I think there was a second shooter, possibly on a grassy knoll. Let's go over what can be seen and heard in the video.
First volley launched at approximately 9:00 (by incoming missile marker over target). Volley detonation begins at 9:08 (LRM max flight time based on speed and range), short of the target. Three pulses of missiles can be heard detonating from 9:08 to 9:12, but are not seen, so missiles must have been fired from considerably over 1000m to target.
Impact #1 at 9:17 - A two-pulse volley of LRMs impacts the target; both pulses impact for damage. No third pulse is heard detonating.
Match ends at 9:21 - No further LRM volleys can be fired at this point.
Impact #2 at 9:24 - Another two-pulse volley, likely from the same source as impact #1, impacts target and again causes damage. Last part of volley impacts at 9:25. Again there is no third pulse detonation.
Volley arrival at 9:30 - Accounts for the beginning of last second LRM fire, as LRMs take roughly 8.33 seconds to travel 1000m at 120 meters-per-second. The match ended at 9:21, so this is a volley that was fired at the last moment. The second and third part of the volley were not fired separately because they detonated closer to 10 seconds after the end of the match, well over the 8.33 second max flight time. The second and third pulse were also consistently spaced in a manner consistent with hardpoints firing an LRM rack larger than the number of tubes available to the hardpoint.
You'll notice that the first pulse of the missiles detonated a noticeable distance from the target. The second pulse detonated closer to the target; it did no damage and therefore did not impact. But it is an indicator that the firing mech was moving towards the target during the last second launching. The third pulse did cause damage, indicating that the mech crossed over the 1000m threshold while firing the full volley of LRMs. The damage caused by the third pulse also proves that the match being over is not responsible for the paper doll not updating (the theory that the second pulse did hit).
My conclusion:
One mech was responsible for the first two volleys that impacted the target, firing at a much closer range than the mech launching the third volley (not enough time to launch a third volley, as the LRM flight time was less than the LRM reload time).
A second mech fired a last second volley of LRMs as it crossed into 1000m of the target (the last volley seen on target). The first two pulses of the volley detonated just outside of the target range, but each pulse detonated closer to the target. The third pulse was fired within the 1000m range of the target, nearly a second after the match concluded, as the mech was dropping to to zero kph due to end of match. It did impact the target and cause damage. The second mech may also be responsible for the detonations that were heard but not seen at 9:08. The detonations follow roughly the same timing pattern as the last volley to impact the target. It's not strong enough to support the claim, so I'll leave it at a happy possibility. There is no "smoking LRM" here, but I think the totality of circumstances supports my conclusion quite well.
I'm looking for witnesses that may have seen a second shooter, but most folks around here don't seem to trust people in uniform... or are just afraid of reprisals.
Edited by Divine Retribution, 05 June 2013 - 05:39 AM.
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Oblivion5000, on 04 June 2013 - 08:10 PM, said:
