I just had the most amazing running battle with a tank drone in a forest. It felt like a Metal Gear Solid 3 fight almost. This single encounter was the best and most memorable moment in four years of playing Cataclysm.
It ended perfectly, too - the tank was nearly dead, after having shot me only twice to rack up 91 pain and low yellow health on my arm and torso, and after some scrambling, nanobot repair and cloaked sprinting, I decloaked at the top of a clearing with it at the bottom. Decloaked perhaps a turn or two too soon, but the cinematic badassness quality of appearing for the last shot made it worth it.
It took its .223 volley first, after I’d input a command for a shot. Not a single one appeared to connect with me. Then I took my shot and disabled it with a 9 damage kill. Had I pressed the aim button one less time, it wouldn’t have had the chance to shoot back, which in a coin-flip alternate reality probably just saved my life, but as is, I’d say this fight went as well as I could have possibly imagined. And now to haul away a bunch of toys to my LMOE.
All told, the fight took 37 .308 rounds in a fully tricked-out M14, at 6 Marksmanship and 7 Rifles, with (for most of the fight, the searing pain of bullet wounds reduces it in the screenshot) effective Perception of 14, Dexterity of 13, and a Targeting System CBM, while making liberal use of a Cloaking System CBM and Adrenaline Pump CBM. I cannot imagine doing this again without all of that, or a mininuke, as this confrontation nearly killed me as is.
Final inventory:
