Spore Burst. Difficulty 9.
I wait for other divers in my hellpod, while chatting with my level 150 comrade about tactics. After a while, we dive in, throwing down an SOS to signal other players.
I call down my GL and jetpack, just as he does with his Speargun and Gas Dog.
The first bugs appear, we counter them, but I'm getting worried, seeing the 43 kill combo.
Eventually, we get another 2 divers, while the bugs organize and launch an attack.
Absolute bloodbath. We are dropping like flies, reinforces are rapidly going down. We are trying to stick together, but even then, we are getting cut down.
Slowly though, we emerge victorious, with at least 10 deaths though...
We stick together, go for the sub objective (geological samples). It's relatively close, but we constantly get harassed by bugs. We use our primary and support weapons for the little ones, and thermite/ultimatum the armor. I didn't have an AT option, so my teammates had the job to kill heavies.
We slowly go through the objectives, but our reinforcements start getting whittled down. At the main objective, only 1 or 2 remain. When we complete it, we run out.
We're going for extraction. No room for mistakes. We start losing our mates slowly. The only option is running away. Even the Super Destroyer leaves, leaving just me and 1 other warrior to survive.
We get to the extract zone, but my teammate dies with 40 seconds left on the clock...
I have a hundred bugs I have to survive, and extraction chances are slim. I start to thin the herd using my GL, and repositioning with my jetpack, but it's only good for a few seconds.
In the last few moments, the bugs start landing strikes on me, which get countered by stims. I get ragdolled for 5+ seconds in one go, and BTs are genuinely killing more than my guns.
Finally, Pelican arrives to this bug infested hellhole. I barely make it out, and we all celebrate.
2000 kills. 20+ deaths. A real struggle, a bloody tug of war.
(Out of storyteller mode)
This was absolutely epic. I never thought that post 60-day HD2 could give me what I want from the game: an intense battle, with us just barely scraping by, and getting out. The enemies were not holding back, but we had the equipment to deal with them, so I think it was a fair fight.
Also, the teamwork aspect. We couldn't split up this time. We needed to work as one unit. Watching each other's backs. Sticking together. Having lightly defined roles. Sharing resupplies.
There was never a moment when the team clearly split up. Sure, we kept our distance sometimes, but we all grouped up whenever possible.
I also felt that we couldn't solve our problems with only primaries and AT secondaries/throwables. Even though Ultimatum and Thermite existed, they are being brought down in power by good tricks from AH: melee pressure and spawn rates. Thermites are only good for heavies, so if some bugs get to you, you only have your primary, secondary and support gun (OR TEAMMATES HELP, ALL HAIL TEAMWORK!) to handle the situation. Ultimatum also gets knocked down a peg, due to the sheer number of heavies on screen, compared with its ammo reserves.
I could write for hours, but I'll end it here.
My loadout was:
Breaker S&P
Grenade Pistol
Gas Grenade
Orbital Gas Strike
Grenade Launcher
Jump Pack
Machine Gun Turret
Default armor
This loadout focuses on explosive spam and repositioning, while CCing with gas stuff. MG Turret is a cleanup tool, or holds back small bug amounts. The weakness is no AT.