@unit-one it sucks when people quite on you or get disconnected.
I had a mixed bag of sorties tonight I'll tell you! First sortie I stumbled in to a SOLG II, 4 player lobby. I activated a Merc contract and we S ranked, think I got something like $380k, stocked fuel x3, one research panel open. Cool. Next 3 sorties were regular missions and I lost the battle every time!
With the Merc contract on I still got $20k every time though. Then just when I finished the last sortie a SOLG III popped up!
The host wisely increased the players to 6, all guys in the 1900-2000's MR. I got MVP, stocked fuel x3, still the one research panel open, $635k.
After tonight I bought level 4 for the 4AAM and can already afford level 10 on the Falken, it just has to finish researching which may be a while (currently 49%).
A special raid, 3 losses in a row with a Merc contract on, then a really good special raid. High-low-high alright, but definitely a major positive. I think I've had SOLG III twice in the last week, SOLG I has been popping up excessively but I never do it, they're not worth it. Special Raids seem to have a high probability of late.
Oh, and I did finish in the top 5000 of the tournament. Still waiting for my "closest to anything Australian I'll get" Southern Cross emblem.