I had six surprise kills in one game today. It was crazy, absolutely crazy. I had one kill already - so seven kills total for the game.
It begins as I am underneath the double-decker area on Crimson with two King Crabs. Our team was dead, and every time we went up the ramp we took a ton of fire. Now, if anybody should have led a charge and pushed up the ramp, it should likely have been the Crabs. But, it's a pug match, and so... well, you know. People get intimidated by a large quantity of enemy fire, even if the situation isn't that bad (2 fresh-ish AC/20 Crabs with large lasers against a few heavies and a medium or two is at least worth attempting in my view).
I was rolling in my 8 MPL GHR-4N, a build I have found to be hit or miss. I had also just gotten my speed tweak the day before, and doubled basic efficiencies a few matches back, which became important for speed and cooling after alphas. Anyway, this was an assault match, so I hear 'base is under attack', and think 'eff this, if I'm gonna lose, I'm gonna go out in battle, not by base capture'.
So I run up the ramp at 84 kph, and turn slightly. I then jump, spinning about 160 degrees in mid air. Mad dog is up there, so I shoot him in the CT with a steady hand - and he's down! I continue backing up the ramp, and headshot a Hellbringer in his giant, juicy-target cockpit. Next comes a Hunchback 4J, but he's already totally beat up, whereas the HBR was fresh-ish.
The HBK-4J has no arms and only the hunch and head laser. Bam, no hunch, and I switch to chainfire because heat. A few well-aimed shots into the CT follow, and he's down. Betty gets my attention: our base is now being captured. Hearing that, I know I need to run back to base, but I also know one more mech remains on the top-level of the platform. I have a moment to breathe and cool down as I await his attack, and I wonder if this is really happening!
Now this Nova I had been trading with all game comes in and jumps in this beautiful arc, right over the ramp. By now I have backed up to a bit higher than the double-decker level. He was also beat up from my having been trading with him earlier in the game. He shoots six CERML, but I jump and it hits my legs only briefly, and then at the apex of my own jump, I cut my jets, and as I am suspended in the air I go WUB-WUB-WUB! - an alpha takes him out.
I'm now pretty well stupefied and shocked at my own performance, but I turn and cross the saddle. As I run to our base I hear 'base seventy-five percent captured', and type to my teammates that I won't be able to get there in time.
But the meter is going down very slowly, as there were only two mechs there. I have speed tweak, so I will seemingly arrive in time to do... something. I don't know what. I do know I have to get as close as possible before they see me, because MPL range, and as I come out of the buildings near our base I see... Ah man, Hell's bells, a reasonably fresh Dire Whale! So, so not good!
When I arrive he is partially behind a girder that is outside the base, and I figure I need to neuter him first if I want any hope to be useful here. I get off an alpha before he really notices me, and rip off his whole left arm - the one that had a clear shot to hit me. The girder is now between us and it absorbs his return fire, so I pop out the other side and unload my left side weapon group of MPLs, and then the other side of my MPLs right into his CT.
My heart is pounding like a jackhammer and my stomach feels like it's in my throat. My teammates in the two Crabs finally started on their way over to our base, but they'll never get there in time. I know it is up to me - and that all my dead teammates are watching through my eyes. I will not let them down, or will die trying!
That Dire Wolf gets some shots off, so I jump, and twist, and try to tank with my legs... but Betty tells me I have a critical left torso, and I have an XL330 onboard. I hit X, stop, aim - aim more carefully and with more conviction than I ever have before... and I alpha his CT with every MPL I possess. Unbelievably, he gloriously explodes, revealing a Mist Lynx behind him.
I had already traded with the Mist Lynx before my team got mostly killed, and he jumps up, up, up, and out of my torso pitch range. But my arms can aim higher and have their own weapon groups, and I snap off my final blast of the game, and one-shot him in mid air! I simultaneously overheat and shut down, and then the victory music begins!
My jaw drops open wide. I am trembling violently; I feel for the first time ever that I am a god in the cockpit of my mech.
Now, credit where credit is due: if I hadn't been reasonably fresh when this began due to the good team play of my various fellow pilots, and if they had not already done a lot of damage to the Mad Dog, Hunchback, and likely to the Nova, I would have been a dead, squashed Grasshopper. And if the enemies had taken me seriously and ganged up instead of coming one at a time, I would have been toast.
But I got six kills in the last two minutes, saved our base from capture, and killed off the remaining enemies singlehandedly. Now THAT is an unexpected kill, let me tell you. My hands were shaking so hard afterwords that I had to go outside and have a cigarette to calm down.
Seven kills, singlehandedly defended our base, won the game - the final damage score was approximately 925. Naturally, the universe dictated that in the following match I played about ten minutes later - I needed to calm down and let my hands stop shaking so I would have a steady aim - I ended up dead so fast and only did 97 damage. It was on Forest Colony, and within 30 seconds of enemy contact I got blindsided and focus-fired by mechs outside my MPL range. The universe wanted to ensure that my head didn't get all swollen up from the win - because I'm NOT actually a god in the cockpit to speak truth. I'm just an ordinary player who performed in an extraordinary fashion one time when it really mattered - no more than that.
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