I tried to save them, but there was no one left to save
12 Aug 2022Storm Grezal
It's taken me time to process this. What I just witnessed. The failure of the Proteus Wave. I had visited the day before to see it firsthand from Bright Sentinel. I was denied access at the time as the AX pilots had priority for refuel, repair, and rearm. I shrugged and headed back to Asterope to watch the live feed. When the time came, I turned on the feed to watch. I was horrified by what I saw. This was supposed to be our grand victory. Channels everywhere were filled with pleas for help and evacuation. I had to do something.I immediately boarded my xeno-research vessel, the Cobra mk3, Perseus and refitted it for search and rescue. I arrived in HIP 22460, only to be greeted with my Guardian weaponry breaking almost immediately. This is not good. Almost all our weaponry and means of self defense is Guardian based. I hurried as quick as I could to the Bright Sentinel. Surely it would still minorly operable. Every other megaship I had visited that had been attacked by Thargoids was still mostly intact. I was shocked upon arrival. The Bright Sentinel had been blown apart. I had tried to dock there not 12 hours earlier. The Thargoids actually tried to destroy it in its entirety. I panned over to my contacts, hoping for some kind of life. There were none. No escape pods, not even compromised ones. Before I could process this, my Covas crackled to life. "FR...am...Shi...ANomaLY De...tected." What?! It was too soon! Bugs would normally pop in to take a peak and then leave. It was much too soon. My ship was not equipped for combat so I turned and bolted as quickly as I could.
I made my way over to Heart of Taurus. I hoped in vain it would be better there. Nothing. No signs of life anywhere. The Thargoids had killed them all. I was again jolted to attention with the warning of a frame shift anomaly. I turned to face it. A Basilisk slid out the black portal. To my shock, it turned to face me immediately, glowing a harsh red and deploying its Thargons. This wasn't right. They normally are not this hostile! I turned and bolted, the Basilisk in hot pursuit. I burned all my heat sinks, trying to desperately to evade the 30 Mass Lock. The Thargoid's guns pummeled my ship as I ran out of heat sinks, but I managed to get away. Heavily damaged, but alive.
I then remembered, I heard many commanders were going to Fort Ashe over on planet 7C to celebrate. Maybe there were stranded commanders and civilians in need of evacuation after their ships were destroyed. I hurried over and dropped in. The base was on the far side of the planet, so it was pitch dark. I turned on my night vision, and my heart sank. The base was gone. Reduced to rubble. I landed my ship and deployed to my SRV. I had to know for sure. I dismissed my ship back to orbit, knowing a Thargoid might pop in at any moment. I started searching for survivors. There was no one left. No escape pods, not even any bodies. Just the ruins of what was once a lively base and a few crashed ships buried in the hill side.
"FR...am...Shi...ANomaLY De...tected."
I started frantically looking around. Thargoid scouts had arrived, but I don't think they saw me as they continued to circle. I continued my search, and then I heard it again.
"FR...am...Shi...ANomaLY De...tected."
and again.
"FR...am...Shi...ANomaLY De...tected."
I took shelter under a nearby destroyed building. The EMP's shut down my SRV and I was left alone in the dark with swarms of Thargoids circling overhead like ancient sharks from Earth.
My thoughts now turned to my own survival. I couldn't recall my ship here. The interceptors would blow it out of the sky before it even touched the ground. Then I would be truly stranded. I poked my SRV's nose out of cover, not daring to set foot outside unprotected. A scout must have spotted me, because my shield were instantly lit up and lost. I hurriedly backed into cover again before I took too much damage. I had to get out. If had to recall my ship, it had to be far enough away that the Thargoids would not see it arrive. I set 3 pips to ENG and the rest to SYS, and bolted as quick as I could in a direction, it didn't matter which. A few scouts noticed and gave chase for a short time, but soon returned to the base ruins. I don't know how long I drove for, but eventually I regained control of my arm that was locking the throttle to full and stopped. I did not see anything my scanner. I recalled my ship without incident, and bolted away as quick as I could before something else showed up. I immediately left the system and headed back to Asterope. There was nothing that could done. We've really done it now haven't we...