Gnosis attacked
07 Sep 2018Thunktone
3304 September 07
We were warned that it wasn't safe, that they didn't want us to go. But we persisted with the plan to jump into the Cone Sector. We didn't make it.
The story I keep hearing is that the thargoids dragged the megaship out of hyperspace and attacked, but that's heatsinks. I'm convinced that we were sabotaged by Aegis, with the cooperation of the Pilot's Federation. Why would the thargoids have kept us out of the permit lock?
They found us pretty fast though. It's as if we were offered up to them as some sort of sacrifice.
The Gnosis was surprisingly unprepared for fighting off an attack. We were all expecting to fight thargoids weren't we? I had prepared my DBX by engineering the hull and shields and requesting delivery of a pair of flak launchers and a large plasma charger. But the Gnosis still had it's no-fire zone switched on, punishing us for helping.
I headed out into supercruise to scout the system and found a lot of high-threat non-human signal sources. False alarms mostly, I found one of those sensor probes and a few scouts. One of the newly discovered "Hydra" interceptors too, though it didn't attack me as I closed in and scanned it.
Returning to the Gnosis I found that twenty or so CMDRs had scrambled to fend off a thargoid attack. One of the interceptors seemed confused, so I closed in to gather some more data.
Then I docked to swap some of my scientific instruments for weapons and bulkheads. I was shutdown as I tried to launch.
When I got moving again I was able to contribute something to the fight. It was just wave after wave of scouts now, so my flak launchers weren't much use. The plasma launcher was better, but it took some time to get my eye in. It's not a weapon I have used that much and the underslung hardpoint on the Diamondback is always a little strange to aim with. But before too long I was helping to knock out the marauders. With the low repair bills of a largely D-rated Diamondback I was even making a small profit.
But after taking a break, things went wrong. I got mobbed by a whole pack of marauders as soon as I launched. I just had time to launch one plasma blast before they destroyed me. I was satisfied to see it strike true and destroy its target, which must have already been damaged.
But I must have caught someone, or something in the blast. Or maybe some jobsworth gave me a fine for "loitering". I came to in familiar surroundings: the Quarry, California Sector.
I could beg them to send me back to the fight, they probably would after checking my record for the day. But instead I have returned to the Pleiades. I'll spend a day or so fighting the 'goids here while I wait for some modules to be returned from the Gnosis. Then I'll head back to the Core. The Gnosis isn't in the permit lock after all, so I can always go back later.