Exploration record - Mystery of dense fog
06 May 2020Godthab
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System: HIP 16217
Planet: AB 1 A
Place: PENAL COLONY BV-2259
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As a freelancer, this one has been earning its own living doing anything legal (or seemingly legal) hired by many different companies, factions and unions. The usual work style is to cut deals solo, as in the past he had had very bad experience in dividing profit from a bulk mission. That said, he does have a couple of compatible fellows in the loose freelancer business field with whom he work on several random wing mission, including transportation or combat missions. Several of them have been into Xeno hunting these days aiming at good kill rewards, thus they tend to hang around Pleiades region away from the bubble. With lots of loots found and brought from the guardian structures and ruins this one purchased and prepared one engineered combat ship tailored to Xeno threat hunt, and he brought the ship to Artemis Lodge station which is popular as the foothold when departing to non-human signal source investigations.
One of such freelancer fellow started talking about the penal colony in Pleiades region when drinking at a bar at Artemis Lodge. Sipping a Barron's Head brew this one listened to them. When a CMDR committed a minor crime, such as property destruction or trespassing or you name it, unless he/she finds an interstellar factor nearby, authority sends such imprudent fellow to a detention centre to force them to pay off their fines or bounties in a detained environment. Simple as that. But when the crime is a felonious level one, such as murder spree, coordinated terrorism or any type of mass-murder, the suspect is to follow a different route. A penal colony, aka place of exile, is the place for those who committed the crime deserving perpetual punishment.
Old book data in the library database says that on the earth-like world "exile" was accomplished just by sending the criminals to an isolated island with no chance of ship boarding. These days, in the 33XXs, confinement can be established at a much higher level of infinite no-way-outness. This one's fellow, now half drunk, continued that rumor had it that there's this abandoned penal colony in HIP 16217 system. On the next day, all three CMDRs including this one were set to HIP 16217, loading each SRV onboard.
Detailed surface scanner easily narrowed down the exact location of the colony, BV-2259. Up from the above, BV-2259 looked like a fortress city having all its facilities surrounded by a high wall. On each corner of the wall a flak gun system was seen which made each CMDR nervous for a certain while, but no guns were firing at the ships in a landing mode. So the flak gun system did not seem to be active any more.
Within the high-walled area there were several divided cell blocks connected to one bigger block which could be the administration block. Next to it there was a command centre like tower building where everyone would be able to see and check what's going on down below precisely. When a prisoner wanted to escape this place, first he/she needed to think up how to get out of the cell block. Then the second hurdle to face would be how to go outside the wall. Then third - even if he/she was successful in getting over two tough barriers - soon the cruel reality would push them into despair, as BV-2259 is located in a basin - completely surrounded by high cliffs.
Since the colony was obviously filled with green-color gas, all three CMDRs checked the nature of the gas before landing. If it's corrosive then the game is over - we had no way to approach it safely. Confirmed at least it was not corrosive but had no clue if it was toxic. Whichever - so long as everyone has helmets there should be no problem. SRVs were deployed this one was set to exploration of the facility along with other two fellows.
No living thing signs were detected. No dead bodies found either. It was totally empty, but the fellow CMDR found the data link was alive and active. So we drove around in the walled area, to download all data from the data link. There were 4 of them and after compilation we read through it. It was a report written by the chief warden Halil, the managing top level positioned personnel of the penal colony here.
The report started with her moan and groan, then changed to the description of an unexpected state of emergency. Alien ships came, fried the system and took everyone but her - so the report said. If everything written in the report was correct, then it should mean the chief warden Halil was the only person frozen to death, most likely up in the control centre tower. The scanner system could check what it was really like, but no one dared proceed.
Completing investigation of the colony, this one went onboard his exploration ship - "Skooma Smuggler" the diamondback explorer - again then moved up onto the plateau. The view from there was superb. Down the cliff you could overview BV-2259 from head to toe. Up above in the sky Pleiades Nebula, Barnard's Loop and Witchhead Nebula were all looking down to you.
Beep, beep beep beep ...
It was about that time that a sudden beeping warning sound from the ship dashboard broke the silence. Almost at the same time this one heard roaring, a familiar roaring this one recently heard in other places in Pleiades region. Almost as a reflex action this one returned his gaze from up in the sky back to down below.
A thargoid.
A red and black colored thargoid appeared right above BV-2259 out of nowhere. This one ran the target scan system, but the target information panel returned no helpful information but malfunctioning series of number. "That's Medusa," shouted one of CMDR fellows through the comm. Thargoid Interceptor Medusa is the second strongest of the Interceptors if he remembers it right. Only seen Scout, Interceptor Cyclops and Basilisk before.
In the meantime Medusa approached this one's Skooma Smuggler and started scanning. Interceptors remain non-hostile unless provoked - repeating the words silently this one waited turning the engine off. Soon Medusa returned back to the colony, and resumed scanning there. Finally this one and fellow CMDR noticed that the other CMDR's SRV was still in the colony. So most likely Medusa was scanning that CMDR fellow, not the colony any more.
Still scared though, as the report of the chief warden Halil let us know the potential risk of kidnapping by Thargoids. His SRV might get fried and he might take away to somewhere.
The CMDR fellow was fortunate enough not to be taken away, and three went back onboard each ship. Other CMDR fellow happened to provoke Medusa, then its behavior dramatically changed, starting to chase its enemy. It was about time to escape into supercruise mode. Which old time prisoners would not have been able to imagine.
Now what happened to the colony and chief warden Halil has truly been understood. So that green gas filling the colony was actually the emission from Medusa. Strange, this one thought, since if so the gas should have been corrosive. Many questions popped in this one's head while gearing up, but he stopped thinking about it to concentrate on ship control so that he would not run into a non-human signal source accidentally. Only nebulae know the truth - he spoke to himself.
CMDR Godthab out.
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