I'll start with an AAR from my last run through that resulted in one of the most intense firefights I've had in Arma 3. Mission from start to finish took a total of 6 hours and I successfully rescued both hostages and killed the Rebel Leader. Took a total of 13 in-game days. Started off smoothly however things really ramped up early morning on Day 8.

Had intel of an enemy AA position on the Southern end of the enemy's AA coverage area. About 1km east of the AA position we had intel of an enemy patrol as well. The plan was to basically do a "Long Range Patrol" through the AA Coverage zone taking out the AA emplacement and enemy patrol then exfil back out of the AA coverage on foot. I took an 8 man team consisting of myself, Vega, O'Connor, Jax. Ghost, Frost, Miller, and Snake. We inserted via Ghosthawk about half a klick south of the AA Coverage on a ridge at approximately 23:00hrs.

We followed the ridge up into the AA coverage with no contacts. As we were making our way along the ridge that would bring us about 500m west of the AA emplacement it started raining pretty heavy which really hampered our visual range. I wasn't able to see the AA emplacement through the rain so we moved up the ridge adjacent to the AA gun. We were about 300m away at this point and could make out the gun as well as a squad of about 8 rebels. We engaged the rebels which resulted in Ghost, Vega, and Myself each getting a confirmed kill before the rest of the rebels scattered and due to the decreased visibility in the rain we lost sight of them.

I waited a few minutes to see if we could tag any of them dumb enough to come back before advancing on the AA position through the valley that seperated our ridges. This valley had heavy brush and trees but I wasn't too concerned figuring that if any rebels were hiding in there they would have opened up on during the inital exchange. It was while walking through the brush when Vega suddenly yells out "CONTACT INFANTRY CLOSE!!" and the forest just erupts with gunfire. Vega and Snake just open up on the brush in front of us as the rest of the team including myself scrambles for cover. Turns out the survivors from the initial exchange actually looped back around and were advancing on us through the brush when we ran right into them. We had the advantage with our NVG's but since we were less than 50m away the rebels were able to return fire. The fight is short but very intense as we mop up the rest of the rebels and cautiously made sure there were no survivors this time. Miller took one to the chest but his vest stopped it and Jax easily patched him up.

We finally reach the AA gun emplacement and destroy it. I did a quick check to make sure everyone was good on ammo before proceeding as planned to the Rebel Patrol location. We make it to the patrol location without incident and after about a 15 minutes search we found and eliminated the 12 man rebel patrol with little resistance. By this time the rain had stopped and there was a light fog over the area. I decided to check on a few houses that were close by in the area since I didn't get as much intel as I had hoped from the patrol. We made contact with a couple civilians and searched/interrogated them but they were not rebel supporters. By now it was about 0500 and the sun was starting to come up which I wasn't happy about because now we would lose our NVG advantage. We start making our way south out of the AA coverage area to a possible LZ for extraction. We make it out of the coverage into a clearing on top of a ridge without incident and I call for the Ghosthawk to come pick us up.

This is where all hell breaks lose.

As the Ghosthawk is coming into land an INTENSE amount of small arms fire opens up on the helicopter. The small arms fire is really close about 100-200m away coming from the other side of the ridge that we were on. The miniguns on the Ghosthawk open up as I tell them to RTB as they were just taking way too much fire. I took the team and we quickly crested the ridge only to find about 15-20 rebels right below us and what appears to be a weapons cache. We quickly open up on them and cut them down with the help from the Ghosthawk miniguns. We collect intel and secure cache, while the cache is being secured we take more small arms fire just to the south of us. I could hear at least 1 sniper rifle as well as what sounded like an assault rifle shooting at us. Ghost engages the sniper and kills him while I search for the other source of gunfire, I see two rebels running away further south and am not able to get a good shot. I got the team into a line formation and we advanced south hoping to find the two rebels and take them out.

We make our way into a small cluster of trees where I last saw the rebels before being immediately surrounded by gunfire on 3 sides. It was a hell of an ambush as the team scattered to try and find cover amongst the skinny tree trunks. Little did I know we ran into ANOTHER weapons cache, this time with 25 rebels guarding it and they were only 100m to our south. There happened to be a rebel patrol to our west that was aboout 200m on a heavily forested ridge that also decided to open up on us. We were ♥♥♥♥ed and it seems like they knew because the rebels at the cache started to advance on us. There was honestly so much gunfire that I knew if I stood up I'd be cut down instantly. The team is constantly calling out contacts while engaging the rebels as they advanced on us while their buddies to the west suppressed us. I quickly called for CAS to come to our position but I knew it'd be a couple minutes before they got to us and that was a couple minutes that we didn't have. It was then that I looked over to my left and saw Ghost take a bullet to the head and go limp. The enemy fire was not letting up at all in fact it seemed to be getting worse I knew if we all just laid down we'd be slaughtered and we couldn't retreat back to the north because it was all wide open ground so our only option was to fight it out. I resume focusing on engaging the rebels from the cache as they came towards us while ordering Snake and Vega to suppress the ridge we were taking fire from to our west.

Vega decides to reposition and comes running over towards me. Right as he get to me he gets lit up by about 3-4 rounds and goes down. I've now lost my sniper and the veteran machingunner and at this point I was certain this is where the mission would end for all of us. Just then I can hear the sound of rotors in the distance as the CAS finally arrives to save our asses. I pop smoke on our west flank to try and give us some cover so we could focus on the immediate threats to our south. The CAS opens up with their cannons and just starts laying waste to the rebels at the cache and then the rebels on the ridge to our west. The fire finally starts to die down now as we mop up the last few remaining rebels with the help of CAS.

We secure the cache/intel and call for extraction again via ghosthawk. By this time it's nightfall again and I just couldn't wait to get back to the base. The ghosthawk comes in and still takes some light small arms fire but at this point I just wanted to get us out of that area and we extract back to base.

We lost Ghost and Vega but gathered enough intel to locate both hostages and the Rebel Leader. This is why I love this scenario so much. This was a patrol that I setup myself that lead to completely unscripted events of intense firefights and walking into one hell of an ambush that I honeslty still don't know how I survived and didn't take more casualties.