Night Ops

Just curious small talk. I'll share my own reasons in due time of course. So how about you?

I heard there were cookies on this side.

Not proud of it, but I was on /asp/ and stumbled upon a "Night Ops" thread. Decided to check it out. OP was a guy who explored a radar station at night.
He posted the link to nightops.net and the moment I got here, I thought "I'm staying". I went to the library and read way of the shadow, and that's what got me hooked. Also bought gear based on the guide. Kevlar gloves/BDU/balaclava. Served me well. Now I'm far past that, but my NO beginnings were dark blue sweatpants, gray hoodie, rainbow Buuf scarf, headlamp, reflective running shoes and an ordinary belt with as many mutitools/pouches I could find for it. I started somewhere

I started doing it a couple years before I ever heard the term "night ops". Sneaking out and exploring just for the fun of being stealthy seemed natural to me as a child. Eventually I stumbled across the "night ops" threads on &totse, and discovered that my hobby had both a name and an active community, and from then on I've been a night opper. It's played a pretty big role in my life, at times, although it's taken a slightly smaller one in recent years. Early in my opping career I used it to reinvent myself, going from a skinny nerd to a confident, somewhat less skinny nerd who moonlights as a ninja. It was even the driving force behind my existence for a couple years - I literally lived for opping. Now it's become a bit less important as I've gotten older and my priorities have changed, but it's still an important part of my lifestyle. I'm sure it'll continue to influence my growth as a person, and that's just opping itself... I'm glad to say I've met some very fine folks through this site (this is my shameless plug for NOPCON) who I am honored to call friends and brothers.

Just for the sake of conversation, has opping been as significant for you guys? I have always enjoyed the opportunity to get inside another opper's head, and seeing not only how we started opping, but where we've allowed it to take us interests me.

Opping has certainly had a significant impact on my life. It's shaped the way I think, the way I move, the way I see the world. If I end up losing everything, I can always rely on my skill of the shadows. That I actually know others across the world who share in this is enough to keep me going.

My reason for getting into and more importantly staying in the scene is several-fold. At first, before there was even a topic, I used it as a method to acquire items I couldn't otherwise get be it from lack of money as a kid or sheer unavailability. I was obsessed with the acquisition of power and knowledge and so raids on chemical supplies were common so I could practice synths - usually explosives and incendiaries, smoke, etc. Later I would use "black ops" just for some side money.

I've loved stealth since the idea was introduced to me by a book called "Ranger's apprentace". I hate reading SO much, it's usually boring or a waste of time. I'd rather make my own stories than read someone else's. Anyway, I gave this book a try and got bored. It's about a kid who when he turns 15 he gets sorted into a sort of faction for the rest of his life. He'll either be a cook, guard, knight, farmer, or something else the castle needs. He wanted to be a knight who fought the enemies threatening the villages like his dad was, but by then I was bored. However, out of nothing to do, I read it some more a few months later. He gets sorted secretly, with a note handed to the baron. He has no idea what is says, so come nightfall he goes through the shadows following their pattern, climbs the castle wall over some guards, and breaks in through the window, silently, into the baron's chamber. He gets caught by a man in a camo cloak, and he is shown that he was sorted to be one of these rangers who use stealth instead of muscle, but only if he could get there unnoticed. The books go on, and it's actually a good read. So that inspired me to maybe try instead of fighting, to climb and sneak.

I started getting good at it when I realized around last halloween that black/armor style wasn't mine. I started using grey, blue, green, brown, and others so I fit with my area. I also made my stuff thin and flexible, so I could do parkour in my op suit. Then, around last april, I got some realtree camo and tested it on a campout. It was amazing.

I've been adding since, with night ops and such, and using guides I find around here and some other places I've become someone I never thought possible. Screw being a cliche spy, with a suit and awful shoes, pulling a revolver out instead of hiding when danger strikes. This style makes me more confident in other areas of my life. I can escape most anything using these tactics, or better- avoid it in the first place.

Who knew you could go right past someone without them noticing, or actually pull an assassin's creed on a fence to get up a house? I see things differently now. And to be honest, I love it.

Being passionate in going all the way with a goal no matter the costs. When you have tasted a piece of what life can potentially hold, there is no turning back. The search for the means to acquire that is, in itself, quite fulfilling.

Me and my buddy used to go out and do shit out of necessity too. I found an archived 4chan thread
about night ops in r9k iirc, and that's the first time I found this place. Helped boost our motivation for
this kind of stuff.

I can relate to the existential search for meaning. I've tried everything from "becoming a hacker" (lol) to
college and academia to night ops. Honestly, there's no meaning. Oh well. Make the best of it I guess.
When I was *really* young I used to watch this show "Code Lyoko" and it got me into both computers
(I'm a computer science major, senior in uni now) and going on "missions" as we used to call them.

Basically since I was like 12 or something we used to go out and sneak around and shit. Always looking for
something that would get me out of school and put me on a meaningful path. I wanted to find an underground
super-computer that would put me into the matrix like in the show. I discovered draining that way when I was like
15. When I got my first computer it changed a *lot* of things for me. Discovered a whole new world. Lots of people
I never would have interacted with otherwise. Tons of ideas.

Still to this day don't know what the shit

NightOps for me began sneaking out of motel rooms when I went away with my rents for holidays at like 11-12 to steal the additional soaps , amenities etc in the storage room! From there Nightops ( or any unscrupulous activity complete under the cover of darkness) would allow me to sneak out at night , undertake B&E , hangout with other Oppers. Its been a tool in my life thats unlocked so many doors and allowed a huge degree of freedom to me while growing up.

I remember the pure satisfaction of completing a op back in my late teens , Nothing was more satisfying than that feeling of comming home, sneaking in your window getting into your bed at 5:00am from a 6hour op and sleeping in to 2 the next day physically bent ready to go all again.

Great posts here.

I like how this topic brought back a lot of old members. Haven't seen some of you in ages.

Well don't worry. We're about to be facing some serious problems in the western world and I have a feeling we'll be seeing some cameos.

As well as camos...

I watched the YouTube videos of Stealth Technique and as a result loved it!!
One of his videos had the link to here and I immediately joined.


(It also didn't hurt that I've always loved stealth and the Shinobi of old)

How's old StealTech doing anyway? Haven't seen an upload of his in ages.

Xanatos wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 31, 2021 1:18 pm

How's old StealTech doing anyway? Haven't seen an upload of his in ages.

He stopped uploading to that channel, just to a new smaller channel mainly focused on cold weapon stuff. Me being a dumbass may have scared him out of uploading, since I disagreed with him here and there

Around the age of 12 my mates and I would hang out in town late at night and get up to mischief and that often involved having to be sneaky. My older brother at the time was getting into graffiti and of course me being a little brother would try and copy him and go out tagging. But night ops really kicked off for me when I was 13. My closet friend was also into it which made it just that more better. I just loved the intel gathering, planning and execution of the little ops we did.

The video games Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid had definitely inspired me a fair bit. Also The Elder Scrolls Oblivion was a fun game to stealth in, my favorite thing to do was simulate reality and go out and rob peoples houses in the city then head back to my shitty shack on waterfront to check out my loot. Making sure to avoid passing any guards even though it didn't matter.