The United States Colonial Marines stem from the earlier U. S. Marine Corps who's roots meant a soldier who fought from ships at sea. The modern Colonial Marine Corps is an elite force of soldiers who are always ready and capable to operate far from their home soil - on land, on sea, in air and in space. Typical terrestrial deployment is via armored drop ships which ferry the marines from planetary orbit to the surface, the modern equivalent of the 20th Century landing craft. Once planet side the marines exit the drop ship on foot, or in a variety of surface, or sub-surface vehicles, such as armored personnel carriers (APCs), and Submarine Deployment Vehicles (SDVs). 

 Biological Weapons, known as "bioweapons", are used to eliminate indigenous populations of predatory xenomorphs. Bioweapons generally come in two forms, bacteriological and exomorphic. Exomorphic bioweapons are biological entities the size of insects or larger, referred to as "bugs". They are usually swarming creatures which are used en masse to eradicate an entire population. The embryos are dropped off on a planet, they mature, wipe out the population, lay new eggs, then die. The eggs are collected, cryogenically frozen, and saved for the next mission. Weyland Yutani is the recognized leader in Bioweapon technology, holding patents rights to literally thousands of species. 

3 May 2179 - We put down on Rydell 7 this morning. Looks like this one is going to be another "Bug Hunt". I guess what Ripley has been telling us all along was right. Weiland Yutani (WY) has been trying to develop those bugs we nuked on LV 426 into a bioweapon. 

Once again the big corporation slips up and we get our nose bloodied cleaning up their mess. To make matters worse, the XO isn't really admitting that is what is going on. We've got miners down here to contend with, and WY sent some of their suits and some mercs. They're actually fighting against us, trying to rescue the bugs to make money with them. I went on a recon patrol this morning with Vasques. She was rigged with her Smart Gun. She's not very tall, but with that counterbalance system she can wield a lot of firepower. I dropped my pulse rifle in favor of my trusted shotgun, it just feels right. 

Looks like we're pulling guard duty at our makeshift HQ in the LZ. As the suns started to go down, a couple of squads reported finding glowing eggs out in the forest. We haven't figured out what they are, but we've already recovered some biohazard canisters. Ripley's sure they are bug eggs in biostasis. Some suits have been milling around here talking to the XO. I think they are NSA. Something stinks with this, it's just not right. I'll make another entry when I get off the night watch. 

Final log transmission from Corporal Hicks
 

In their first scenario game of 1998, Florida Paintball Productions found a theme that hooked a lot of players... The movie Aliens. 

Each game, Wayne Dollack and his crew are going further and further with impressive props. "Sandspur" from Blitzkrieg is responsible, along with Wayne for a lot of the work. He spearheaded the construction of the marine armored personnel carrier that made its debut at the Area 51 game in December of 1997. The new major construction for this game was the loading deck and medical bay of the commercial towing spaceship Nostromo. 

Registration at games with 400+ players leads to lines, and Wayne's World has taken the Disneyland approach - make the line interesting and it won't seem so bad. The loading deck is a 20 foot tunnel in front of the Wayne's World office. On the outside it is grey and non-descript. On the inside it is decked out with flashing lights, alien creatures in terrariums, escape pod hatches, and a section of sick-bay. They really went to town. 

While the game did not start until Saturday at noon, players started gathering at the Wayne's World  field in Ocala, Florida Friday afternoon, and camping on site. 

As popular as the Alien movies are, a lot of creative fans built and brought their own props. Scurrying about the staging area was a half meter rubber alien "facehugger" atop a radio controlled car. Team Acid for Blood consisted of people from Blue Collar F/X, a Tennessee based movie prop company.  They specialize in building movie quality collector's reproductions of science fiction props.  Some of their props were just for show, like a resin molded pulse rifle.  Others were much more practical. Their colonial marine body armor became a popular item (they brought extra sets for sale) when Wayne declared that any hits on this armor did not eliminate the player wearing it. 

Other props and toys were more exotic. The colonial marine armored personal carrier game was back, joined by Austin's WWII armored car which was making its second scenario game appearance. The armored car served double duty as a fire truck. A pyrotechnic charge started a small (barely over one square foot) grass fire. Patrick "Pacman" McKinnon of team Blitzkrieg drove the car straight to the fire, while Austin balanced a fire extinguisher on the rear deck. The fire was over before it had time to become a threat, thanks to their fast reaction.  As has become the norm with Dollack games, pyrotechnics add a bit to the show.  Occasional flash-bangs  high in the trees triggered by trip wires on the trails below and smoke producing flash-pots fired under the supervision of the field pyrotechnician.

Game action on the field was intense.  A little more paint flew than was expected, causing Paul Devane to make a trip to PMI Southeast in Tampa for an extra truckload of RP Scherer, the field paint for the event.  The warm weather had drawn out a much larger crowd than is usually seen in mid spring. 

A few special characters made appearances in the staging area, including Wayne Dollack as an aluminum can collecting vagrant, and the severed torso of an "artificial humanoid" livened up down time between game insertion. 

The Norwegian Trolls, who only two weeks earlier attended the Viper scenario Texas Revolution IV in Houston, continued their US tour at Aliens, with two more members of their team bringing their US total to four.  They threw their own twist into the scenario forming the church of the sacred egg.  Using white latex balloons as props they took the roles of a cult that had formed to worship the Alien creatures.

In a voice stress analyzer monitored interview conducted by a character later revealed to be the director of the National Security Agency (Wayne Dollack) who had been coordinating the efforts of both Weiland Yutani and the Colonial Marines toward his own ends, Ellen Ripley (played by Diane "Mother" Howe) refused to divulge the location of bug eggs which had been captured by the Colonial Marines.  Eventually she was threatened with a "face hugger" alien which was brought out of stasis and used to implant an alien embryo inside her.  Even when offered to have the embryo surgically removed, Riply did not crack.  With a gestation period of 2 hours, she narrowly escaped her sternum cracking open, due to the end of the game! 

When the scores were tallied it was announced that the Colonial Marines took out the opposing base 5 times, and eliminated the WY general, Justin Ricks 6 times.  Weiland Yutani took out the marine base 4 times, and took out their general, Chester Bombriant twice.  Totaling game dollars and seized assets, WY won the game with a very slim lead of a couple hundred points.  Alx Gum reffed so tirelessly through the night, while other people took breaks and slept, that both generals awarded him the title of Most Valuable Referee.  Alx managed to stay awake just long enough for the awards.  Then came the raffles... Prizes were donated by PMI Southeast, Intense Marketing, USA Performance Products, Pro Team, Scott, Allen Paintball Products and more.