The threat within [MAR 28 - 3307]
28 Mar 2021M. V. Coehoorn
The year is 3307 and humanity is still struggling with the same issues as 100 years ago. You can trust me on that. I was there to witness it. Our collective societies patronage by the all-encompassing cabal of the great five might have prepared us for the Thargoid threat, but by handling it bluntly and with brute force rather than with subtlety, it might have also rigged the game from the beginning.
It's not like the deployment of a bio-weapon of mass destruction against an unstudied and highly developed species could ever mean a good start of a conversation. Oh yes, I do believe it. I had to see it with my own eyes, but there's no doubt about Jamesons story.
Sadly, it was another dead end, but at least it proved what the club is willing to do to defend their interests.
Once, a pilot I spoke with at a bar over at Shinrarta, told me a story of how he got involved into some messy business in Ohm City, LHS 20.
I don't want to digress too much, but in the end, he barely escaped with his life. Apparently, he got a tip-off from a mysterious stranger directly to his comms. He went out there, or so he says, 343ly in his little cabbage-vessel and sought out the coordinates given in the message. It led him into the middle of a Thargoid fightzone, where he found the wreckage of a single explorer ship, taken down by powerful beams. He didn't even have the time to deploy his SRV, as two black ships without ID's approached the landing site and placed him under crossfire. He escaped with sheer luck only, due to the malfunction of one of the vessels sidethrusters which acted as enough of a distraction to allow him charge his frameshift. I believe this story, too. I saw the scorch marks on his hull, and I've dealt with enough pirates to know that they always demand something before they shoot.
This guy sat next to me while I was drinking my "sitting-on-the-dock-whiskey" and I could see his fingers tremble nervously on the counter. His other hand was holding a glass with such force that the blood left his fingers. As I listened to his story I thought to myself What a cunning and refined way to get rid of loose ends. I mean, is there an easier way than luring someone into a warzone?
Who knows, maybe the wreckage that Phillippe -that was his name- tried to salvage got there the same way he did?
Now, you see, I'm wondering what would happen, if one managed to fight 'em off and chase them, follow 'em through the wakes to whatever their source station is. I might do just that, one day, when I grow weary and tired of the thrill of discovering new worlds.
Until then, I will stay out of these affairs.