As I logged on this evening, my expectations held true: Red Mist was running an outfit platoon, doing some shenanigans with recently released Construction System.
The plan was to go deep behind enemy lines, close to enemy-controlled warpgate, raise up some fortifications, build a HIVE, and then hold off enemy assault for as long as possible.
Your basic coordinated outfit scenario.
Knowing all my squadmates would be busy with ANTs, and – predicting an enemy armored response – I drove up a lockdown AP Prowler to the battlements, while the rest of the Red Mist was busy mining Cortium and raising defenses.
I was able to position my tank behind a Rampart wall and still be able to shoot, and just in time – Vanu Sovereignty was already trying to box us in with Ramparts of their own.
After shooting down two walls, I was left with just 10 AP shells and no more targets. We still hadn’t put up any HIVEs, so I went to explore.
As I was trekking through the desert, accompanied by soft rumbling of my tank’s tracks, one of the Red Mist officers addressed me on TeamSpeak:
” – Charlie ten, Alpha seven is en route to base with good stuff, under attack by enemy Magrider, intercept and provide cover!”
” – I have only 10 shells left, will do what I can”.
Didn’t have to go far – I just followed the smoke trail to alpha seven’s damaged ANT, being tailed by the Magrider. A couple of AP shells across Magrider’s bow was enough to persuade him to turn around and leave.
Hunter’s instinct took over. The cavemen in me smelled weakness, so I buckled up the remaining shells and gave chase. Short curve around northern Indar corals later, and I was flinging round after round into Magrider’s rear armor.
Driving through smoldering remains, I proudly reported successful interception to Red Mist command and returned to base, which in the meantime grew in size, grinning turret barrels in all directions, with three or four shields protecting from airborne threats, and every imaginable module deployed.
Finally the Red Mist command gave the “go” order to deploying a HIVE, and our watch began. There was about thirty of us in that base. My Prowler was without ammo, and since nobody bothered to bring an ammo Sunderer, I left it and continued to play as Engineer.
Slowly the enemy began their attack. At first it was just a few stray Magriders, which later grew into a Sunderer behind far away rocks with MAXes and engi turrets and continuous ESF attacks.
Construction system isn’t fast. It took us about an hour to raise the base, and we defended it for about an hour more.
But there was a short amount of time – just a few minutes during defense. They were nothing short of brilliant. DBG hit my buttons so hard.
I am behind Rampart wall, switching between repairing the wall, an allied MAX and shooting back with Archer and MANA AV turret.
Explosions all around me. Comm traffic on TeamSpeak. Lots of different people working together, relaying intel to each other:
“North wall is under fire, need repairs, now!”
“Delta squad, stand by to redeploy into my Galaxy, we’re gonna drop that Sunderer”
“We need more cortium!”
“Scythe coming in for another pass!”
It was only for a short time. But just for a few minutes it felt like a real war, and it was epic.