Chapter 15. Your Galaxy Needs You!
22 Oct 2020Black Llama
October 17, 3306Bray Landing, Yuanjia system
"You are calling from WHERE, now?"
"I'm in Bray Landing", was my answer.
"Wait, where is that?" Translight comms are typically noisy, particularly with image enabled, but through the blur and crackling I could still see the astonishment in Skinner's face. I replied, "The Witch Head Nebula, Skinner. Don't you read the news?"
After a few moments pause, she said: "Cap'n, are you going to fight Thargoids now? Really? May I point out that you're not particularly good at combat?" A somber look appeared on her face. "Boss, is this some sort of romantic death wish? Is this because..." I interrupted her there: "Oh no no no. It's actually an experiment: I want to see if someone's theory is correct. Plus, it's an opportunity to get cheap access to Guardian tech."
Following my encounter with that Alliance guy in Shin Dez, I decided to join in the defence of the Witch Head Nebula sector. It was also an opportunity to kill several birds with one stone, as the old Earth saying goes. First, the offer of reduced access requirements for Guardian tech. I had collected a couple of Guardian weapon blueprints during my expedition to find Guardian data for Ram Tah -more on him later-, and getting stuff on the cheap is kinda my thing. Next, it was a reason to go visit engineer Chloe Sedesi. And finally I have been doing a lot or research in the past few months, and though Thargoid Interceptors still scare the living daylights out of me, I'm more optimistic about my chances against their Scout craft. I had even prepared a Diamondback Scout beforehand as a dedicated Thargoid Scout fighter, following the recommendations of the famous commander Exigeous.
However, to travel out to the Witch Head as fast as possible and with enough cargo to unlock the Guardian weapons, I decided to make the trip in The Distant Dawn, an Anaconda which I had bought a few months ago but was still laying, half stripped of gear, in a hangar at Vaucanson Hub. I outfitted it for long-range exploration, loaded up some Magnetic Emitter Coils and Micro Controllers onto the hold, then set out for the Yuanjia system via a neutron highway. With a 73 ly range, the trip to Bray Landing took nine jumps starting from Meene via neutron stars Synuefe EN-Q d6-38 and Synuefe YV-T d4-30.
"Anyway", I continued, "someone from Galactic Logistics will be calling by the office soon to collect the access key to the Diamondback Scout, so get the Pilot Fish ready to go."
"What if you don't come back?" She sounded genuinely worried. "If I remember correctly, and I do remember correctly because you told me the story ten times", she went on, "you've only seen a live Thargoid once, and you ran from it as fast as you could."
"Cierto, but back then I was flying an unarmed Cobra, it happened in the Bubble so it caught me completely by surprise, and all I knew about 'goids were spooky stories. This time I've done my homework, and I intend to just be a bully and only attack the smaller ones. And if things come to worse, which they won't, talk to Barron, Buchman & Morales at Amphipolis, they'll sort the legal stuff out."
After I cut the comms I exited the ship, and noticed a drone cart unloading a few canisters on the pad, next to the Dawn's landing gear. Ah, here are the goods I requested, I thought. I walked up to the canisters and opened up one of them; I smiled when I looked at the content. There, nested among polystyrene chips, was a shiny new Guardian Gauss cannon.