Hunter S Ditchadder here,
So my editor calls me at 10pm on a Friday night. Says he has some work for me if I'm brave enough. I'm never brave enough, but I have just finished watching the documentary about the death of my dear father CMDR Ditch Adder the 1st, which means I'm half way through a concoction I have decided to name 'Consolation Juice' and pretty much prepared to do anything for the credits alone.
I get him to message me the details. Suddenly the need for bravery is clear. He wants me to get up close and personal with Titan Raijin. The jokes on him though because the best ship I have is a ASP and it sure as spaceflight isn't going toe to toe with a Thargoid of any form anytime soon.
I resolve to get close enough to the brave heroes fighting it to see some pretty lights and write the whole thing up gonzo style. If I'm lucky the whole thing will be over quickly and I can swing by a nearby station and grab some duty free with my pay. I've had worse weekends.
I set out for my journey, 34 jumps of 12 light years or less. I pencil in half an hour and get going. No need to stream the travel I think.
First I realise that I'm in my target sector is when the FSD tunnel I'm riding collapses like a soufflé and here I am dumped out into regular space like the… well, I don’t know what’s in a soufflé, but I’d be the that.
For the first time in my life I see a Thargoid. It’s as alien as it is clearly intent upon killing me. I fire so many missiles and torpedoes that my cockpit heats up like I have just smashed into a white dwarf. The lower left of my HUD in showing a sequence of 3 digit readouts, none of which are likely to keep me alive. I thrown the out of my mind and focus on escape. I’m media, I shouldn’t have to deal with anything this real.
After the explosion I regroup on a large ship one sector over. “I SAW one!” is my first thought. I wasn’t recording is the disappointing second.
I start my livestream, the people need to know and I need to earn the pay I’m already mentally spending. What follows is a series of challenges.
Firstly, this is interdiction country! When the Thargoids are not pulling me into the line of fire the other CMDRs are. I’m not one to critique the choices of other CMDRs, After all, there is no bigger man that humanity itself, so if they feel the need lash out at the whole species I have to show some respect for their anarchist zeal. That said, I’m to small to be a threat and, with the exception of one skilled dude that scored a couple of kills on me, too fast to be killed. We are, for the most part, all just wasting each other’s time.
Finally I hit the big cloud, I see lasers in the distance and Raijin, the big one itself, is appearing on my HUD. My hull is corroding like a Tesla in light rain by the time I get hit by the wave. The following explosion is no surprise.
As a final thought I look at all of the CMDR owned ships, good bad and lookie lous like me. The universe is so vast that you can go a long time without seeing the others that occupy it, but here they are all together.
Was it worth the half hour flight and 2 million credits of repairs. You can’t put a price on an experience, but if I had to I’d say 2 Million was no big deal. Especially since my editor is the one paying.
