In all the detail I'm allowed to give...

[BlueFlames]

Today, I did some things.

*Sigh*

[Stracius]

Wow, bravo! I'll copy pasta this over when the NDA lifts. As it is, anyone without a MWO account won't be able to follow that link.

[Anubis]

Indeed. Look forward to seeing it though

[BlueFlames]

Since the NDA has been lifted, the promised cross-postinating:

I just got done with a battle on River City. From the dropship starting point, myself (in my Founder's Hunchback, sporting a UAC5 and two Medium Pulse Lasers), a Catapult, and an Atlas headed across the bridge, to the edge of town. There, after dealing with a couple of plucky Commandos, we got hung up on a couple of Hunchback 4J's, an Awesome, and an Atlas. The buildings and my AMS helped provide cover from their LRMs, so we were stalemated for a couple of minutes, as they couldn't push up the road to hit our position, and we didn't have the numbers to drive into their line.

I tried to worm my way out onto the right flank to shake up the enemy line. I smacked the Hunchbacks around a bit, but the Awesome made me pay dearly, smashing most of my front armor and blowing out my autocannon. I managed to escape the pounding, and let my AMS cover the Catapult and Atlas for a couple more minutes.

During that couple of minutes, though, one of the Hunchbacks that I had been harrassing broke from the enemy line and pushed up the river to attack our base. I broke from our line, and another friendly Hunchback departed from the other battle being waged, across the map. The other friendly Hunchback arrived first, and did enough damage to the hostile to get him to reconsider his capture attempt. I arrived just in time to see his torso emerge from behind our dropship. His rear armor had been stripped at some point, so a volley from my pulse lasers was all that was necessary to finish him off.

At some point, while we were running back to base, to deal with the attack, the survivors on both teams decided to abandon their current fights to start a mad scramble back to our base. I was not aware of this, as I started down the street ramp, away from our dropship and back into the city. Before I could get all the way down the ramp, that Awesome that had blasted me earlier came round the corner, and all I could do was back straight up and hope that something shiny would grab the pilot's attention. I got lucky that his PPC missed, but he managed to swing his lasers onto my right arm long enough to blow it off, before our team's Atlas showed up and started taking the heat off of me.

I circled back around to the dropship and had a look off of the overhang on which it had landed. It was a grim sight. Our damaged, battle-weary Atlas, and a Catapult K2 trying to square off against another Atlas and the Awesome that had so far been doing a little too well at putting me in my place. From that spot, I spent a little time plinking away at the Awesome, with my one remaining pulse laser, not even doing enough damage to draw his attention away from our Atlas, until he and his partner retreated to the cover of the city again.

As the hostile Atlas lagged behind the Awesome, I hopped down from the ledge and gave chase. In my mind, the best case scenario was that I could grab the attention of one of those mechs long enough to absorb a volley meant for our Atlas or Catapult, as they still had the capability to do some serious damage. The hostile Atlas was very fixated on his target, though, paying no heed to me plinking away at his rear torso, with my sole Medium Pulse Laser. Each time he adjusted his aim, I grew a little more concerned that he'd had enough of my antics, but I just widened my turning circle and opened the throttle a little more, and he carried on attacking his original target. (It was about this point, where one of my teammates, already liberated of his mech, began to cheer me on in the chat. I'd like to thank him for that, because it was awesome.) Much to my surprise and amazement, the Atlas' target outlasted his rear armor and internal structure.

As that hollowed-out husk of a mech fell to the ground, though, I barely had to turn to see that damned Awesome staring right at me, almost from behind the corner of a building. I knew I couldn't take another hit from this guy, and after killing that Atlas, taking one for the team didn't seem quite as appealing anymore (because this story will be most disappointing if I die in the end, won't it?). I leveraged what little speed advantage I had to use the Awesome's cover against him, and our Catapult, still alive and kicking, drew the Awesome's attention away from trying to track me behind the building.

When I finally got round to the other side of the building, much to my dread, I saw the Awesome had been backing up to meet me, even as he was firing on the Catapult. [Insert choice explicative here.] There was only one thing to do. I planted my crosshair right on the Awesome's center torso and pulled the trigger on my pulse laser...

...

...and the Awesome flopped to the ground, dead, as the end of match scoreboard popped up. Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good!