Personal Log 04.12.08 // Into the Hornet's Nest
05 Dec 2022Gaz Ubermick
+// Log Entry Start+// [Date: 04.12.3308]
+// Location: Rescue Ship Bertschinger, Tarach Tor]
I am wrecked.
Currently splayed on a bench on one of humanity’s enormous rescue ships, the Bertschinger in Tarach Tor. I've spent the last day and a half running critically injured civilians out of Lopez-Algeria Works in Matshiru.
At least what’s left of it.
So far I’ve managed to get 2,000 or so souls out of that system as the station burns and the Thargoids run rampant. The pilots of the AXI are doing their best to push them back, but… there’s so many of them. They’re just all over that system. Every time I’ve gone that way I’ve been hyperdicted by some very angry caustic cabbages. Now they’re even interdicting in-system. That’s new. Greaaaaat.
To put the cherry on top of this shit sundae is that the worst of humanity has come out to play in the midst of the invasion. Every damn run I’ve had pirates run interference, reavers with who knows what intent for the injured and ailing. Maybe they see them as easy commodities to be sold into slavery. Maybe something worse. One of them interdicted me just light seconds from the rescue ship - I dropped out to teach them a lesson but then three more dropped in on me within moments, and had to run. Barely made it out but managed to get tossed around my cockpit a bit. Which is why I'm sitting here instead of heading back to Matshiru - doctor's orders. She was cute too, told her about the run while she patched me up. She said I was very brave. Even gave me a lollipop.
Huh. Now I think of it, she might have been screwing with me. Not in the way I'd hoped.
While the medtech does its thing, I pinged Kal to see if he'd accumulated any more data. He and Omni had encountered one of the new Orthrus variants, and apparently they carry a modified proteus wave, as well as farting that caustic gas about the place, but their main purpose seems to be seeding systems with more Thargoid probes. He's transmitted his findings to Palin and Ram Tah... hopefully they'll be able to get something out of that data. It's an uphill battle against Thargoids with Guardian weaponry. We lose that, we lose the war.
I can't help but shake the feeling that this should have gone differently. That if humanity had been able to shake their millennia old penchant for shooting first and asking questions later, we'd have been able to peacefully coexist with the Thargoids. That if it wasn't for xenophobic organizations like INRA or Azimuth or even the bloodthirsty ways of the AXI and pilots who were happy to take shiny weaponry and modules in exchange for Thargoid hearts...
I know I said it in my last entry but... what did we THINK was going to happen when we tried to commit genocide against them twice?
Too late for that now. I might understand why they've finally snapped and decided to give us a taste of our own medicine. But I'm not standing aside and letting them wipe us out. Soon as we get Lopez-Algeria fully evacuated, I'm going back there. The Pawn is in Gliese 3318 and I've already told Jamar to prep the Ellen Ripley - and see if I can help balance the scales.
+// Log Entry Ends