Log 4: An Emergency
19 Oct 2020Tala Wren
I never planned to really be a Thargoid hunter, or to participate much in the Human-Thargoid War. But when I received the emergency alert from the Alliance Expeditionary Pact, I found myself racing to outfit a ship to fight the alien threat. I had plenty of funds from all of the mining I did, which is good, because those anti-xeno weapons are expensive. I couldn't just let the people living in the systems under Thargoid attack be threatened or endangered, and besides, Ram Tah himself announced that he intends not only to provide a free size 4 Guardian FSD booster to everyone who contributes enough, but also that he will personally send the materials to tech brokers so that they can provide us with any size FSD Booster. I couldn't pass this opportunity up; that FSD Booster will make a huge difference to Razorcrest's jump range!So, I outfitted a Krait mk2 with a whole lot of AX multi-cannon turrets, intending to primarily fly as a picket ship against the Thargoid Scouts, as a screen for the pilots who had much more specialized ships, and Ram Tah's Guardian-hybrid equipment, who were experienced in taking on Interceptors.
It was supposed to be easy, but in large numbers, Scouts can get to be a bit more of a threat, although in the end my picket wing was rarely ever in serious danger of destruction. The Scouts may be very maneuverable, but it's hard to escape the firing arcs of all of those turrets!
Everything was going well, until we made a jump to another Thargoid signal source. We were trying to time our arrival there with an Interceptor-fighting wing, to provide them some cover; when we got there, we were greeted only by a debris field. There were ship parts everywhere; a Cutter nacelle here, what looked like half of a Krait over there, what appeared to be the remains of a spoiler slowly rotating away from the destruction, all of it cast in a slowly-dissipating green mist.
But before anyone in my wing had time to be horrified, we were greeted by a much scarier sight; a massive eight-petaled flower of death emerged from the debris field, heading straight for the wing leader. There was a brief moment as it paused right in front of our formation, where I was frozen by the terrible awe this thing inspired in me. I had seen pictures of them, of course (who hasn't?), and I've seen the vids of pilots bravely taking them on, sometimes all by themselves. (Again, who hasn't?) But I never dreamed I would encounter one myself.
I quickly snapped out of my shock as the wing-leader vocalized the question I think all of us were trying to ask ourselves: "Are we doing this?"
Immediately, I replied in the affirmative. I was there to fight Thargoids and defend the people living in the system, and even though I had some doubts about whether we could take this Interceptor on, I knew we had to try.
When it began to scan the wing-leader, the wing-leader returned the favor and scanned the Interceptor. It was a Cyclops-variant, which was good; we might actually be able to take it.
I braced myself, deployed my hardpoints, and in an instant the scene changed from one of admiration and awe for a terrible beauty to one of intense adrenaline and stress.
We fought hard; many times, more than one of my wingmates had to supercruise away for repairs, while I and and another wingmate kept up the fight, hoping our allies would return in time. Interceptors are damn fast! They have no right being that fast, and the maneuverable; no human ship of comparable size could ever dream to be so nimble.
The scariest part was the shutdown field; I knew of their capabilities, of course. We had all received the information briefings required before going out to fight. But no briefing can ever prepare you for watching your ship go dark and cold, with no sounds except the occasional impacts from the Interceptor's attack, hoping the ship comes back online before you are destroyed.
But in the end, we prevailed; and when the Interceptor finally exploded into a large cloud of caustic dust, we cheered. We had just done what we all thought might be impossible! We actually took down one of the most feared enemies in the galaxy!
When we returned to the Golden Stag afterwards, we made a decision that we would take on more Interceptors, now that we had done it once. And we did, to varying degrees of success.
After defeating four of those monsters, we opted to go try to get some of Ram Tah's Guardian-hybrid equipment; yeah, our anti-xeno weaponry was capable of taking down a Cyclops, but it made for a very tough fight. We figured with Gauss cannons, and Guardian reinforcement packages on our hulls, we would stand a better chance.
When we came back, armed with mostly Guardian weapons, in ships that were only half-human, we were shocked at how much easier it was to take on a Cyclops, and we mused about going after the tougher Interceptors.
We are no longer a picket wing, sticking largely to dealing with the Scouts so others can take on Interceptors: now we are the hunters of the flowers of death.