- 2 - One man's tale of the Second Thargoid War (3303-Present)
04 Sep 2022Grimscrub
(Forewarning - This is excessively long, biased, and kinda covers everything i could think of, including possible spoilers. So, it's about as rambling as my own logbook would be.)So, regular logs didn't work out.
Sometimes things go that way. The Order is doing well enough at the moment. Diplomacy won through, old talks hold, and stability reigns, for now.
Someone threw this old thing at me when I came by to refuel the carrier so, why not write a little between the trips.
In hindsight, last log I didn't really go into detail about Why I went off, joined the Xeno Defence work, why I was out there.
I'd been curious about the aliens, from the earliest reports I laid eyes on. Intelligent life out there?
Aegis, back in those days were the major answer to that from the big three. Alliance, Feds, and Imps working together, Federal admiral liaising with Imperial scientist, was hard to believe it at first. Initially the goal was research, but once they learned their convoys... carrying Alien artefacts at the time, had been hit, the powers leaned towards violence.
Then the weapons came, missiles, multicannons, and folk could use those well enough.
Of course, few people really expected the True consequences of that.
I had flown out to the Pleiades once before, the slow bus to grab a single ton of meta alloys... but this time I went on a mission of mercy.
The damage on the outside, floating debris and lost escape pods within, the heat, the explosions... it's amazing people could be saved at all in those conditions, in a way. a bucket of credits and a little work for the Feds had let me pull in an ex-service dropship.They had to strip the actual 'Dropship' equipment of course, the sensors were on the way out and the power plant had seen better days, but she was sturdy enough, ran somewhat cold, and could get in and out alive. So, that was my role for the Fall of the Oracle back in 3303... Federal Hospital Ship Compassion, getting any and everyone out we could.
While we were out there, Squadron leader and I took a look at some of the lost convoys... sadly there was little left to save, be it my mirror image,
Or the pride of the fleet.
A black box here, an escape pod or two there, but only handfuls, out of so very many.
Regardless of any loyalties, people were people, and I aimed to save who I could. It was while looking at some of the Imperial losses that I made my first proper contact... 
Yet they did not fire, merely scanned, and went on their way. Which perplexed me greatly. With Andronicus part 5 or whatever Aegis was up to now in swing, surely we were directly at war? Yet it showed little understanding of this notion.For a time after that, duty took me elsewhere, but the next week was a Federal project, Core Dynamics seeking to replace the ships lost during the conflict.
Ten thousand commanders in all took part, from the feed.
One thing I noticed, whilst running defence, was a seemingly familiar sight awaiting in the repair docks directly outside...
It was then that hope surfaced. We could repair, rebuild, we could withstand this, whether we had wrought it or no.For a while after that, I returned to petty human efforts - The freshly minted Gunship, a trip to Sol showing Starship One bearing another, ever so familiar marking...
I hadn't been back out to the Pleiades so knew no better, and it was a good few weeks before someone had the heart to tell me that the Farraguts all share the same ship ID, to deny enemies the satisfaction of tracking their numbers.For a while it was an inspiring thought, that the ship that fell against the Thargoids was resurrected as the flagship of the federation, a phoenix rising, symbolic... but, such is the way of things, and they were hardly going to give an Ensign detailed ship records for the president's personal transport to prove or deny that.
Betwixt all that, work continued with the squadron to find a more solid home, outside the powers... though we detoured to take part in the next Xeno Defence effort - the joint federal/imperial mission in 17692, with very limited success.
Even then, after shots fired in anger, they did not attack without reason... even if they had you at their complete mercy. It was a most peculiar experience.Which led to further curiosity, and a particularly bold visit...
Though back then I scarcely even knew Canonn and the like existed, and had nil knowledge of How to enter a Thargoid site.
So I left very little the wiser, but rather unsettled all the same.
It wasn't long later that Ram Tah's fanciful discoveries were published, leading me to explore other ancient sites,
Though at least these ones had far less risk of visitors.Later in the year, more elaborate and concerning artefacts of their civilisation were found.
With the resources and knowledge gathered, apparently a Fighter was now on the cards...For a while there I wasn't convinced about using the ancient and alien to combat the more ancient alien, who is still around no less... but I did learn of a brave, possibly stupid, maybe even One-Way, trip out towards Cone, by the Canonneers.
Long story short I missed their departure, but was able to catch up and join the effort - including a membership minted in the final days before the jump. When we arrived... well.
Things were not quite as anticipated.Engines down, Scouts ravaging the decks, Gnosis Control intercepting any missiles they could... The early hours Interceptors proper were rampaging, and had to be lured or pushed back depending who you asked.
