Mission Log: Asterope Combat Patrol out of Copernicus Observatory
23 Jun 2020Greybeard Seawolf
Early patrol departed Copernicus Observatory at 0720 and landed again at 0825. Combat in 8 T4 locations, got 31 kills including 3 Inciter class. Despite the relative peace the ongoing Thargoid losses are staggering. Over the last 7 days the enemy had lost 14,311 ships for the loss of 61 pilots on our side in Asterope alone. Their strategy or as much as we can make an educated guess as to being one, appears to be an attempt to wear us down, constant aggressive probing attacks, so frequent that squadrons returning from the 5th or 6th engagement of the day are constantly being re-routed to deal with the latest incursion.
Despite our vastly superior kill/death ratio the strategy is working, every day there are fewer faces at the pre-flight briefings. We are exhausted, functioning on stims, caffeine and adrenaline.
We get little support from the Bubble out here, it seems that once the Thargoids withdrew their main invasion forces, the inner systems simply went back to business as usual, the news cycle ever quickening turned its attention elsewhere and those of us still fighting were forgotten.
There are still pilots arriving, eager to earn the bounties and looking to fame beyond fortune. You can spot them on the mezzanine decks, designer flight suits, posturing and eyes glowing with the potential for glory.
Give them a couple of weeks and if they are not dead or have packed their flight gear and left, the change is quite dramatic. The flight suits have had more use and cleaning then they were ever designed for, no more straight shoulders and calculated casual postering and if there is a glow in their eyes its a combination of stims, insomnia, stress and a greater awareness of their own mortality.