On the ready line!

Apologies in advance for the length of this entry - It's gonna be a big one, as this weekend was one in a million.

United Kingdom Colonial Marine Corps
Combat Drop : Leicester, 2006.


We've been preparing for this event for months now.
Ever since word came down the pipe that a Colonial Marine presence would be required to deal with a xenomorph infest ation at the National Space Centre's Sci Fi weekend in June, marines all over the UK have been rushing to complete work on their armour and armaments.
Myself included.

Myself, Fraz ( Jedifraz ) and Sandy ( Bmused ) hooked up early on Friday morning for the ~6hr drive to Leicester.
A quick stop at the quartermaster's stores ( Lidl ) for some rations, and we were on our way.
Express elevator to hell. Goin down!

The journey down wasn't bad - Nice weather, good tunes... We made it to the dropzone by around 5:30pm.
Helped a little with the setup, and met the other grunts.

9pmish, and we checked in at the hotel before descending en masse upon a local noodle bar - Where we sampled the delights of Foo Kin Fried Rice.
No corn bread, sadly.

The shit was already being well and truly shot by this point - "Hey, Bishop - Do the thing with the spoon/chopstick/fork" games possibly making the staff wince at the potential for damage to their tables.
All hands refrained from engaging fully, however.

I turned round midway through my meal to see who'd just nudged me as they sat down.

The Sarge had arrived.
Al Matthews - Real life marine, and in all honesty one of the most entertaining people I've met in my life.
He also happened to play Sgt Apone in "Aliens", therefore was our guest of honour for the weekend.

I didn't really get a chance to speak to him on Friday night, but even in the noodle bar, the atmosphere was becoming less like a bunch of geeks playing dress-up with folk they barely know by the minute.
Folk were realising that, unlike Star Wars events where your character is your costume... This time, the characters were us.

I think for most of us, the "Me" dial got turned up to 11. Loud guys got louder, funny guys got funnier.
The camaraderie was real.

Back to the hotel for drinks, before the actual first day of the event, and it was announced that this was the inaugural combat drop of the United Kingdom Colonial Marine Corps... Therefore we all needed our rank patches.
Everyone got a private chevron - Except Harry Harris of the Harry Harris Aliens Collection.
As the man with the single biggest collection of screen-used props and costumes in the UK ( More on that later ;) ), he was duly promoted to be our 4-star General.


Al : "Excuse me. Excuse ME! How the fuck do you outrank ME?"

And a hush fell across the room.

Bruce / Bazfish exhibited balls of steel when he looked the Sarge in the eye, and told him:

"How the fuck do you outrank me... /sir/?"

And he said it, too.
Taking due care and attention to pronounce the word "sir" correctly, and in the voice of a little girl.


More later...