Arms Race:

One of the companies I worked for had one really big conference each year, leading to much stress and many late nights of programming. This lead to two main forms of stress relief, Juggling, specifically Juggle Wars, and Battles that waged across the cubicals with Nerf and other, non-leathal munitions. These lead to the invention of Armegeddon's Hammer, may God have mercy on my soul...

Confederacies were short lived and lives were cheap; and soon, the delicate balance gave way to a horrible arms race spiralling out of control.

aug 25 , 1997, 5:30 PM. The first volleys were fired in the Quality assurance department. Rubber bands were shot by hand, accidently at first, with almost childlike enthusiasm.

aug 26, 5:15 PM. The first cross departmental rubber band was shot by a bored tester at a visiting engineer. Though later claimed by both sides to be accidental, this will be later known as the shot heard round the company. 20 minutes later, the engineer gathered up two fellow engineers and charged QA, looking for a little "cubical justice". This was followed by five days of relative quiet.

sept 1, 9:30 AM. One engineer ambushes another with the stealth nerf. Both engineers examine the mechanism closely and with abandon. Neither recognizes the foam and rubber pandoras box they are opening.

sept 1, 5:00 PM. Q/A launches a pre-emtive strike against engineering, but are fought back by unexpected feracity and superior nerf technology.

sept 3, 5:17 PM. Battle of the Cubes: Five nerf weapons, one clip fed. Rapid escalation, leading to eleven nerf weapons, 3 clip fed, and one chain gun by the evening of the 4th. The face of the office war had changed forever.

sept 5-7, Realizing that only a doomsday weapon of unequaled power would stop the madness, I begain to investigate the "obsolete" rubber band technology. Two days later, Armegeddon's Hammer, was born.