With the largest threats being handled by better trained and equipped pilots, rear guard and crowd control largely fell to folk like me, with the year-old aegis guns and only half-prepped warships. I was thrown a data tracker and sent off, fighter pilot in tow.
A lot of good pilots had gone out there, to explore, to stake their claim in locked space, even just to see what was going on...A good chunk of those did not have weapons or armour, and if we couldn't clear the area, a loud, bullet-spraying Distraction at least gave those wanting to evac a Chance. By final count, I think we kept the pads clear, as much as we could.
But this largely credited the fighting directly around Gnosis proper - Quantity as the primary metric, where there were bigger things being held at bay...Which I'd get to see myself soon enough.
Between waves, the opportunity for Research presented itself, and a Non-combat examination of this newer, Green giant was desired - that went well enough, but then a Tissue Sample became necessary. The first sample pulled was by an Anaconda...
Though it turned out they didn't quite have the speed Or durability to exit.So, after pulling an old Viper out of storage, I got the fun job.
In the end, with the cold sampling guide it all went well, but in the moment, knowing a Single shot from that thing could take the entire ship out, it was quite the experience. The trip back to Varati with it saw as much Human interference as alien, but it got there in the end. Soon as it was delivered I went right on back. After a week or two, the engineering team was able to fix things up, and Gnosis was able to jump once more.
From there, things blur a bit... away from aliens, I stayed with gnosis for a spell, Operation Cabin Fever included
It was quite a trip. But eventually things had to return.Aside from that, some strange things began to occur.
I still do not know whether everything was real.I remember a rescue run coordinated with the Hutton truckers, the 'HOT Vacation'
...I remember achieving one of the fastest turnaround times, and the overall mission rescuing more people than were legally recognized as citizens of the system, by the end of things there.I remember my own journey for Ram Tah's peculiar toys, in newer vessels, and under new masters.
I remember Carson's Spring, and the mission to evacuate our old friend and Thargoid expert,
from both alien persecution and his fellow man in the end.I remember Witch Head, the enclave, tens of thousands of tons hauled in the name of the Alliance in my case...
And the fireballs that ensued on their arrival.I remember guarding Palin Research Centre after noting some ships under his auspices were still extracting resources between scout assaults
and the short respites allowing an old automated decontamination routine to auto-scrub caustic off the hull.I remember...
Things that I'm not sure I should.It was a busy year. The year I volunteered to work with Aegis, to monitor eagle eye...
The same year it started fixating on Sterope II.3306 Is something of a blur... For three weeks the eagle eye network resumed function, enough to warn us of Secondary attacks in the Witch Head enclave, though it did not predict the initial attack.
Over the course of the year I helped confirm some minor details about these aliens. confirming that it was specifically picking up Thargoid items, not the sensor scan, that gained their interest. Whether there was some EM tagging afoot or just a traceable residue that became embedded in the vehicle, some later reports indicated that even picking up items in their SRV and immediately jettisoning them was enough.
Sadly the available interns(
Outside that, my efforts mostly focused on balancing duties for Canonn, the Initiative, Aegis, and the home faction... along with training myself for combat in turn. There were fewer incursions that year, but that did not mean the aliens had left by any stretch.
It was that year that the Federation and Imperial heads decided to pull funding from Aegis... I suppose there's something about 'put yourself out of a job' with the relative calm compared to 3304's, never-ending war.
Then October rolled around... Adamastor, 23B, A new point of Thargoid contact in 3111, and a whole adventure with a company called Azimuth Biochemicals... Of course, I'd hauled and fought for the Alliance at Witch Head, was happy to do the same at Coalsack, staging from their megaship...
In whatever ship was available. It seemed smart at the time - Halloran presumably saw what happened to Witch Head, pre-emptive strikes rather than letting everything burn made good sense in that moment, and it worked, for a time.Though just prior to the new year, in part perhaps thanks to Sirius' grand plans to terraform ammonia worlds, we were back out there again, and the stations were ablaze, systems embattled...
Just as many others before them.----------
3307
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... Of course, it took a solid few weeks to repel the Coalsack assault.
Was able to fight alongside some notable names out there,
and the practice in-between made the battle more sustainable than I might've feared.With one front down, the Witch Head called once again, and we were able to relieve the ADF a little out there in turn...
