It had been almost an entire month since I last suited up in my sandtrooper armor, and I was starting to forget what it was like to put the armor on. As much as I missed suiting up, it was good to have a month off because there were several things that needed repairs and enhancements. I had installed flat green lenses in my helmet, thanks to the help of a fellow Midwest Garrison member. I also installed snaps to hold up my thigh pieces in place of the previous velcro straps, so after those modifications were done I was ready to head out to battle. The next place of deployment would end up being the CODCON at the College of DuPage.

First thing I realized is that I had never heard of the CODCON before, nor did I even know what it meant. I still don't have a definitive idea as to what the event was truly about, but I can tell you that there was very little in the way of Star Wars there. For the most part it involved gaming tournaments where people were playing games such as Star Wars Miniatures, other games involving miniature figures, and also a Star Wars Battlefront II tournament. So yeah, it does sound like there was a lot of Star Wars action going on there, but in reality it wasn't that way. I was expecting to see a large crowd of people at COD for this event, but instead there were small numbers of people there. Having large numbers of people doesn't mean that it’s going to be a great and successful event, but when I noticed it was not crowded I started wondering if this was going to be a worthwhile event. The event was running from Friday night through almost all of Sunday, and even though the Midwest Garrison was invited to participate each and every day I was only going to be available for that Sunday. Chris Spice showed up there on Saturday, and it seemed like he had a pretty good time there. So, after I had spoken to him I felt that I was going to have a good time as well. And, that's exactly what I did.

ARRIVAL AT COD
I showed up at COD around 9:45am, because the day was supposedly going to start at 10:00am. It was originally planned to start at noon, but there was a last minute change since Michael Stackpole (a Star Wars book writer) was going to have a presentation from 10-12pm on Sunday. Since I don't read all the books I wasn't really sure who this guy was, as I haven't read any of his books, but I was eager to at least meet him and say that I had the opportunity of speaking with him.

I was informed to go to the registration desk at the top of the stairs in the Student Center, and there I would check in and find where I would need to get suited up. I spoke with one of the people there, told them I was with the Midwest Garrison, and asked where the room was so that I could get in my armor. The people behind this table wasn't sure of what I was saying, but luckily some of the members from the garrison showed up and was able to guide me to "the room" so I could change.

When the door opened up to the changing room, there was none other than Chris Spice himself. He was already in his armor and was just putting his backpack on. I asked him to wait for me, since it was only going to take about ten minutes to get my armor on, and then we would head back into the area together. As promised, I was ready to roll in ten. We put our buckets on, grabbed our Lewis guns, and made the march down the hallway. It was time to show these people what would be like if the Empire had invaded the college. It was time to launch the assault.

SUITED UP & READY FOR BATTLE
We made our way down the hallway, opened the last and final door that would bring us to the main area of the Student Center, and noticed there weren't many more people that showed up. I looked at Spice and asked, "Is this it? Are there going to be any more people here?" He didn't reply, but I knew I was jumping to conclusions because it was way too early to speculate the outcome. That was fine, because it gave me some time to meet some of the other garrison members that I hadn't met before and then also to just "hang out" with Spice. Even though I speak to him almost every single day of the year, I don't have the luxury of actually hanging out with him since he lives just shy of two hours away from me.

It was pretty warm in the building, so I made the suggestion to go outside and cool off. It was a no-brainer to Spice and we headed outside. The weather was gorgeous with clear blue skies and temperatures going over sixty degrees. I wish this event was outside instead of indoors, but I wasn't running the show so it wasn't going to be that way. While we were outside we saw this big van pull into the parking lot, and we recognized who the occupants of it were... the Walton family. When Bob made his way toward the front door of the Student Center he didn't look like a happy trooper, but that's typical Bob being his best. Mary and her sister followed in the rear, and it was time for Bob to get suited up. Since Spice and I were already in armor, we weren't going to follow him into the changing room. Instead, we were going to accept our first mission of the day - move into the area where some of the vendors were located.

The mission was simple, the distance to the area was minimal, and the taste of victory was in the air. We started marching. As we walked into the room I noticed right away that most of these vendors were selling miniature related game pieces. Some of the items were incredibly detailed for something so small, while others were plain silver in color waiting to be painted by the person who would end up purchasing it. Spice moved closer to me and stated, "The person sitting over there is Michael Stackpole. I will be trying to interview him later in the day. Lets stand over there and get our picture taken with him." Spice gave his digital camera to Mary Walton, who was not in costume for obvious reasons, and after we moved around Mr. Stackpole she snapped a few photos for us (which turned out great by the way!). After our picture was taken we patrolled the area for a brief while, and then were informed to head on down to the video gaming area where the Battlefront II tournament would be held. As before, we started our march to our second mission of the day.

While we were outside of the building we noticed several individuals were hitting each other with sticks covered in foam. From reading Spice's report from yesterday I knew that these guys were actually playing some type of game, and that it wasn't some "lets beat the snot out of each other" ordeal. I would have loved to have joined them since it looked like a lot of fun, but I wasn't about to let these total strangers damage my set of sandtrooper armor. No way in hell that was going to happen.

We rounded the corner of the building and saw the door where we needed to go through, and made our way to it. Once we walked inside I noticed this was the cafeteria area, and there were a few people sitting around studying and eating some lunch. We didn't pay much attention to them and continued toward the final destination, and in a few seconds we were there. There weren't many people inside, but there were about five people playing various video games on various consoles. Of course the game that stood out to most to me was Battlefront II, which was being played on at least six different TV sets. This was going to be where the tournament would be held later in the day. But, since they were on some of us picked up a controller and started playing.

Spice was one of the first to pick up a controller, and started playing a new mission in the game. He seemed to be doing a pretty good job at it, especially since he was playing with his helmet on. He played for maybe fifteen minutes before putting the controller down, and I decided it was my turn to play. But, instead of playing the computer I wanted to play against another human being. Luckily there was someone waiting as well, so we picked up the controllers to start up some one-on-one competition. We chose to play a space battle over Hoth. I chose to be the Empire and this opponent chose to be the Rebellion. Right then and there I knew this wasn't going to be much competition.

He chose to fly the A-Wing and the Y-Wing frequently, while I enjoyed flying either the TIE Interceptor or the TIE Bomber. I kept a close eye on his screen, and when he was in the Y-Wing I would hop in the TIE Interceptor to hunt him down. I would check out his screen to see where he was flying, and before he knew it he had green lasers flying past his cockpit. I was just toying with him, because most of the time I just enjoyed chasing him and not using my missiles. For any of his other fighters I used the missiles, but when it was one-on-one with him I only used my laser cannons. He became way too focused on his targets and not on his overall surroundings, and because of that it's what led to his loss.

After about thirty minutes of intense playing the "Victory" displayed on my screen, pointing out that I was the overall winner of that match. In the space battle mode the first person to 180 points would end up being the victor and I beat him by a lot (can't remember the exact number but it was quite a bit). He wanted a rematch, so we started up another match. This time, though, he ended up being victorious, but he did so by only beating me by less than ten points. As long as I crushed him the first time, I was a happy camper.

The rest of the afternoon involved hanging out with members from the garrison, taking some photos with some of the guests, and simply trying to have an enjoyable afternoon. I'm glad I volunteered for this, but it would have been better if there were more Star Wars related vendors there. I was ready to spend some money, but because there weren't dealers selling toys I didn't spend a single dime while I was there. Not too bad for being there for six hours or so.

PHOTO GALLERY
To see the photo gallery containing 7 photos click here.