Log # 11 The painite botherer and fighting the green menace
13 Dec 2017(Wettoast) Wanda Fersegi
Jameson memorial : Shinrarta Dezhra
After an extended absence from the core worlds, I made my way over to the founder's system Shinrartra Dezhra to see if I could get my usual trade routes back on track .There's always a basic medicines route out there that needs exploitation!
However, in my absence the Aegis initiatives and thargoid threat had both become more pressing. I had initially took a solid stance against any encounter with the thargoids as I hoped for a peaceful resolution, but after seeing abductions of survivors in pods I had to do something . In order to do that, I need to turn to the services of the engineer Selene Jean for hull reinforcement modifications. If I'm going to be under fire while trying to rescue lost souls, I want a hull that would take those damn bugs eons to get through. Selene Jean only works with miners for some reason .... Miners ? Miners!?! The ones not fighting the thargoids?!
Algol system
Ok, ok, I'm well versed enough in the fact that miners need excellent protection from pirates coming in and making a mess of things, but I think there are a lot more pilots out there that need her heavy armor modifications that aren't miners .... The thargoids have the ability to breach shields, this would make her service damn near priority number one. So this means I'll have to become an asteroid botherer. Might be a bit hypocritical on my part to rip on miners as I find turning a profit through trading as holding my interest, but there seems to be no other way to have access to Selene's services. Well since miner's deal with pirates, I'm going to need the python for shooting rocks and hulls. There's no way I'm going to get caught with my pants down while mineral bothering. 500 units of material refined ? Fine... Let's get this over with....
500 units of material refined and 10 units of "painful" painite later, Selene Jean finally decided that I was worth their attention . While mining is still number one on my shitlist, I can understand the appeal in a way now since being forced to do it. Finding a few boulders stuffed with painite, palladium, and gold did make a pretty profit, maybe even enough to swing around for another go if some of my frequented commodity flying routes dry up . Time to see if Selene can turn any vessels I own into a proper ship to rescue fellow spacers from these flower shaped murderers.
Remembering the first encounter with the thargoid
I had flown to the Pleiades area of stars in the cobra expecting to fly into debris fields to find anyone in need of rescue, not expecting to ever come face to face with one of these behemoths. I had been inclined to believe that the size of the craft were overblown in order to create sensational headlines across galnet. Little did I realize what a wake up call being in the midst of one would be. I had come across a debris field of a federal fleet, a corvette and two dropship, scanners open, frantically searching for life pods . Green fog obscured the light of the star and a corrosive substance stuck to the hull of the federal ships .I had a hard time believing what I was seeing. I saw a contact come up on the contacts panel and threw the cobra's hull in its direction. 100 meters out I was getting ready to scoop up the poor bastard and that's when the curdling roar that I have become too familiar with today . I had no clue where it came from, my radar seemed to have an odd reading coming from .. Right overhead... I pitched up and saw it .
Magnificent and horrifying, something extravagant out of an ancient earth religion such as Hinduism . 8 Large petals and one ceaselessly staring center. Was it piloted by a creature ? Was the craft itself a creature? I was frozen in my seat as it seemed to be collecting... something... I watched it move towards the escape pod I had been attempting to rescue and take it into itself. I wanted to do something but I was too scared, I was afraid that looking at it for too long would make it displeased or angry with my presence. Soon it lost interest in the wreckage of the federal ships and began to speed off, I had just started to feel brave enough to move again. I didn't want it to think I was following it so I kept enough of a distance to just make out what it was up to.
Petals were folding back, light was bending around a tunnel, an opening revealing a sort of green yellowish madness within. Red lines and smoky black trails followed it to the opening and it closed a moment after the thargoid was gone . Whoever was taken by that thargoid, was going with it to whatever lies at the end of that tunnel.
Facing the monsters a few months after the first encounter: Pleiades nebula
I had only barely started engaging the thargoids, usually out of aiding a wing of highly experienced pilots that covered my sorry ass as I searched the wreckage for pods. Once I had the popsicles in the cargo hold, I would flip around and assist the wing vessels with giving the thargoid some food for thought. Even while utilizing the the thick hulls of the federal dropship or assualt ship, they could only take so much punishment from the barrage of both the swarm and the flower itself. By now, two variants of thargoid were known, the basilisk, and the cyclops. I tried as many maneuvers as I could in these engagements: Flying away and firing salvos while it gave chase, tailing it and firing at it's rear , and trying to dispatch its swarm without the swarm overwhelming you. Yet the thargoid is so mind bendingly fast, it can keep pace with you no matter the vessel.
Our wing wasn't anything too special, just a search and rescue team consisting of a bulky heavily armored delacy anaconda, a federal gunship, and me flying support in my federal assault ship, all of us heavily armed with snazzy new anti-xeno weaponry, all of us had the same goal in mind, and surprisingly no one was at each other's throats over our differences in government. Federal and imperial pilots making nice for once.
I've never taken down either of the two thargoid variants in my time flying with them, only severely damaging one cyclops classified thargoid. I may not have survived as long as I did or be as effective in combat against the thargoids if it weren't for the constant heads up and combat pointers by the imperial pilot cmdr Capricos. To this day I'm no amazing combat pilot by an measurement, but at least we were able to save tens of lives or recover black boxes and damaged escape pods. But when I get back home, my parents will know who kept having to save my borderline, moronic, behind. I have him to thank, because if destroyed you would have no idea where the flower monster would take your pod and what they want with you.
Fly safe around the Pleiades...