War Machines
28 Feb 2024Kasumi Goto
"Both humans and Thargoids have built formidable tools of war. All they have ever known with each other is armed exchanges. And as this conflict reaches the heights of its engagements, I'm left with only one question, holding several others within it - what is the point in all this? What have the Thargoids gained from this assault? What will they gain if we fail? And if we, humanity, succeeds, is it truly going to be a victory, or are we just going to unleash something worse?"
February 26, 3310
Location: Hyades Sector FB-N b7-6
Immediate vicinity of Titan Taranis
Taranis roared in pain.
I'd only barely gotten through the caustic field when I received alerts of the Titan overheating and exposing its core to vent off the excess heat produced by its activity. It was active enough that I had to fire off the pulse neutralizer three times to avoid repeated knockback from it constantly activating its repellant field. And even at the edge of the caustic cloud, I could already see something off, as it'd appeared a lot less dense than it was supposed to be, allowing the heavy activity of human ships within, most notable through beam laser fire, to be seen at the center.
It took just as little time as the alert appearing for me to 'hear' the Titan give off unbearable, excruciating sounds from its thermal core getting pounded relentlessly by... however many human ships were swarming it, after forcing it to expose its core, or some vulnerable part of it, by disrupting the heat vents. Like sharks driven to a frenzy by blood in the water, or locusts swarming a tree's leaves. For all the talk that humans spouted out about how the Thargoids were animalistic insects, they were no better themselves, or even, worse.
I couldn't see where this core was supposed to be located, looking at the underside of the Titan - or what I supposed to be it, given the presence of the big maw, and that it looked significantly less armored - only that sensor contacts made it look as if shots were being fired into something at the center, giving it the impression that they were being shot into the maw itself.
The roars stopped, and instead the Titan made a more aggressive sound that... also made me flinch, yet the reason for it seemed... different. I just 'knew', although not the reason for this. Taranis began to glow blue, with an accompanying charging sound and lights of equivalent color appearing on the "tips" surrounding the maw, until it discharged in an extremely bright magnetic field, or at least it certainly resembled one. Having stopped just short of where the asteroid ring around the Titan stopped, however, I was safe from it. As I was, quite intentionally, from the torpedoes flung at its heat vents. Those, especially, I wanted to avoid - while likely programmed to only target the heat vents they were launched into, I wanted to be nowhere near those things, just in case. Certain death was definitely not on my wish list.
The heat vents opened again, barely a minute later, when the maw or some of the side exits 'opened'. And I watched ships scurry around near them, like insects scrambling to defend their hive, except here... it was humans attacking what they, themselves and in derogatory manner, qualified as "mindless bugs" or "insects". Launching torpedoes against the vents to - effectively - jam them, either forcing the Titan to overheat, or expose a core component of its internal mechanism to serious damage.
I couldn't just hear the pain in its 'roars', as the canopy speakers interpreted the emissions coming from it - I could feel it, too, and how it was calling for help at the same time. It was hard to witness this.
I grimly observed the last heat vent be disrupted, turning its yellow interior into a kind of blue-ish 'mist' as the nanites from a torpedo basically destroyed the mechanism. And I received that same alert of the thermal core getting exposed to not kill everything inside the Titan, including the biomechanical machinery keeping it alive, from the heat buildup.
How could these people think this was anything but horrifying to witness?
I placed my left hand on my head and shook it slowly, while 'supporting' the elbow on a thigh, even if that wasn't necessary in zero G. I couldn't stand watching this, yet... I stayed. And tried to move a little closer to figure out where I was going wrong in observing this, also using a camera drone. Being in silent running, the only real way to locate my ship was visually, or accidentally straying close enough to it for the sensors to at least pick up a vague contact.
There seemed to be nothing on this 'lower' side of the Titan. Neither the camera drone nor me saw anything reminiscent of a core that was used to vent heat in an emergency there, and I got caught at the edge of the disruption field when it went off, backing out of it with minimal damage sustained. A couple of Scouts exiting the Titan through the maw at the back ignored me too, already jumping out by the time they could have possibly picked me up - though I couldn't sense any hostile intent toward me, I still intended to be careful.
