Contact with the Xenos
15 Jan 2021Anthony Reeves
I have recently gone on a very long trip outside of the bubble. As I have only recently acquired my fully outfitted Asp Explorer, I haven't gone too far from Gliese 868 as of yet. However, I felt I had to make this trip, as I was already working with Felicity Farseer to upgrade my frame shift drive. She pointed me in the right direction, informing me of an alien race called "Thargoids". I had already known about them, of course, seeing as it was huge news on Galnet, but I had never actually seen their presence. The bubble is comparatively very well secured from Thargoids, which is somewhat ironic considering that the vast majority of people there don't have weapons that are effective against them. This being the case, I've only ever heard stories. The occasional horror story of a scout being interdicted by one, or the unproven barnacle sighting on a planet nearby, but only recently was I faced with the reality that they are very real, and they are closer than I thought. Farseer needed me to gather Meta Alloys, which were reportedly fashioned by Thargoid barnacles. Never having seen one myself, I felt that the curiosity would be reimbursement enough for the long journey. However, about halfway through my trip, I had stopped to scan a system and gather some extra exploration data. For whatever reason, I decided to scan some very low frequency signals. I almost never do this unless I'm looking for trouble, as most of the time, they're just combat zones or degraded emissions. However, this time, I was in for a suprise. My ship identified it as a "Nonhuman Signal Source". My blood had became ice when I saw this. I scanned a few more signals and discovered that virtually the entire system was filled with Thargoids. I jumped out of there as quickly as I could and scanned the next system. It too was filled with the things. I had no intention of making contact with them, so I just hurried off to the presumed extraction site.Some time later, I arrive at a Thargoid barnacle forest, after recieving a tip from another commander. The area was astoundingly vast, covered in a thick green layer of fog high above the surface, which was likely emitted as some sort of waste from the barnacles. After landing, I went about my business, gathering meta alloys until I realized that the scavengers "guarding" the sites were getting increasingly territorial. Upon getting to close to the perimeter of the area they were guarding, they flared out odd flaps from their sides, glowed an ominous shade of green, and glared at me with their odd cyclops looking "eyes". Their intelligence seemed to be rather primitive at first glance, but I'm not very accustomed to combat in my SRV, so I didn't intend to start anything between them. I simply took my alloys and ran.
While I had never actually made contact with the Thargoids themselves, I had come in close proximity with them, and I had seen some of their work. I know they are a highly agressive race that doesn't tolerate human agression, and I am not keen on agitating them whatsoever. I will likely make contact with them sometime in the future, but I pray that it isn't on hostile terms. For any commanders who are planning to venture into Thargoid territory without the intent to combat them, I would not advise against it, but I would reccomend that you excersise extreme caution if you do not have the proper defenses or weapons.