall around the edge of the platform, extending about 4 feet above it.

Adder looks back at the unit. "Is there anybody else in there who's a high-ranker or are we all Privates?"

The troops look around at each other. "We're all Privates!" one of them yells. The senior architect looks confused. "Shouldn't you have an officer with you?"

"Yes," werewolf intercedes, "we had a Sergeant but he had other business to attend to."

Suddenly the training sergeant runs back, looking around frantically. He quickly points at Adder and motions for him to follow. The two of them run off into the woods.

The architect seems hopelessly confused.

Werewolf addresses the senior architect. "You seem confused by something, what is it?"

He slowly looks over at werewolf, his eyes seem to take awhile to focus. "What's going on?"

"We came to aid in the defense of this base."

The architect seems to think about this for awhile. "Good. We're already behind schedule from the attacks." He turns around. "Hey, people! Why are you just standing around?? Get to work!"

The construction workers begin to go back to work on the base, and the senior architect wanders off, apparently with other business. Werewolf examines the area surrounding the base. It is being built in the midst of a lightly wooded area, which extends far enough that he can't see out of it. Nearby is a large fallen tree, apparently downed recently, as its branches are still all intact. No other significant features can be seen through the woods.

He turns to the rest of the unit. "Well, people? Are we going to guard this area or stand around all day?"

Most of them seem startled out of day-dreaming by the sudden sound. They begin taking up defensive positions, some behind the barricades and some behind trees, to guard the base from every direction. Werewolf moves toward the barricades, but finds them all to be occupied, and so moves to guard from behind a tree to the North. As the architects continue about their business. One of them cries out in pain as a board drops to the ground.

Werewolf walks up to one of the defenders at the West side of the base. "Did you see any movement in the woods?"

The defender considers for a moment. "I think so."

Werewolf spontaneously leaves, and begins moving around the base, quietly informing all the defenders than an enemy attack may be imminent, then walks over to one of the architects.

"Could I go up on the platform to get a better view of the area around the base?"

The architect considers for a moment. "I can't condone that unless you have to. Its still very dangerous up there, and you'd be getting in the way of a lot of workers. But I suppose you could . . ."

Werewolf leaves and sets his weapon down before climbing up one of the ropes onto the platform. A couple of workers frown at him, but no one contests his presense. One of the architects bends down to recieve a board being handed up.

Werewolf looks over into the area where he thought he saw movement, but the view is actually more obstructed at the higher level, because not only the trunks but also a few branches get in the way. Nothing but the still woods is visible outside the defense permimeter. Frowning, werewolf climbs back down and reacquires his weapon before moving back to the West side and approaching another defender.

"Come with me, I'm going to check out something I saw and I think backup would be useful." The defender nods and stands up.

Werewolf, with his new comrade in tow, stalks through the woods to the point where he saw the movement earlier, but fails to see anyone. The base is still just in sight and a few of the defenders are visible, and in the opposite direction some light is visible, as if the woods end there. Setting that as his mark, werewolf presses forward and breaks out of the woods into a clearing, roughly circular and approximately 3 meters in diameter. Still finding nothing of interest, werewolf doubles back to the base and assumes his defensive position again.

Werewolf looks up at the light filtering down through the trees and can tell that its getting close to time to go home, the designated play time will soon end. After checking to make sure that none of the defenders have seen anything, he walks back to the soldier who accompanied him on his earlier search.

"It doesn't look like anything is going to happen here today," he says, "let's go patrol around the woods."

The defender shifts his gaze upward instead of west and gets a thoughtful expression on his face. "Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, that'd be two less defenders here, and what would we do if we did encounter an enemy unit?"

"We would stay within sight of the base," werewolf corrected.

"Well . . . . all right, anything's better than sitting around here."

The defender gets up and follows werewolf as they proudly march around the base, just within sight of it, for nearly half an hour without finding anything. Werewolf looks up again and notices that it has grown significantly darker. He looks back at the progress on the base. It looks to him like they're done, but the architects seem to have other ideas. He approaches one of them.

"Are you adding anything else to the base?"

The architect turns toward him, a look of mild amusement on his face. "Nah, its done, we're just adding a few more bolts to make sure the thing i safe. Can't have it come crashing down while we're defending it, now can we?"

"No," werewolf admits, "that would be very bad indeed."

The architect walks off to continue work, and werewolf walks back to the north edge of the forest to take up his position again when a clamour suddenly ripples through the unit as the training sergeant returns again.

"End time!" he calls. "Good work, it looks like the base is in one piece. We'll be getting in a full garrison unit tomorrow to take care of it from here on."

Werewolf walks over to the Sergeant. "Yes, Private?" he calls, anticipating werewolf's purpose.

"Where did you go earlier, sir?"

He frowns. "Sorry, I'm not at liberty to discuss that with you."

"Oh," he continues, "sorry, sir. Can you tell us anything about our opponents?"

The Sergeant pears at him quizically.

"The Red Herrings, sir."

"Ah! Well, I guess I know who was sleeping in military history class," he smiles. "I'll arrange a briefing tomorrow."