Since there was nothing to be seen at the bottom, the core had to be at the top. And, unsurprisingly, I was right. The next venting cycle saw an almost cylindrical core with glowing 'appendages' come out when the heat vents were disrupted again, and I watched a dozen, if not more, ships, just pile in on it, like they were beating a piñata. When it retracted, yet again, the Titan triggered its disruptor field while I saw a "reward" of 503 credits appear just for being there, when these savages were busy ripping something apart that they had no business in attacking. And none of them even cared about the surrounding Thargoids while that core was exposed. They all just focused on the Titan's core, despite getting pounded by Scouts, turrets and whatever else was flying around in this chaos, until the core sealed off again. Somewhere, a shutdown pulse from an Interceptor went off, too, but didn't reach me.
It annoyed me to see a Medusa flying around, too, with its swarm out and clearly looking for a target, which it couldn't find in the 'downtime' period due to the human ships concealing their heat signatures enough. Why the Thargoids hadn't corrected this flaw yet, I couldn't understand, but at least the Titan's own defense turrets were doing something.
An angry noise to my right caught my attention, and a Cyclops around three kilometers away was 'looking' my way. I decided to back off a little while thinking to myself 'Okay, okay, calm down. Not here to mess with anything'. Whether through me backing off or that 'thought' getting sent through my link, it turned away to seek out actual attackers. By the time I looked back at the Titan, the Medusa had finally found something to get angry at, but I couldn't keep track of it much beyond that - at least, visually. And, being here, it also felt like the implant blocked out some of the noise on purpose to not completely overwhelm my brain, so not through my hivemind link either.
A pulse from the xeno scanner to analyze the Titan didn't reveal anything targetable, when the thermal core was exposed, though it clearly would have to be registered as one by ship computers to identify it this easily. Maybe I was too far to get the sensors to show it, to reduce clutter, but I was not about to get close enough to the Titan for that, especially with nanite torpedoes clearly getting launched at that core as well. I watched two more cycles of the madness, with the bond reward popping up as though to entice me to "take part", when I would never do it, before I decided I'd really had enough of it.
"This is disgusting."
It was intended to be a thought, but it slipped out as a spoken statement, a quite passionate one at that.
Idiots. You tried to warn them that this would have consequences, and who listened? Even I did., Kira remarked in my mind, sounding quite upset and spiteful.
I saw a new arrival come in at the corner of my vision. And a Glaive almost immediately pounced on it - a Type-10 Defender - which resulted in the Titan's turrets lighting it up as well. Whatever good that did. I questioned if it was my presence, that caused it to be discovered so quickly.
Don't feel sorry for them. They deserve this. The Thargoids didn't.
Maybe. But ...
Even if the Thargoids didn't notice it because we're here, they couldn't miss that giant, idiotic brick if it was as cold as the vacuum.
I just looked back at Taranis. It was currently going through an idle phase, which I could hear was about to end, from the strange, building wind-like sound indicating its heat vents were about to open up. Unsurprisingly, the show of idiots occurring at least a dozen kilometers away from me still did the same thing it'd already done. And I began to feel an annoyed desperation.
'Is this really the only way that we can interact with each other? Why does it always have to be this slaughtering until one side gives up?'
Right as I finished that thought, I 'felt' something strong inside my mind, enough to be painful for a short moment as its 'voice' materialized.
How can you be trusted?
"Wha ..."
It came from within the Titan. Or directly through it.
Your kind only understands or responds with violence. You ignored our warnings.
"Warnings? What warnings? The ones that you never gave us? And you should have expected that we would defend ourselves."
You still do not understand. We showed your kind clear terms, and they did not respect them. You did not transmit our warning either.
"I don't remember being given a warning by you to give to Aegis. And how were we supposed to know it was not meant to make your invasion easier?"
You meddle and interfere with things you do not understand.
"Then why can't you tell us why the hell you're actually here, so I can help put an end to this stupidity?"
Your species has not shown any responsibility in its actions. You are chaotic. Violent. Unaware of the consequences of your actions, or do not care. Our goals are more easily achieved through force.
