While on an extended contract with the Raven Alliance during the Early Republic era, we hired a young pilot, Angel Verdun, to join our cause. Unfortunately for this pilot, she was assigned to our Shadow Cat J. Angel performed excellently during our campaign's practice missions. However, on our first battle with an enemy we were quickly made aware of the Shadow Cat J's flaws; as soon as one of the 7 Gauss rifle variants onboard would be hit, it would start a volatile chain reaction with the mech's internal components. Paired with the ammo packed into this mech and the fragility of its chassis, this warmachine would quickly turn into a smoking rubble if it was met with a challenge. Our opponents at Rawhide's Roughnecks nicknamed it "Popcorn" due to the fireworks displayed by the mech's self-destruction.
Angel would come out of her first battle in a state of near-death as her neurohelmet had fried most of her brain. Miraculously, and using the Raven's medical technology, she managed to survive and heal-up for the next battle. During the course of this 7 mission campaign however we were limited to using the same star of mechs we had selected initially, and Angel could only use the Shadow Cat.
Angel finished her tour having died 4 times due to neural feedback, and every single time she was put back together having lost a part of herself. Our peppy little pilot slowly turned into more of a machine than man.
I keep recalling the ancient thought experiment known as the "Ship of Theseus"; If a ship's original components are replaced with identical parts, is it even the same ship? At what point does it become a different ship? What about the human brain?
Most average Shadow Cat J performance. The ammo might not be explosive but everything else is!
It didn't really occur to me that the AP gauss rifles would explode like the HAG or the ammo. In all my practice rounds I didn't get crit there. In the first tournament match however.... fun surprise
Couldn't actually hold any control points throughout the whole tournament without turning into a fire cracker
