Captain's Log: Close Encounter of the Second Kind
30 Aug 2021Pon Pon
Well, that was a pants-stain-inducing encounter.I'm writing this from one of the private fleet carriers stationed in orbit of HIP 16613 1 A, and even now my hands are shaking. I need a drink. But, as usual, I need to start at the beginning, eh? ...yeah, I still need a minute.
Anyways, after a bit of a break, it's back to work for me. Or, more like, I've gotten tired of being a tour pilot. The nice thing about being an independent commander is that I can do what I want, when I want, and now is no exception. A little while back, I popped into the bubble for some reason or another and took out a Type-10 to see how she flew. Well, she did me well, and now I'm the proud owner of a Lakon Chieftan. She's parked at the moment. 'cause I'm in the middle of expanding my contacts and stocking up on the various materials I'll need for engineering the modules. It's less that I plan to get into a chaotic firefight, and more I'm not the bravest pilot, but I digress.
Looking back, the choice of an Alliance Chieftan instead of a Fer-de-Lance or Anaconda was a rather auspicious one...
As part of my resource gathering mission, I've been hopping around to various crash sites to see what I can scrounge up. I spent maybe an hour scavenging a Cobra in HIP 12099, then moved to HIP 16613 after a tip-off that there was a crashed Anaconda there. I landed the Reichweite II, dropped my SRV, and got to work just like always.
Things were fine for 20-30 minutes. Cruising around, blasting the heavier duty boxes to crack them open, or stepping out in the Maverick suit for some more fine-tuned work, I was managing to pull in quite the haul. As I was turning the SRV around to head back to the ship, though, I heard... A sound. I don't know how to describe it. It was a low, sonorous rumble, something like a foghorn with the dull reverb of a heavy metal plate rubbing against something. A dark shadow fell over me, as the sun was completely blotted out by some massive flying object. It pulsed with a green energy, and undulated as if it were alive. I recognized it as something I had only heard of, but never thought I would see so close: A Thargoid interceptor.
Overhead, there was a burst of green light as the Thargoid did... something to my ship. I didn't stick around to find out, and instead gunned it. My SRV flew off in a random direction, but I didn't care. What was important was that the direction was away. I figured, if there was something the Thargoid was interested in, it would be the Guardian FSD Booster I have equipped in the Reichwete II. Seeing as the Thargoid Interceptor completely ignored me and my SRV, I wager I'm at least part right, but what matters is I got away.
Recalling my ship to the SRV, I was worried that the Thargoid Interceptor would pursue, but, fortunately, it didn't. While I hadn't been getting alerts about my ship being under attack, the closer I was to the Thargoid Interceptor the more my instruments and electronics went haywire so I wasn't sure if all systems were working properly and assumed the worst. As it turns out, my ship returned with full shields and no hull damage, and I later learned from a fellow commander, CMDR Chrono, that those guys are fairly docile.
Knowing it's relatively safe, I'll probably go back and continue scavenging the site, but I know for sure that the Thargoid is still there--on the way out, my ship's instruments continued to go haywire, and I could see its shadow on the surface of the planet if I rolled the ship and looked out the canopy. But not today. Even though I know now, the fear from that encounter remains.