Duty, 22: Hide and Seek
18 Dec 2022Meowers
Damn those bastards are getting smart, I swear. So, I was in the hangars with the techs this morning, we fussed around the ships, inspecting combat-essential modules and replacing those screwed up heatsinks with spare ones from the storage. They were simple, crude, non-modified and held one less charge in the clip, but at least they weren't stuffed with that shit to the brim. Original parts will take a damn week to clean.
Everyone with even a bit of tinkering capability was involved. Mion included, so, we were kind of sticking together, hah. Asked her about her take on those xeno-sympathisers, out of pure interest, but the topic seemed to be a dilemma for her. See, it's all quite straightforward for me, they should be court martialed or something like that, what they do is an outright damn treason. And what they did with that sabotage; I've no doubt it's their work. But... They're her neighbours, they live in the same community, and it's not a part of AXDF, they have a politics of their own. And community's little AX fleet was formed out of necessity rather than on purpose to fight Thargoids everywhere, like we do.
She wanted to keep things in peace, one way or another. And I understand that. This place is her home, she fights Thargoids mostly because they pose a threat here. While I know that the Thargoids are literally everywhere across the buffer zone, I've seen that, and, this place or another, they will attack something some day; and, I have to be there. To fight them. And she has to be here. To make sure this place is okay. Maybe... That mindset is a part of 'settling down' somewhere?.. I'm always on a march, and she lives here. And now it... Was starting to look like a dilemma for me.
Maybe that's why I never regretted my choice. About leaving everything behind and joining AXDF. Maybe, being a part of the force that protects people who want to live... Their lives; was enough for me to stop questioning mine.
And, the Thargoids. They're always somewhere out there. This war is miles away from being over. Sincerely speaking, I don't think we can put an end to it, at least not now. We, in general, are literally buying time to make sure the smart folks will have it, so they could develop a measure that can stop the Thargoids. Be it a weapon or anything else. But, if it's a weapon... Hell, I want to be the one who fires it.
Got an urgent message from Matthew while replacing a vandalised heatsink launcher. His wing has been dispatched to take a look at another sensor that went silent, and it meant I should be ready, in case of anything else. Ow. I hope they'll shoot some of those bastards and teach them not to touch our stuff; thinking about those Thargoids showing up somewhere near is really making my trigger finger itchy. And an attack on our equipment might be a distraction... Mion said I'd better find a good use for those fingers while there are no Thargoids around, and, uh, handed me a wrench. After what looked like a dramatic pause. Whatever that meant.
So, thing is, and why I told you they're getting smart. Soon after, within an hour, my wing was scrambled too. Almost made me spill my coffee all over myself, hah, but... I anticipated that. Call it an intuition... Or it's old me being paranoid again. A distress call from a pair of civilian ships, in this system, they sent it and tried to transmit something via voicecomm as a follow-up, but the signal has been cut off immediately. While we were on our way, the satellite array scanned the coordinates, but, no debris, no jump trails, only some weak Thargoid signatures, no more than two or three of them. No signs of battle.
We jumped in, and, yeah, one Basilisk and two Cyclopes, and they... Turned around and tried to run away. Like, instantly, without trying to fight. That Basilisk thing is hell fast. In my wing, only my Marshmallow could catch it on its full speed, so we just let it go. We concentrated our fire on one of the Cyclopes, that was also making a run for it, paying no attention to damage. It was literally raining Thargoid pieces right in our faces as we chased the beast with our engines on full and guns blazing, one volley after another, one limb after another, and, hah, I've seen it already diving into its hyperjump channel when Christine's shots made the beast explode. I don't know what's the destination of their jumps, but I hope it'll be a nice surprise, like a corpse out of the opening elevator, hah.
And what about the civilian ships? Two miner Pythons, passing by, wandering around in search for something to dig. But, thankfully, they weren't so digged themselves, only a few burns and scratches, and... That was unexpected. Mining Pythons. Dull. Defenceless. Slow, sluggish, totally inept for any kind of fighting or running. Those Thargoids had enough time to play a football match with their escape pods, however... Was it an imitation of attack? A bait? What those miners said, the Thargoids scanned them, fired a few shots and then, after a distress signal, just kept EMP'ing them, making everything totally inoperable.
