Survivor Honor

[franklin 3]

Today I witnessed more than 6 people disconnect after being killed in PvP. All of them were kitted out with all the cool toys, but as usual lacked the skill to use them properly. My team, while on supply missions, encountered most of these players within a short 10 minute period of a hotspot in the North West. We were attempting to get some good gear for our own protection, and ended up getting into a firefight that ended up with one of our own dead, 1 confirmed enemy KIA, and 5 downed enemies who disconnected before death. Every single one of them was a bandit prior to our engagement.

Each one of these players I henceforth despise, and to say I have no respect for them would be a gross understatement.

On the flip side of the coin, I had another engagement today. This engagement was nothing that went in my favor by any means, yet I felt compelled to tell it.

Coming back from a supply raid on Berezino to stock our teams patrol base with medical supplies, we drove our UAZ into its hide hole and dismounted. We began moving towards our tents to stash the gear away before we moved onto the mission all of us were really looking forward to going on. As we moved up to our tents, myself and one other team mate fell to the ground and saw the hourglass for a split second, before the "You are Dead" screen appeared. I sat in front of my computer shocked, thinking it was a glitch at first. I realized that it was no glitch, when I called out over teamspeak that I was dead, and one other replied back "same." Two others reported they were wounded, and calls of "grenade" started coming across the channel. I realized the nade landed so close to me, I wasnt able to even hear the explosion before I was dead. I backed out to the lobby and got ready to make my sprint off the coast, back to my team. I listened over teamspeak to the hunt now going on for whoever was in our base. Only one man had been spotted, and wounded by one of us. He had taken shelter in the very spot we had placed our tents, and was quickly surrounded and turned into pink mist by an M107 round. He had more than ample time to disconnect and knew he was surrounded, bleeding, in shock, and about to die. Yet he didn't, he stayed and faced the very loud and violent music, for his attempted theft, and the murder of me and one of my team mates.

My team mates examined the body to get the name of the outsider, and when he was loaded back in game, I sent him a message on text chat. I told him that he had my respect, and he asked why? I told him that I respected him because he did not disconnect during PvP. His honest reply, was "Why would I?" Thank you so much for that! He admitted that he had stumbled across our camp, and was only looking for engine parts to fix up a car he had been working on for a while. He noticed we had some nice gear in our tents, but left it alone as he did not have a direct need for it. He was on his way out of our camp when we drove up in our car, and he had nowhere to run. He turned around to face us, and was on a slight incline above us. Nobody in my group had spotted him, as we were all excited to have pulled off a flawless hospital raid, and were about to be onto a much more fun mission. We weren't focused, and paid for it. He thought one of us had spotted him, and began to fight for his life. I understood immediately upon his explanation that his actions were in defense, and it was just an unfortunate set of events. Had we had the time to announce we were friendly, we would have allowed him into our camp (since he was already there), and traded with him. However due to the nature of survival in DayZ, there was no time for second guessing, and I can respect that he did what he did to try to escape with his life.

There was no hard feelings, as my team secured our camp, and began preparing to move it to another location. The two of us who died were on our way back to the camp, and our gear was safe, except for one body had dissapeared along with all the gear on it. It was a minor setback, but overall we were only delayed by the confrontation, and used up a bit of the supplies we had just raided from the hospital. Once at our camp, the guy who killed me asked if it was OK for him to come recover his gear. Had this guy been any other typical player, I would have told him to go F himself, and would have setup security to smoke the guy if he showed up. However since he didn't touch a thing in our camp (and we confirmed by checking his body), I thought it was the right thing to do. He had respected my property, though he would have stolen an engine had I had one, I thought fair is fair. I told him to get on teamspeak, and he did, and we organized his entry to our camp. On the way we laughed and joked about the incident, brokered a trade for some gear, and extended an offer of alliance between his group and mine. He entered our camp, recovered his gear off of his body, and we exchanged items, saluted, and he was on his way without harm.

We have as of yet to make any further contact with him, though he has been on the server with us for hours. He has a mission, and we have ours, no need for interaction as we operate in different areas. However we have shared steam information, and I will check on them just to assure we avoid conducting raids in the same area they are in. Its not out of fear that I desire to avoid him, however respect. The man was honorable and respectful to me and my group (despite the confrontation out of need for survival), and I feel no reason why I should want to go after him or his friends. He was just looking out for his teams survival and meant no harm, lives got lost over unfortunate timing, but we still have all our important gear. All is well in DayZ land.

To the person in concern, keep fighting the good fight, I hope you find that group of snipers and give them a taste of their own medicine. I also found some engine parts tonight, that I would be willing to trade for some good gear. Hit me up and maybe we can work something out.