Log Entry #2, First Encounter
07 Jan 2023Void Hawk
I walked into her office, crossing the floor and sitting opposite her at her desk. She didn't look up at me."Welcome back Void Hawk, I assume your mission was a success?" She asks, seemingly uninterested in the assignment she had previously given me.
"It was." "I replied curtly. It wasn't an interesting mission, some guy working for someone or other needed to be assassinated. Normal stuff.
"Good, I have moved the credits into your account. I have your next assignment here.", she looked up at me, her face cold, looking at me in the way a wolf looks at a sheep. She handed me a tablet with the infomation on, "It's a bit different to the kind of missions you're used to. I am sure, as you know, the thargoids are pressuring the outer regions of the bubble."
'Pressuring' was an understatement for the conflict, though I just noded.
"Your next assignment is to help on the front lines, there's no specific target, just kill thargoids. You'll be paid hansomely if you succeed. You'll find your new ship in the hanger."
"Understood." I reply.
As I walked down to the hanger, some engineer or ground crew or who ever it was walked up to me.
"Ah, uhm, Void Hawk?"
I nod.
"Your ship awaits you." He says, as he leads me throguh the hanger, "Unlike ships you're used to, it has weapons specifically designed to be able to kill thargoids."
"I would hope so." I said, rolling my eyes.
"The ship has weak sheilds, you won't be used to that, but the hull is very tough. It's designed to fend of caustic impacts and damage. The sheilds will offer a bit of protection from the smaller scouts, but against the larger interceptors it won't hold long."
He continues to explain with annoyingly specifc details as we walked. We finally reached the ship. It was a grey and black Krait with orange trim.
I enter the cockpit, go through all the pre-flight checks and take off.
The invaded systems weren't far, and it didn't take me long to get there. When I did, there was a large fight over a planetary base, so I made haste to get there as quick as possible. The base was on fire, with what could only be descriped as green gloop spread over it, this dark cloud above. This was the first time I had seen a place under thargoid attacks. There was a mix of human ships and alien vessals, small round things, apparently they're called scouts. I began my attack run, deploying my weapons and opening fire. They went down one after another with little effort. After 10, maybe 20 minutes of scout squashing, the Interceptors finally arrived.
They were big, well, I knew that, but this was the first time I had seen one up close. Their structure reminded me of the flowers my parents had when I was little, their hearts in positions around the core, like petals of a lower surround the receptacle. The exterior was a greenish brown with the visual texture of wood. They had this slight green glow to them. As it flew around seeking targets, these orange trails followed. I engaged one.
I kept the nose of the ship trained on it, to help keep the gimble tracking. Eventually one of the petals turned orange, the heart was exposed. I couldn't target it with my gimbles annoyingly enough, and this scanner has barely enough range to see past the nose of the ship. Eventually I destroyed the heart, then it turned on me, glowing yellow. A beam of yellow followed. My ship felt so sluggish, the sheilds went down, I've been taking caustic damage, so the hull should hold. I kept the guns firing. Another heart exposed, one after another. This thargoid had four hearts, then it exploded.
Eventually I was able to remove them from this area, but the ship is badly damaged and ammo is low. I jumped to a neighbouring system for my rewards. I landed at a station that has previously been ravished by the thargoids and is in a state of recovery. I tlooked very much the same, on fire with the green gloop and the dark cloud. The lack of traffic aided with the tranquility of the base. I doubt anyone will be coming home soon.
It was frightening, not having come across one of the bugs in person befor. But I am not convinced humanity will fully unite to face the threat.