So I told them that they, 'a', really should get out of here, piloting those garbage bins in populated systems is just a shame, but here, with all those Thargoids around, it's a shameful death. Maybe a bit less shameful than being intercepted and shot while riding a shitter with your cruise assists on. But, still a lot of ugh. And, 'b', they got lucky to be still alive. We checked our ammo, our fuel, activated the cruise mode to head back home, and... Well. After some flying, met our anti-Scout wing. They were sent to catch up with us, the satellites spotted a slight activity over the second planet, it was the destroyed pod field. So we had to move there together and see what's going on. 'Slight' activity. And seven of us. Hmm... Smells dead Thargoids.
And that 'slight activity' was... One Basilisk, one Cyclops. Just as I expected, during the flight. And they were the same guys, I presume, maybe they didn't know we bombarded their little kitchen a few days ago. They couldn't get away this time, it takes a bit more distance to jump out of the planetary gravity pull. And, with 0.99G, they make nice craters. Fine observation, liked it. Anyway, seeing the last of that couple exploding, I commanded an urgent return, because it was feeling really, really bad. With Matthew's wing somewhere out there, and the rest of us being dragged all over the system... You may guess.
I was happy to be wrong. Nothing happened to the settlement. But, Matthew's wing was still out there, somewhere in the neighbouring systems. And we've got another pair of sensors down while I was away.
Shit, I really have to go and talk with the officers. I have a bad feeling about this, it doesn't look like your usual chaotic Thargoid accidents here and there. They learn. They know we're organised. And they're trying to act organised as well. Maybe we should consider using our active long-range comms again to plan our moves better. Maybe they know we're here, they're just watching us and trying to figure out our strength.
Still nothing that we should consider 'emergency enough' to activate the comms and contact AXDF command, but... Damn. I feel anxious.
Sometimes it amazes me how little is known about the Thargoids. Looks like we know much more about Guardians than about them. Most people, and now I'm talking not just about some random folks, but about experienced pilots and officers, think that Thargoids are tough, biologically advanced, but primitive and instinct-driven beasts. Some think their 'ships' are actually ships with pilots being separate entities. I may sound superstitious, however, I believe that presence of higher-class Interceptors can somehow affect lesser ones, making them more coordinated. Do they have a... mind control feature? Or a hivemind? Or they have their ranks and commanders too? Do they evolve... or grow up... from basic types to more advanced, or they're like ants, being born to perform a specific role? Ah. Too much mysteries. Anyway, I'll tell that again and again, it's better to be prepared for any kinds of weird shit.
And whatever is happening around starts to look more and more like weird shit.
I remember my first days here. Improving local supply lines and maintenance routines. Walking around with that datapad in hand like a business lady. Training flights and patrols, with occassional Thargoid slapping here and there, and those funny debriefings with holo-models and recordings. It looked like a sport. Then we were free to do our things after the shift. And those noisy crowds in the mess, sitting and talking about stuff, I usually sat somewhere in the corner to look at... People. To feel myself a part of whatever kind of life that is. It was just... a couple of months ago. Things are changing fast. I remember that night, I was looking at the sky, and Mion saw me and invited me to her apartment. Told me she likes to do the same when the sky is clear. We thought it will be nice to have a walk around the town one day. I still haven't been to the park.
Now... Uncertainty replaced everything. We are hiding in the dark, main comms are off, Thargoids are banging our sensors like they're trying to figure out something. We had first losses. We saw Federal installation and mining site being totally destroyed. Dozens of dead people. We have that refugee camp in the empty unused hangars. Xeno-pacifists riots. Peter and his investigation. Hardly explainable Thargoid behaviour. Not a series of attacks that we could repel, not something that looks familiar to me, but... Something different. Yep, short-range sensors are still silent, but this silence isn't feeling safe anymore.
Even that talk with Mion recently, about what kind of a future we might like to see. Thinking of it now, it feels so... Disconnected. Detached from the reality. Like, grasping for a straw of something... Calming. Almost subconsciously. Imagining a picture to escape what's brewing around us, for a moment. Creating a nice memory to help ourselves get through whatever is coming. Like, we both knew it already.
Damn. I doubt I'll be able to get asleep properly this night. I have to wait for Matthew's return anyway. Thankfully, there's no shortage of smokes and coffee and it's still warm outside...