Aw, poor fella - he's fallen out of his Banshee. Cyborg to the rescue! Well, sort of…

(6:46) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. Continuing with the oddly stuck Banshee last seen in BCM184, this movie introduces the tricky task of cushioning the falling pilot to get him down to the ledge or the ground. Most of this footage is freshly obtained, but three clips are from when I was working on that earlier movie, which is when I realized the potential of getting him down.

Released October 23rd 2016, gameplay recorded May 29th and October 16th-17th 2016.

00:02 (Mid-air blast) By way of a reminder, here's the sort of thing I was doing in BCM184; getting the pilot ejected then blasting him as he falls. This is a rather nice example too I have to say. Look at that lovely fuel rod blast. BLAM! C'mon, don't tell me it didn't make you chuckle.

00:17 (Killed by ground impact) Now to business, trying to cushion him so he stays alive. In this first example the cushion is fine, but the ledge bounce hurts him quite a bit and the ground impact is enough to finish him.

00:32 (Killed by ground impact) Another failure, much the same as the last, though he hits the ledge in a different area and lands nearer the Marines.

00:45 (Killed by clumsy cushion) This time things fail rather earlier. I cruise in to try and cushion him but I'm slightly late and he gets splattered instead. Whoops!

00:53 (Killed by falling) After letting the Banshee fall to try and sync with the pilot, he hits the nose, which looks like quite a shock. Unfortunately he also bounces away from Banshee and I can't accelerate fast enough to reach him for a second cushion. He's a gonner for sure. This was from May 29th, when working on BCM184.

01:05 (Ledge landing - splattered) This time he's cushioned by a Banshee wing, and he lands on the ledge. I quite quickly fly to the right to try and make him dive left, but he doesn't react. I return for another go, but again he doesn't react, and in fact gets splattered. Darn.

01:40 (Far landing) The pilot skims off the top of the Banshee, bounces off the ledge, and gets further cushioned by the slope of the Shade plateau, enabling him to reach the ground alive. Nice! I dismount for a bit of fooling around, but my early plasma grenade misses. He moves around quite a lot, and I dodge two swipes. He makes contact with a third though, and I throw a few frags. Also a clumsy plasma which I maybe thought was going to be a frag (I forget). But they're no good, and eventually I get him with a plasma ball instead.

02:39 (Ledge landing - blasted from behind) Another ledge landing. Still crouched and yet to recover, he looks around as if unaware that I'm right behind him, and I can't resist using the fuel rod cannon. This was from May 29th, when working on BCM184.

02:53 (Marine skirmish 1) After a cushion which doesn't seem to hurt him at all, he bounces off the ledge and survives to the snow, not far from the Marines, woo-hoo! I let them have some fun and he doesn't last long. Didn't have time to recharge his shield.

03:31 (Ledge landing - swooping blast) After he lands on the ledge, I swoop around for a satisfying fuel rod blast, and then swoop some more for a view of his falling body.

03:50 (Far landing - distance record) This pilot ejection is different from all the others in the movie, in that he's not blasted out. I manage to get my Banshee in the right place to let him slide off the back, sending him towards a bounce off the ledge. He lands beyond the Shade plateau, survives, and skims across the ice patch. I think that's the furthest I've seen him go, though I did have a similar case one other time.

04:09 (Ledge landing - cyborg dismount) The pilot lands on the ledge and my Banshee sinks low, then I soar up for a spectacular dismount to join him. I'm almost splattered by the Banshee's left wing, which would've been embarrassing, but I get away with it and subsequently tag him.

04:38 (Marine skirmish 2) This clip is unusual in regard to the cushioning. I make not one but four touches, which gets him to the ledge with no damage at all I think. He dives off because of my Banshee, then gets some final cushioning from a rock - which may've made the difference in keeping him alive. I let the Marines finish him, and again it doesn't take long.

05:20 (Killed by mid-air splattering) After the pilot bounces unharmed off the nose of my Banshee, I let it sink to keep pace with him, but unfortunately he ends up right below and gets amusingly splattered.

05:33 (Ledge landing - blasted from below) This time he bounces off the nose and lands on the ledge. My Banshee ends up a little below the level of the ledge, and I blast him, sending him overhead. This was from May 29th, when working on BCM184.

05:50 (Marine skirmish 3) To save about 20 seconds I've cut the actual ledge landing for this play; you've seen lots by now and there wasn't anything special about it. Instead I focus right away on trying to make him dive left towards the Marines. I get two good dives but then he goes the wrong way. He seems strangely unpredictable like that, which is something to do with the ledge I think. However, then he does make a dive in the right direction, and ends up on the ground for a final brief skirmish with the Marines. I'm right behind as he bites the dust, and as usual, a Marine gives him some afters.

Closing remarks There are various ways of getting the pilot ejected, but for this movie I elected to just approach from one particular direction - the easiest to work with. It's quite possible that I'll do another movie later, featuring other approaches. But also there's a different type of cushioning I've yet to show. It's possible (though very difficult) to get under the pilot and balance him on top, at least for a while - I've managed several seconds. It's doubtful whether he could be gradually lowered to the ground like that, because he tends to move around. But at any rate, it's novel to have an Elite on top of your Banshee. I'll probably explore that further sometime, and also the idea of getting him down to the ground with a cushioning sequence - e.g. a bit like the clip in this movie where I made four touches.

The clips haven't been placed in chronological order at all; the movie doesn't give a historic progression. I was more concerned with keeping the sequence varied and suchlike, after the early clips showing failures.

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