How I learned to stop worrying and love the Thargoid War Part 1
21 Jan 2023KSI_Asmodai
I could hear crackling as ice formed and flaked off the inside edges of the Challenger's canopy. The brilliant quadruple sapphire beams were striking the Thargoid Interceptor dead center, venting all my craft's heat as they ate the alien's shield away slowly but surely. I could almost sense its confusion at the lack my ship's heat signature. It stayed unmoving, bedazzled by the lasers hitting it, seemingly, to its alien mind, coming from empty space - as my ship's ambient temperature was that of the vacuum surrounding it.A sudden flash told me the creature's shield had failed and I let my finger off the trigger controlling the beam group. The bright blue glare was suddenly replaced by the blackness of space, the green night vision outline of the Interceptor and the orange glow of my HUD. Glancing at my weapon distributor charge, I grinned as it displayed a full set of bars. Efficient beams had been a good choice and well worth the effort to obtain. Looking back up, I could see the creature beginning to stir as my ship's external heat levels began to climb. Soon I would be noticed.
Not wanting to lose the advantage of surprise, I flicked the boost button for my ship's thrusters while simultaneously pulling the trigger twice for my Shard Cannon group, aiming still for the dead center of the creature. Now everyone knows there is no sound in space, so outside my cockpit's confines only the Cerulean blue flashes of the three cannons gave away the fact that they were firing. Inside the ship, however, the mechanics of the weapons and the vibration of the hull made a satisfyingly loud blast-like sound with every trigger pull. The Mbooni crafted weapons had been hideously expensive in credits, spent both on the weapons and costly expeditions to acquire the Guardian parts - but the close grouping of shards at long range put the cannons a level far above those lesser versions available at Tech Brokers elsewhere.
The almost instantaneous six closely grouped shard hits to the Interceptor's middle had the desired effect. One of its remaining ragged "petals" flashed orange to expose the creature's last "heart". Whether these were real circulatory hearts or just a term coined by scientists to identify an unknown but vital organ I'm unsure - I just know they need to be detroyed one by one until the things die. The massive Thargoid sped towards me, angered by the pounding it had taken over the length of the battle. My ship was in a failing state as well. We were well matched.
I was still at the peak of my thruster boost and it seemed as if we would collide at breakneck speed when I pushed the stick ever so slightly down, pulling the Shard group trigger as the HUD targeting dots sped over the heart. My aim was true and the heart and petal blasted away as I passed by the creature. Yanking back hard on the stick, I flipped my ship back around to face the Interceptor again. I was a ways off, but I could see it was slowly turning, starting to flare a faint sparkling hue as it tried to re-energize its shield to save itself. I could also see the brighter yellow flashes from its caustic projectiles starting to emerge. Tapping the thruster boost again, I began furiously pulling the Shard Cannon group trigger as I was being pressed back into my seat by the boost. Alarm klaxons were blaring and I could see my ship's heat level was starting to cook the modules.
By the fourth pull of the trigger I was within 500 meters of it, my dash was smoking, multiple systems were failing and I could see the solidifying sparkle of its shield coming up. I fired my fifth and final shot, knowing the inevitable cannon reload sequence would start - and caustic projectiles would start to home in on my half crippled ship, probably killing me in the ensuing acid bath. I dipped the stick watching the Interceptor's shield flare to full power as I passed under its bulk at max thrusters. Taking a deep breath and resigning myself to a useless death, I pulled the stick back hard and flipped the ship to face the Thargoid. To my disbelief I could see pustulous yellowish-green explosions starting to emanate from the creature through the sparkle of its shield. Moments later it exploded in a giant acidic nova, pieces of its gigantic body spinning through space.
I stared incredulously for a moment until the acrid smell of burning electronics brought me back to my senses. Desperately I flipped switches, hoping my Power Distributor still functioned enough to divert power to the engineered Heat Sinks I had equipped the ship with - I knew their extra ammo capacity had left me with one charge in each utility mount after this lengthy battle. My ship's heat was off the chart and I would need to use both simultaneously to vent the heat before my ship exploded or I was cooked alive inside it. Switching through failed system after failed system, the words Heat Sink finally flashed across my HUD in bright orange, I toggled the switches to activate both and watched in relief as the heat levels quickly dissipated to normal tolerances.
My ship was devastated, I wasn't even sure if I could survive planetary re-entry or even the touch down on the base pad so far below. Flying to an orbital was out of the question. A Thargoid interdiction in Supercruise would be the end of me. My reflection on my dilemma was cut short by two loud clunks as the sinks were ejected out of the Challenger's hull. I watched both of them spin away like bright white stars towards the planet below for a few minutes until their brightness faded away. As their glare dimmed I began to notice faint streaks of light in the planetary atmosphere below me. There were four unmistakable trails of what I had jokingly referred to in the past as Unicorn dust directly below me above the base I needed to land at.
Interceptors.
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