"Are they? Look at what's happening. You - or your Titans, whatever you actually call them, are now vulnerable, and you've been stuck fighting over the same ground for nearly half a year. Do you really still believe violence is the only solution with us? We are not all - "
Those who seek different paths, as you do, are insufficient in number. And you know little of our capabilities. If we chose to use them, this conversation would not be taking place. “It” paused briefly. Humanity is foolish if it believes this will solve its problems. And you will learn your place as a species.
The 'presence' withdrew from my mind, leaving me deeply confused, and... with what felt like a strong headache coming. Whatever had connected to me really drained my energy. I sighed.
'Now I have this to worry about too.', I thought, looking back at Taranis, where the valiant knights in shining armor were still busy storming the castle, not realizing their actions were likely to only make things worse.
Is this really the Aegis you want to be supporting?, Kira asked me, more than a hint in that question.
No., I replied. But the Thargoids aren't being any better like this. Still ...
I activated open comms, or at least outgoing. I'd listened to incoming for a while, and it was not a pretty picture... for us. If it wasn't someone trying to coordinate efforts, there were about three idiots going on about the "imminent victory over the bugs", "death to the xenos" or something else in that direction and equally repulsive.
"I hope you think that this is all worth it."
The two answers I received before I turned off the comms link? "Purge the xenos" and "Think that what is worth what?". About as I expected from these idiots. No wonder that nutjob Salvation was able to push things as far as he did. And maybe the Thargoids did have a point. If it wasn't someone shouting about how the Thargoids only deserved to be exterminated at the top of their lungs, it was probably someone who was totally, completely clueless and wouldn't be able to find a treasure if they were given a map with exact coordinates, and a device showing their current location.
I still wouldn't support them. But a memory resurfaced that I was equally uninterested in supporting humanity in this war if things didn't change. This madness around Taranis only made me feel justified in that, and even reinforced the feeling. I turned this ship - a Krait MKII, my primary choice for anything that had to do with the war, as it seemed - around, and began to fly out of the Titan perimeter. Both to just leave this bullshit behind, and not let anyone get funny ideas about launching a nanite torpedo at my ship. An odd thought came to my mind while doing so, one that I couldn't determine the origin of.
A ship without a soul is just a cold, worthless shell.
It had to be related to the way Thargoid ships were partly alive. Two caustic sinks and burning off what the final charge should have absorbed, had I not accidentally ejected one of the containers early on during this 'visit', I jumped back to my nearby carrier - which I had chosen to rename to 'Kasumi's Abode'... since I'd be spending a bit of time on it.
There, I ordered a different ship to be pulled out of storage. My Krait Phantom generally outfitted for Bubble operations, but for some matters relating to Thargoids, it did a decent job as well. I changed a few utility mounts and power plant out for more appropriate equipment, the reactor changing to a low-emission plant rather than armored, removed the weapons, and then took off again, making my first stop nearby, at a spire site Taranis' Thargoids were aiming to reactivate. Whatever use that would be. But nothing had changed there, at all.
Similarly, the still-active spire in HIP 19870 around Indra, which had never been taken offline, showed no signs of change or being affected by what was occurring at the Titans, though it was extremely obvious Taranis was the main focus. I retreated back to the carrier and began to just... think, there. Pondering what I had seen.
And I decided what I really needed to be doing was to keep myself out of the way of these two war machines ripping at each other's throats. All they seemed to do was fight, and it felt like they were both acting like belligerent kids, always accusing the other of wrongdoing instead of changing, or admitting it, and I really just wanted no part in that. Especially right now, when I had more important things related to my own life, or interest, to look into. So, I opened the file where I noted down the locations Seo wanted me to visit that appeared related to... something I'd find interesting, at least. She hadn't said what they were about, just that I'd want to see what's there, and that it was relevant to both past and future.
I selected for some internal modules to be changed, including the reactor, the utility mounts to be returned to their shield booster configuration, and the weapons to be re-installed. Once that was done and out of the way, I'd definitely have some distance to cross. And put some much needed space between me and any of the Titans - because that first location was quite far removed from the Bubble. Near a nebula, so I hoped it'd be free of anything Thargoid.
But even if they were there, it wouldn't stop me. I wanted to go on this journey, and only death could prevent me from pulling through with it.