I have just taken part in the strangest KotM I have yet experienced.
Please bear with me, as this is very unfamiliar.
Like most, I have pride in my clan. I'm one of the Heroes. What I'm not is a member of a clan who rates as 'Bad News' on most peoples scale. Not AFF, not MMI and definately not Zeon. We do our best.
I don't generally do KotMs. When I do, it's because the timing falls right for this part of the world and I feel I have a fair shot of making it competitive. As a 70 ton specialist, it would have been highly embarrassing to miss this one, but my C.O. pointed it out. You kind of feel obliged under those circumstances to have a go and uphold the honour of your clan.
So I jumped in and made a single attack to get me into a silver medal slot. For the better part of 4 hours, I watch as more and more jump in. Division 3 is turning into the kind of gutter fight that you wont see above the levels where all you can get are mechs at 70 tons or below. Old allies and older foes arrive, the sort of names and clans that would give anyone pause for thought.
And for the better part of 4 hours I watch as pilots jockey for position, fighting occurring above and below... until the realisation falls that I have held my position for longer than anyone else. That there is 'Bad News' on the mountain today, and as far as everyone else is concerned, I'm it.
It is a very surreal feeling.
The rest is fact. At the start of the final hour I made my run and took the gold position. I'm not saying I was unbeaten, but for the next half hour I would not have spent more than a minute in total anywhere other than the top of that mountain.
I don't think I could have been more dominant if I was dressed in high heels, a corset and holding a whip, and that is a very scary thought indeed.
And talking of high heels, whips and corsets, I can only put that performance down to one person and one machine.
Thank you Tory. Thank you for your begrudged gifts of Infernos bestowed upon me over many a hot date.
Because that is the reason I have another gold on my wall.
Don't get me wrong, I will never give up my command Smilodon in favour of one. The Spitfire is a better all round mech.
But at 70 tons, the Inferno is still Boudicca, the flame haired Queen of Battle.
Had I actually paid for one I would have laid out 145 Niodes, 3000 Bioptics and 5000 Ferrite. Like most of course my currency was sparkling wit and repartee coupled with bloody minded persistence until a certain lady gave me something other than a liquid torch to go the hell away.
Damage wise it has a respectable 42% Fire increase on its base build plus the chance of overcharging for double or triple charged shots. Not as much as the 55 ton Cindron, but that is a curious beast.. all out attack and little capability for defence. And of course the Cindron has had the advantage of a 2nd generation upgrade package that the Inferno hasn't.
In fact, therein lies the rub. Ice and fire, Freon and Inferno are both due the same enhancements and fine tuning that lower tonnage mechs have already had and that the Spitfire has incorporated into its base build.
But even without it, the Inferno is a lady that earns respect. There are members of clans more infamous than mine and of a significantly higher level than myself who will testify to that. I may ride a Smilodon in that formation and the mountain may have been the first time I used a Spitfire in anger, but the respect and reputation of my formation was built on the back of my flame haired Boudicca.
Her necklace is gold, for it was she who won this victory.
And one of these days, hopefully in the not too distant future, she will be more violently beautiful still.
Submitted by David McCallum #701548