Let's move away from the drama and focus on the good stuff.
Today I got the wild idea to figure out how to rank up the Strength, Stealth and Flight stats, since those have been quite low (since I never melee and I stopped flying a while back) and most other players my level have them maxed.
The crew and I did a number of missions, eventually we got our favourite,
A Titan of a Job. Me and Jun went off to go rank stats, while Clownfish, Maxwell and Steve went off to do forget knows what. After somebody killed somebody else and removed our one spare spare life, eventually I see the notification; Jun and Maxwell had run into each other and both died. Steve called it and said he'd go finish the mission (because it's no fun spectating while others are grinding), and I told him I'd work my way over there slowly so I could bust a couple more people up for the Strength stat.
By the time I arrived at the Hanger, it had all gone to stuff. Steve was dead, his jet was "gone", the
Titan was on fire, the truck's trailer had disappeared and there was still two dozen pissed off army dudes waiting for me. As I started to snipe them from behind my RE-7B (while chugging down snacks thanks to the game freezing whenever I was exposed), Clownfish flew in on his bike and got annihilated.
After duking it out and killing all the cunts (and Steve's internet connection forced him to drop), despite the commands of my fallen comrades to blow the ship up and force a mission restart, I soldiered on, got inside the Titan and did my best to take off. Two of the engines (3&4, both on the right) were completely dead, and the 1&2/Left engines were heavily damaged and prone to cutting out. Taking off was a nightmare, and keeping the bird in the air wasn't any easier.
Due to the uneven power distribution (and since GTA doesn't have realistic flight controls like I have in FSX), the AC-130 forgetship wanted to barrel-roll like a mother forgeter. In order to keep it level, I had to constantly apply rudder and counter roll, trying to keep it straight. I also retracted the flaps to reduce drag and did my best to pitch down to increase thrust.
I'll be honest, the landing was the tightest thing I've ever done, and I so wish I got a screenshot of
The Moment™. I came in on a 45 degree angle to the runway, still pitched nose-down and half-way down runway length-wise while at full speed. With a quick Scandinavian Flick and some mad holding on the breaks, I brought that sucker down and claimed my $25,270 prize.
That was my greatest moment in all of my GTA Online experience.
Poll