Dogs of War
06 Dec 2022Iridium Nova
My friends, the Dogs of Lore, have come under attack by Thargoid forces in the vicinity of Pathamon. With a maelstrom nearby spitting out swarms of angry Thargoids, nearby populations are on edge and civil disorder is rising. The Dogs, as well as other local factions are working together, for the most part, to help foreign aid forces arriving in the region, though not everyone is in favor of cooperation. Despite the presence of a Thargoid maelstrom on the system's doorstep, the Official Pathamon Party and Pathamon Co are fighting each other. I don't know what it's about, rumor has it there was a difference of opinion about how to handle the Thargoids and apparently the only course of action the two could come to an agreement on was the idea of shooting each other. I'm not surprised, this is humanity after all. I decided to help the winning side just to get the damn conflict over with. If people are going to fight, best they get it over with quick so that the ones who are left can at least focus on the actual enemy.But it's not all bad. There's been a tremendous movement of support and work flowing into the system to both battle the bugs and rescue civilians caught in the crossfire. I am proud to count myself among the rescuers, with my new humanitarian aid fleet consisting of a hospital anaconda and a blockade runner medevac krait phantom. The conda is too slow to outrun the goids, but I've put those specially modified prismatics into good use with it. I intend to use it for large scale evacuation and support in relatively safe areas while the phantom, specially designed to evade Thargoids, will be used to evacuate people from active combat zones. So far the operations have been successful though the phantom, which I've named the Seraphim, nearly got blown to pieces while we were trying to evacuate a destroyed capital ship. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of other AXI pilots in the area, I was myself rescued and towed to safety some distance away from the fighting.
There I applied modifications and repairs, based on what I learned from nearly being eaten, and was able to get the ship functional enough, but was interrupted as the base came under attack by Thargoids. The evacuation order came in, and I loaded as many people as I could on the beat up Seraphim and high tailed it out of there. The last time I flew a hospital ship, it was a joke designed to lure stupid pirates into a trap. This time it's different. The drugs aren't bait and there are actual paramedics on board, accompanying the refugees. I'm not used to working with others, or helping people out in such a direct way. Usually my way of helping someone involves royally screwing over someone else. This is different. But I can't say I hate it. There's something oddly rewarding about being a hero, without anyone but a giant bug to call me a villain.
I don't hate the Thargoids, but anymore I can't empathize with them. I guess they're doing what they feel they have to in order to protect themselves from further human aggression, but they're targeting innocents, and they didn't hesitate to attack me on sight despite the fact that I still have never displayed any aggression toward them that I'm aware of. I've never been a threat to them, but I'm just another human to shoot or eat or whatever they do now. And the devastation they've brought is far beyond anything our own race has ever achieved. So for now, since I don't have anti xeno weapons yet, I'm going to focus on the things I can do. Things like rescuing people, unifying systems against the goids, contributing to anti-xeno research, and whatever else I can think of to give us the best possible chance of victory.
Uh, but maybe I'll take a day off or so... I did get a little too much of that Thargoid gas or whatever it was when it tried to eat me. That stuff really stinks. And here I thought nothing smelled in space.