Duty, 25: Vain
04 Jan 2023Meowers
We were too late. Arriving at the signal coordinates with our weapons ready, we saw nothing except a field of scattered debris. Jagged, twisted pieces of metal, silently floating in the greenish acid cloud, and... human bodies. In light protective suits or civilian clothing. We couldn't find any ejected escape pods. The ship was attacked and seems like almost instantly destroyed, and then the Thargoids left. It was an Orca liner, possibly one of those that do passenger runs to the Pleiades and back, and that meant... The attack was coordinated. Those liners aren't your usual passenger transport, they're fast and able to outrun a Thargoid Interceptor, so, they knew it. And ambushed the liner, opening fire as soon as they dropped from the cruise mode.
The fore part of the ship was almost intact, but the ship itself was like cut in half, with its aft part missing. Caught in the crossfire, probably. We still had to search for any possible survivors. That was... grim. Poor folks had no time to prepare. When their ship started to fall apart, they were sucked out into the vacuum, and those who managed to grab anything, died from suffocation and exposure just a few seconds after. And protective suits couldn't help against caustic acid, wearing them only meant a minute more in agony and pain.
Carefully, trying not to disturb the bodies, I flew around the hull, scanning for life signs... None. I knew it. Just had to... Make sure. For the report. And, there was a picture I'm sure I'll remember for a long time... A woman, holding her child by the hand. They were right in the middle of the ship, near the breach. Woman was holding on to the handrail with her other hand; she desperately tried to save her child, with the last silent scream still frozen on their faces.
"We should return. There's nothing we can do here."
Hate to say that... But, really. What else can we do? Those goddamned Thargoids are way ahead of us. We can fortify our stations, we can do patrols, we can spot their movements to some extent... But we can't see the whole picture. We can't predict and build strategies. They operate with a technology we cannot yet fully understand, and, sometimes, we can only react and keep our fingers crossed, hoping we can reach the signal until it's too late. And... It's too late sometimes.
There was another piece of news waiting for me at the base. I noticed Matthew's wing refuelling and rearming in the hangars, and their ships carried signs of recent battle. Moreover, one of the local Kraits looked like it made a hard landing in the grass field; the ship was badly damaged, covered in acid neutraliser foam, and there were a couple of fire trucks nearby. So, after my own debriefing, I asked Matthew what's happened. And... Turns out, shit happened.
A small group of Thargoids has been spotted on the low orbit shortly after my departure, and Matthew's wing, with the support of one local wing, took off to intercept them. They destroyed that pack without any trouble, but only to see more of them arriving afterwards. They engaged once again... And then the third wave appeared. Realising that it's not going to end soon, Matthew commanded regroup and retreat, before they had to deal with serious damage and possible losses. But the Thargoids kept pursuing them, so he sent the local wing back to the settlement, requesting reinforcements, engaging the aliens to slow them down, though... They were determined to attack local defence forces ships. Again and again, Matthew tried to shake them off, but they were persistent, and even refused to retreat after seeing two more wings joining the battle. For some reason... They fought to death.
And the reason became obvious during the inspection of the damaged Krait. It was another sabotage. Those alien-loving bastards somehow got their hands on Guardian tech trinkets and meta-alloy chunks, and they hid them on board the ship. And... I guess it's not the only one ship. Whatever the Thargoids have for sensors, those ships are now glowing brightly on them. Shit.
Damn it. This ends now. I called Peter on a secured channel and asked for an update. Turns out, our detective guy found two key figures of that alien-loving underground, he knew where they were gathering, but he still lacked any solid evidence to connect the dots between them and the possible saboteurs. He came close, but not close enough to send the report to the local authorities and let them put those bastards in a cage. And, again, they were targeting only local defence ships, so AXDF couldn't intervene legally. So... I told I'll visit him. With a video recording that could be interesting. Yeah, that recording.
Still not enough, he said. Even if he recognised the voice of the man who spoke to me. Dammit. Anyway, it was a perfect moment to ask how did he learn all that... Hm. Our guy was a cop, but 'things gone badly wrong'. Uh. Whatever that means.
You know what? I'm friggin' tired. Those arseholes are playing with our lives, putting the entire settlement at risk, and we still can't do anything 'legally'. Screw it. Shit. That's going to be a real war crime. But, screw them. I'm not the one to sit and watch silently.
"Tell me where their place is and when they plan to meet there, and return to active duty. Consider this an order."
Looks like Peter was right. That small, one-story building without windows, on the far side of the old warehouse complex. Your classic rascal hideout. Distant and insignificant enough to remain unnoticed, 'used for storage of non-essential items', completely worthless concrete box. I remembered, when they captured me, I had to walk blindfolded through several doors... So, wherever that interrogation room was placed, it was closer to the back, emergency exit. Hoping the tall grass would cover me, I waited until they started to gather inside...
I used my rifle scope to watch them. Counted twelve or thirteen. They weren't wearing armour and had no weapons except pistols, obviously: a group of armed people gathering somewhere would definitely attract unwanted attention. So, whatever heavier weapons they've had, were kept inside the building.
Of course, the emergency exit was locked, but that didn't bother me at all. Long burst of plasma rounds from ten metres shattered the thin metal door, leaving deep scorched marks on the wall behind it, and I kept firing until what was left of the door and the door frame fell on the ground, disappearing in the cloud of concrete dust. Then I stormed through the dust, reloading on the go, and entered the main corridor, where I met two men, with their eyes full of terror, they were pointing their pistols at me, squeezing them with their hands trembling. They even fired a few shots... That were no match for military-grade shields.
"Idiots. Run while you still have those legs."
One of them listened to me, he dropped his pistol, turned around and ran down the corridor to the main entrance. Second one... Damned fanatics. Had to shot him. Two plasma rounds hit his chest, cracking it open, and he fell on the floor instantly. Third one came out of the door on the right, holding a carbine... Short burst thrown his body in the air, ripping off the arm, and a couple of rounds exploded in the stomach, splattering his blood and burned tissues all over the walls.
I entered the room with my rifle ready. And... It was that room. Exactly. And that man, the one who spoke to me, he tried to hide behind a desk. Idiot. And three more, pointing their pistols at the doorway. They had nowhere to run, and I had no time for any pompous speeches. Several more hits drained my shields to the half, but the surprise effect was still on my side, and I killed them, one by one, rapidly, without giving a chance, aiming straight for the chests. Left to right. Like in a damn shooting range.
Had to check the corridor and two more rooms quickly, but they were empty already, and the front door was open... I even saw somebody running away... Seems like they didn't know I was alone, hah. Returning to what seemed to be their main room, I started searching for... Anything. Any clues. Still had no idea what kind of clues could be 'enough', but I've found some ship and equipment schematics, guard schedules, comm transmission recordings, all that, even some meta-alloy shipment details... Ah. I've had no time anyway. I just took all this and placed in the middle of the room, where the bodies were, on the plain sight, hoping that local authorities will finally get to know what exactly is happening right under their noses.
And I left the building, disappearing in the tall grass. Had to run to the hangars quickly...
What could happen next? Ah, screw it. I don't care. I'll finish that recording, spend some time in the cockpit and wait for the new day to begin.