Burning Rescue | Personal Log 12.6.3308
06 Dec 2022Mark Zero
-//Log Entry Start[Date: 12.6.3308]
[Location: Rescue Megaship "Federal Haven", Altair]
Well, hell has come to our doorstep. And whether we deserved this or not, it doesn't matter. All that matters now is survival.
The unknown anomalies that have been coming towards us are Thargoid invasion fleets. "Maelstroms", they're calling them now. Anchor points for the Thargoids that, as of right now, we have no answer for. I haven't been brave enough yet to try to get a look at one myself, but I've seen the footage. A massive caustic green cloud hundreds of kilometers long, with Thargoid devices that no one's ever seen reinforcing it, and something angry at the center that hurls ships away from it with terrifying force.
From these, the Thargoids have been expanding out and taking systems. Not just damaging stations, but wiping out all human infrastructure in the system. Methodically killing their way through all traces of humanity's presence. Ripping people out of witchspace and supercruise alike to exterminate any human ships that dare to encroach on their newly claimed domain.
The bubble is burning.
I'm trying to help fight back, however I can, and for whatever good it'll do. Obviously, combat's breaking out all over the region of systems being invaded, but this isn't like a normal system war, where designated combatants engage in an unpopulated area and settle their differences. The battles are happening over stations, in the skies above planetary ports, around outposts with barely enough defenses to ward off a determined pirate crew, let alone swarms of Thargoid Scouts. And there are people in those installations. People who need supplies, medical attention... more than anything, people who need a way out.
I've converted Rocksteady, my all-purpose Python, into an emergency evac rescue ship. All the economy passenger cabins and cargo racks I can squeeze in amid the reinforced bulkheads and module armoring I need to stay alive. A full compliment of turreted AX weaponry, mostly just to swat Scouts away from me on approach or egress. Enough heatsinks to hopefully keep me beneath the notice of any interceptors I run into. And, thanks to a few favors called in, some freshly installed thrusters tuned to run cold, efficient, and fast.
Coordinating with the rescue megaships is hectic, but the crew aboard them is terrifyingly organized. They'd have to be, seeing as they're moving hundreds of people at a time away from the chaos and further into the bubble. And it's appreciated, considering how rough it is trying to get these people out of the hot zones. I've lost count of how many times I've been wrenched off course and had to fight for an escape vector. Or had to force the ship to overheat to burn off the caustic mess eating its way through the hull.
Hard as it is on me, it's so much harder on the poor people I'm trying to get to safety. Their faces... the shock, the panic, the confusion on them as the emergency crews try to get them on your ship without trampling each other. You forget what real fear looks like until you see it again. Getting the wounded loaded in is even worse. Stations have started loading them into escape pods as standard procedure to keep them stable. I never liked how much the damn things look like coffins. And now I'm transporting dozens of them at a time.
Dozens of living, critically wounded people locked in neat rows in my cargo racks in pressure sealed coffins, with no idea if they're going to make it or not.
It helps sometimes to see them disembarking, once we reach the rescue ships. I had a woman with some nasty looking burns break the line and run over to me as I came down the ramp in need of coffee to settle my nerves. She grabbed me by the shoulders and thanked me for saving her life. Needed to see my face and ask my name so she'd never forget. Called me a hero. Me. A merc pilot who usually gets paid to shoot people on one side of a conflict or other, or steal something from some corp that another corp wants. But to this lady, I'm a hero.
Well if I'm a hero, then I'd damned well better give this my all.
-//Log Entry End