Thargoid scouts, Part 3: First blood
29 Feb 2020Orodruin
It was time to put my Krait mk II, The Witch King, to the test in combat against the Thargoids. I had been dreading this moment as well as looking forward to it. With only minor previous combat experience, in particular without flight assist, I knew that I was up for a challenge and that the worst part was going to be to aim the fixed Guardian Gauss Cannons in the hardpoints next to the cockpit. The war veterans I had been talking to earlier paid me little attention as I made my way to the hangar. They had seen it all before and knew better than to get emotionally attached to or involve themselves with the cannon fodder.I entered the cockpit and made myself a cup of coffee before strapping myself into the pilot's seat. Better not fly into combat without the morning coffee. Sipping the cup I casually went through the pre-flight checklist, checking the ship systems one by one until I had made sure they were all functioning properly. At least all the credits I had made from mining in the previous months meant that the ship was well insured if something more sinister was to happen to it.
Once through the checklist, I contacted flight control and received the go-ahead for take-off. The engines of The Witch King roared to life as the vertical thrusters lifted it from the landing pad against the gravity of HIP 17692 A 1. A quick pull on the flight stick sent the ship into a vertical position and I engaged the main thrusters for a climb out of mass lock before engaging supercruise. When I had checked the war report in the morning, it had turned out that there were currently no stations in need of immediate assistance in fighting off Thargoid attacks. I therefore punched the coordinates of the recently attacked Asterope system into the navigation computer and engaged the hyperdrive.
Upon reaching Asterope, I quickly dropped in on the system's nav beacon to update the ship's computer with the latest data on available signal sources. Once re-engaged in supercruise I turned to the navigation panel to see what had been downloaded and quickly gasped for air. The system was literally crawling with non-human signal sources. I targeted a nearby one, not more than 15 light-seconds away.
- "Non-human signal source. Threat assessment, level 4." The ship computer confirmed as I swung the ship around to navigate towards it.
I would soon find out what to expect. The speed and distance dropped into the blue zone and I disengaged supercruise and deployed the hardpoints of The Witch King.
- "Flight assist off." The ship's computer announced in its usual monotonic voice although it sounded much more ominous to my ears at the time.
The drop from supercruise was successful, but the scene that greeted me was more than what I could have prepared for. The debris from more than a dozen ships was strewn across this particular region of space and a few kilometers away a lone Type-9 was engaged in a dogfight with four Thargoid scouts. It was not going well. Multicannon shells were spewing from the Type-9 turrets, but made little or no contact with the scouts. At the same time, the scout energy blasts were rapidly making contact, tearing chunks of metal out of the Type-9 hull. One of the scouts fired some sort of missile that left a greenish cloud upon impact. It seemed to eat the bolts and hull plating off the Type-9 as it was torn into pieces, joining the rest of the debris field as the scouts turned their attention to me.
A lot of words that are better left unwritten flew through my mind as the Thargoid scouts passed by screaming. I targeted the closest scout and squeezed the trigger button of the AX multicannon and beam laser turrets. The turrets fired ... straight ahead. In my eagerness to join the fight, I had made the rookie mistake of not setting the turret firing priorities and they were locked in forward fire mode. Would this have me end up as part of the debris field just as the Type-9 I had just seen demolished?
I knew that firing the AX multicannons and beam laser in forward fire mode was not going to do much damage. I was left with the Gauss Cannons that I had no experience in aiming. I was clearly going to have a rough first encounter and would have to literally learn on the fly. The flying skills I had picked up navigating asteroid fields came in handy in at least partially avoiding the Thargoid energy weapons. However, they occasionally made contact and started to slowly eat through the shields of The Witch King. I lined up one of the scouts in the sights and pressed the trigger. The characteristic electric sound of the charging Gauss Cannons briefly overcame the sounds of engines and Thargoid energy blasts. The scout was steady in my sights just until a split second before the Gauss Cannons released their intense burst of energy, but it swept out of the line of fire and the red beams of the powerful energy blasts continued through space without making contact with the Thargoid's hull. I tried again, and again, and again.
- "Warning! Heat levels critical." The ship's computer warned me.
In my eagerness to try to hit the scout, I had fired the Gauss Cannons too rapidly and The Witch King was boiling from the heat build-up. It was not designed for this. The beam laser was intended to vent the excess heat onto enemy ships, but without proper targeting mode, it was as useless as a fork at a soup lunch. I had to let the ship cool down by itself before continuing.
The dance went on and on. I got a couple of shots at a time before having to pause to cool down the overheating ship and most of the shots did not connect. Finally, after several passes, one of the Gauss Cannons finally found its mark and ripped a sizeable chunk of the Thargoid scout from the rest of its hull. It came flying right at me and the Gauss Cannons charged and fired again, this time both of them connected and the scout disintegrated, leaving behind a large and expanding cloud of residue. It had not been pretty, but I had destroyed my first Thargoid ship.
- "Caustic damage detected." The ship's computer informed me in its usual cold voice.