Rescue Zero : A Good Man Goes to War
03 Nov 2017IndigoWyrd
Rescue Zero is a retrofit Saud Kruger Orca. Though designed as a luxury ship, Rescue Zero has been outfitted as a Search and Rescue vessel, currently operating out of the Pleiades, retrieving Escape Pods which have been targeted by Thargoids. It hadn't taken long to locate several escape pods and retrieve them, but Thargoids on the other hand, remained elusive. After searching and salvaging at several non-human signal sources, this would change. I can honestly say these were quite impressive - large, organic craft, but surprisingly fast and agile. I sat, staring this strange craft down, and we scanned each other thoroughly. It was not openly hostile, and after a time it turned away to go about its business - scanning the remains of several imperial ships scattered throughout the signal area.I kept my distance, and they kept theirs. I retrieved quite a bit of materials - ship flight recorders, scientific data, samples, and escaped pods, some damaged, some undamaged. It was unclear what the alien craft was looking for - perhaps gathering intelligence of their own, or trying to determine what had happened here, though it was pretty obvious - something had attacked these ships, as organic residue covered them, and it wasn't any of The Usual Suspects. I didn't suspect this particular craft to be responsible, as it was largely content to simply scan the wreckage and after a short time it jumped out, leaving a very strange wake behind. Once the craft had departed, I also departed. There was nothing more for me to do but return these escape pods to The Oracle.
I made several more trips out, and had a few additional encounters, and they had all gone the same way - I would scan and be scanned, and we'd go about our business, until one of these craft decided I might make for an interesting target. The large craft deployed a veritable swarm of small organic craft, and they set on me like swarm of angry bees, ignoring my shielding and damaging my hull. The main ship tended to stay back, firing on me with a strong energy weapon. I was able to outdistance both the swarm and the ship. Rescue Zero was designed for high-speed operations, but the mass of the wreckage and the large ship was able to hold me in a mass-lock for quite some time before I was able to make my escape.
This unprovoked hostility would not be tolerated. I had been fired upon, and there could only be one response. I returned again to The Oracle, and joined forces with another commander who was taking the fight to the aliens. Though Rescue Zero is not a combat ship, it is not unarmed. The main beam laser was capable of regenerating allied shields, and it sported a pair of multicannons that were designed to engage these aliens. It did not take long to find them either, and we moved to engage. Rescue Zero had the speed to draw its attention, and the other commander's Federal Gunship boasted the raw fire power to do serious damage, but it took the pair of us working together to actually bring the threat down. Through our combined efforts we were victorious. But this was only the beginning. I made a side trip to nearby Ceren Tarn, my distant staging area for my remote fleet, and put a transfer request in to have another ship sent to this location - a Fer de Lance specially outfitted for alien engagements.
I am a peaceful person by nature, but when pushed, I push back. The line had been drawn. They drew the first blood. I would see their run in torrents.