That said, you could Feel the difference that Aegis' funding dip had made. the conflicts were longer, the aliens weren't stronger but there was less behind you to Hold any ground taken... to some that was a good thing, more to shoot, but, it showed a decline in my eyes.Over the year, there was a partial lull following those incursions, Sirius trying to pull of diplomatic wizardry to resurrect peace, cooperation, and support for Aegis... though Nine Martyrs made everyone forget about that last part a little, Aegis still made a commitment to achieve these new demands the bubbleheads threw at them.
And so, an Aegis Research megaship charted a course for Delphi, tech broker aboard - a facility unheard of in the Pleiades at that point - and requested every guardian urn, casket, orb, relic and all that anyone could get their hands on. At the time I was a little sceptical of the positioning. In hindsight however, there was already a broker in guardian space, this was as much a facility for the home turf of Anti Xeno squadrons as anything. They put out the call, and paid as fair as they could... the pilots fed responded in kind, and Alexandria's holds were filled.
As part of their offering, the megaship stayed in Delphi another few weeks to ensure all who desired them could purchase current-gen guardian equipment before she moved on... sadly for the Research division, the Thargoids weren't about to allow 400,000 tons of guardian artefacts to just sit on their doorstep uncontested.
but funding or no, Aegis Defense' megaships deployed once again, on every front of the conflict. It was one of the heavier incursions that year - Coalsack, Witch Head, and Pleiades alike, along with the never-before-hit California nebula burned...We fought where we could, but at that time, the Critical objective in my eyes, if the threat had grown that severe, was defending the Alexandria, in the hope that their haul, and the research to follow could tip the balance. Their crew were a credit to humanity, held ground that final week even with the incursion in full swing, and stations burning around them.
I boarded for that fateful jump, to 16538... reported as swiftly and thoroughly as possible when the Thargoids followed her to the bubble, and charged head-first into the defence. 
As the days wound on, more forces deployed, and heavier ships could be brought to bear, 
making the engagement more even-sided, though by no means an easy one...In the end, we were even able to finally, fully Clear the system shortly before Morales and crew tried to jump to 30944... and never arrived. That was... one of the low moments of everything, to be honest.
While Aegis' eggs-in-one-basket approach was being scrambled, a voice we'd come to know had been rambling to anyone who'd seen Adamastor, about a Hesperus sister-ship... and later about an anaconda launched therefrom. In the end, I was far from the first, but still saw the sights, heard the tale...
and the last desperate request of a dying man that they never be found, lest his former employers at Azimuth weaponize the discovery.Of course, the site, surrounded by crashed interceptors, the first Guardian-Thargoid battleground we had ever seen was promptly a target to strip-mine, for both the up-and-coming 'Salvation', and Aegis after their tragic loss... the Glorious Prospect of 'Taurus Mining', and the Archimedes of Aegis Research set up shop nearby.
On the one hand, we never would have found it without him. On the other, Aegis Needed resources such as these, regardless of any failings... in the end, I talked myself round in circles and effectively abstained, contributing equally to both. But the majority of the PFed, after 400,000t of hard work had vanished without trace - at the time attributed to a hyperdiction and Aegis' hubris/incompetence - had soured considerably towards the old tri-power effort, and Salvation received the spoils of his well-quarried ancient ruin...
In turn giving those who supported him modified, experimental guardian weaponry with efficacy that had never been seen before.This trend would mark his approach to the PFed. Shiny trinket for a mountain of freshly sourced guardian items... while the nebulae continued to see attention.
Over the months I tried searching for Alexandria a few times, plotting and replotting, projecting possible directions, to little avail.The end of August saw an unexpected development... an old data cache from three, four years prior unlocked out in Colonia, giving a breadcrumb trail all the way back to the Pleiades... to signs that Azimuth had never really ceased operations, and had performed abhorrent, unethical, immoral and highly illegal experiments, trying to wire less-than-consenting pilots into Thargoid craft...
From the context within the logs of federal convoys being hit, they had to have been active in the 3300s - at least up to 3303, with the Overlook in system, as referenced in old, mysterious listening posts by the 'Black Flight' group, who were known for doing anything to conceal the existence of Thargoids from the greater populace, including the destruction of several megaships and the abduction of a relay station crew...
It was troubling, but for every answer, another question loomed... Who exactly was this 'Witch', what happened to Subject D-2 after Hyford, how much of the current war stemmed from these arrogant fools and their Active attempts to capture further Thargoid craft, back before the Powers even really got started kicking the hornet's nest... and how had their company survived for nearly two hundred years.
A month later, the incident that in hindsight Really turned me against Salvation happened... Cornsar.
