The Final Stretch
26 Oct 2024Jana Razeki
Jana's logEntry... I don't know
October 26, 3310
So... seven Titans down, one left.
Raijin exploded early on... when was it... ah. Yeah. Early on Thursday, the 24th. Really, meant to write this then, but my sleep's been a bit of a mess and I spent more hours that night rescuing people from it before it turned into a caustic sun than I did rest. And I pretty much just stopped working after that was done.
Anyway. I guess we're approaching the end of... well, at least this part of the war. I can't say I have too much faith in that it will really do much but maybe stall out the conflict for a short time. If it even does that, when the last Titan goes. Or maybe I should say if it does, considering what could still happen in the coming weeks.
And that could be a lot, given the 'news' we've had lately. I can't say I understand much about that whole... Thargoid hivemind link thingy and whatever else is going on with that, but, probably don't need to. Matters more that I get the idea that the Thargoids aren't out yet, far from it, and now they've probably got a lot of information on their hands on how humans do things... if they didn't before, already. Sure won't make things any easier.
Haven't spoken to my friend, the one that has things to say about Thargoids - that aren't throwing insults at them while blasting their faces off with shard cannons - either, but I'd guess she would tell me that the warning we got isn't one to take lightly. Not that I personally would... though, the best thing any of us can do is react to any Thargoid surprises than to prevent them. Well, I guess aside from blowing up that last Titan, but with how dug in it is, that's not going to happen any time soon, even if some members of Aegis like to believe so.
Whether I'll react to it - that depends on what exactly happens or which places get hit. If they go and dump a million Thargoids in the Empire or Federation's capitals, what do I care? They asked for it by starting this shitstorm in the first place. And maybe they do just deserve to get punched in the head a little. If they start just targeting systems randomly, I'll probably focus on the independent ones more than I would any others. Alliance gets second priority, since they haven't done anything wrong to me... but they're still a superpower. So, yeah. Call it a bias if you must, and not a rational one, but that's where I stand.
Aside from this... already got myself in place around Cocijo. Haven't really been too active in the whole Titan pushback endeavor, starting only with Oya, then moved on to Raijin. Leigong and Indra, I only did things to support the rescue effort when they started to go boom, because you know, it's a thing you should do (even if they end up being turned on us by the Thargoids, that's not an excuse to just leave them to blow up with the Titan when there's no evidence to suggest they would be). Skipped on Hadad - because, you know, it was a pain in the ass to the Imps - and Thor as well for that same reason, albeit to a lesser degree, though I was also taking a break from this Titan war madness around the time of that latter one.
And Taranis... well... everyone watched it. Of course. Or, probably, most people that paid any attention to this war. It only became known more publicly that Thargoids around an exploding Titan were more interested in leaving than shooting you if you left them alone after that, so couldn't have taken part in a rescue effort if there was a coordinated one (not to my knowledge).
So with Raijin gone, that just leaves this one Titan, Cocijo. Even if Seo hadn't told us about Thargoids poking around in her mind and that they are - once again - plotting... something, it would have surprised me if it just sat there waiting to be reduced to bits of scrap like the others. But until we know what exactly it's going to do, I'll be around there. Might not have been the most involved person in this war, but I was there from close to its beginning, helping to defend our things, and I think I'll want to be there when it ends too... however it might. Hopefully, not with us getting the short end of the stick.
What am I going to do when it is over? I don't know yet. Future planning is not one of those things I'd describe as one of those things I have. Being a stupid idiot that loves dumb stuff, though, totally. I prefer to see what this life throws at me anyway... but I might keep that anti-xeno gear in storage in case I have a need for it again in the future. Which, being honest, seems fairly likely, but I might do a lot less of that after the final Titan, unless things get a little too close to home. Want to start doing less fighting, or surviving, and more living.
I should probably say something about my concerns how people are going to react to those who fought in the war to defend our space. Part of me already feels like what's going to happen is that everyone is going to get lobbed into the same bunch as the idiots that supported "Salvation" and his egotistically mad goal to try dominating a species that was probably in space before we even left caves or something. Even if they only actually fought Thargoids to defend the Bubble like me, and had nothing to do with those provocations.
Anyhow... I'll be taking off soon. Heading for the Vocovii system. Aegis forces sent there apparently turned the surface port on planet 5 back on... which has a gravity rating of 1.82. That's going to be 'fun', and by fun I mean it might have been easier on the pilots if they'd just gone for one of the outposts, even if those are more distant. never fought in that kind of high gravity environment either, so it'll be interesting for me to figure out how not to crash constantly.
I hope those extra layers I've got on the seat are worth something in that. Going to be getting pressed into that pretty hard there.
Anyway, enough talk (or writing). Sure hope this won't be the last log I'm writing, from within the Bubble at least.
Post-publishing addendum (October 27)
Yeah, those layers did their work yesterday. Cleared the system in the afternoon, or at least of enough Thargoids that they stopped going for the station... which also happened to be the last one getting attacked around the Titan, since the (usual) non-committal invasions and the other port taken back by the counterstrike force were already defended earlier.
Going on a break again for the next few days from this Thargoid fighting, given how I was fairly involved with helping bring down Raijin (even if I didn't shoot the Titan itself). Have a feeling I'll want it anyway, Cocijo is probably not going to be sitting around idle for much longer. And with them building their forces for a few months without actual attempts to push outward, well, it's probably not going to look pretty.