A whole new 'Better!' early warning system that no-one ever saw or heard from again, Dozens of wrecked ships found, with quantities of Guardian materiel only seen before in the 'Bridging the Gap' system, where Zende actively strip mine the sites to the point of having weekly megaship Ferries to deliver people to and from the sites, and a Broker in the outpost beside them.
After Alexandria's illustration of the Thargoid reaction to guardian parts... that got my attention. Then the man asking people to delivering falsified medical supplies to the rescue ships, to build a Superweapon aboard the mission of mercy... and having all these assets, Dockable megaship and resupply alike just sitting there ready to go...
One thing that had Never been attacked in any incursion, was a rescue ship. To weaponize that and jeopardize the lives of any and all survivors... after possibly Provoking the attack to begin with... That one got me.
His mission went through though, and that weapon fired... peppering the planets with the wrecks of dozens of interceptors. He never claimed to predict a single thing from that day forward... which damned him further in my eyes.
More incursions, another megaship, this time a tech broker aboard, the 'Bright Sentinel' bearing his latest magpie trinket... most were effective, but i paid in materials, not in servitude.
Aegis saw a further decline after that un-predicted attack, a formal inquiry tying its hands even further.
In the end, Admiral Tanner received a tip-off, that the weapon was Provoking the Thargoids, jeopardising more civilians by its very presence in a system... this was something the old man could never consciously allow. So, mid-incursion, off he went, Musashi, loyalists and all in tow, to contest Hind Mine, try and find out what was really going on.
With all these half-baked concerns rattling around my head and a few years of trust built in him, that he at least did his best and tried to do the right thing, off I went.
Fought hard, but, the tide had long since turned against Aegis. Even on a solo level, their most enthusiastic supporter had hit a Billion credits in bonds over the course of the engagement... We lost, Tanner was imprisoned, his megaship seized, and nothing was really left to stop Salvation now.With that note, his superweapons under 'Operation Tri-Hammer' were set up, dutifully hauled to and fired, seeing notably less shipwrecks and but Three systems out of 18 cleared... however, 'his work here was done' apparently, and the rest of the conflict was down to the old fashioned way.
After the conflicts - both human and xeno - I reported back to Aegis Core over in Sol, but by that point, there wasn't much that could be done. Tanner was the most recognized and respected leader they had, Tesreau ousted for wanting to Talk to the aliens when our weapons were enough for some to kill half a dozen, even a full dozen interceptors by themselves... The writing was on the wall. The Research division were so demoralised the Archimedes still hadn't moved since its initial deployment out by Orion, the light smattering of artefacts it did receive easily shipped back by smaller craft. Ram Tah was at least able to get some parts from Tri-Hammer to inspect, for what that was worth.----------
3308
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Which leads us back to the more present adventure.
Tanner's sentencing was postponed thanks to that evidence, but Aegis' disbandment went through, emergency volunteer crews manning them for the first round of incursions, then the Frontline Solutions mercenary management group having to host the megaships when the powers failed to implement their own individual efforts in time for the Second round...
In the meantime we learned exactly what happened to Alexandria, Sabotaged, stranged, plundered, and left to die by people working for this 'Witch'... and then the INRA base identifying Salvation, one Caleb Wycherly, aka 'The Witch' as a member of Azimuth staff, one hundred and fifty years ago...
'Salvation' paid little heed except to embrace the reputation. In the meantime he'd gradually built up his weapons once again. Didio, Sosong and Novas were defended, superweapons fired, this time not seeing even a single Thargoid wreck planetside - they withdrew to witch-space before the weapons fired... the surprise was gone, his weapon of limited effect for the excess of resources that went into it.
So of course old man Wycherly decided the next best thing if your EMP stops working? Build a Bigger EMP.
With all the powers behind him, I joined the fight... not redeeming a single credit or delivering a single ton for his official tally, but fighting to maybe preserve Some of the various AXDF force for afterwards...
I think we all know how that turned out, after a million tons of guardian items, Trillions of combat bonds, tens of thousands of lives given in the defence... The hopes and unification of humanity, the dream that maybe, the war might end...
Squandered.Now we're left picking up the pieces, watching old squabbles resume, powers split off, the Thargoids stronger than ever,
their adaptation to our grave-robbed technology... ...And whatever That thing is.
No-one can say for certain, but it's moving... Given the tattered remnants of Aegis Research over in PMD2009 48 are about the closest pocket of humanity out here, I'm hoping between them and the various PFed research groups, we can find some kind of answer Before it reaches its destination. But with the shattered unity back home... I don't know how we'll work our way out of this one.