Whatever i felt in that alien world… i needed to think upon. I set out from freeport shortly after my return, to ponder and contemplate how i felt. My peace, my relaxed state of mind. I closed my eyes, and lay there. Between the planet and the sun within the belt. Thoughts wandered, feelings were fleeting but steady. Then…a sound. A distinct, engine sound. It was like a snap back to reality. And, i couldn’t shake the unnerved feeling. Nothing on sensors. Something was close. And i couldn’t see it.
Engines on, cloak activated and burn as much as it took to get somewhat away from the planet. Cloak activated, and then… contact. Closing rapidly. Alien in signature. I was still moving, still cloaked. And yet, it homed in on me, as though it saw right through my cloak! In a panic, i disabled my cloak, right after the alien seemed to power up…. Something i wasn’t sure was possible… a bright blue beam. I couldn’t believe what i was seeing… nor how quickly it tore my ship apart.
Repair nanobots were being vaporised as quickly as they went to work… ship was creaking with the sheer discharge. I sent an improvised system-wide distress call, and the alien vanished as quickly as it appeared. Had it lost interest in my demise? I didn’t know, nor did i even think to ask. Minutes later, a technocracy pilot and a corsair showed. And a couple minutes after, Daros too. The techno pilot, Revenant. They seemed to know things. The talking and mention of certain… words was like a warning beacon of curiosity. More so when they offered me a… trade. “Information for information”. Swarms of alien contacts began appearing in formation, at distance. We moved around a fair bit to keep distance.
The talking danced around the real questions, hoping to glean some of their information without too much direct approach nor exposing my encounters before. This, was futile. I didn’t exactly get anything, except more questions. With Daros and the corsair heading back into the freeport, i moved out with Revenant, to Minor. And more questions were raised. An unstable anomaly by the planet Toledo. Not the strangest thing, by far.
More aimless talking about nothing to the point, then a short flight to the destroyed alien structures. Again, more questions than answers were given to me. This Revenant seems to be a heap of mysteries on their own. They claimed to know much about them, and yet they had only talked about knowing of them. Being a Guild-master of the Core, and looking at “what were we really fighting” is about as useful as telling me you watched them for awhile. We all at some point watch them, from a distance, get to the point already!
Just when i finally thought id learn something useful… another alien formation… coming… towards us directly. So much for leaving to not disturb whatever it was… then a voice? From one of the ships. “Freelancer, leave.” Revenant began to go with me, “Auxesia, stay”. I felt that extreme sinking feeling, and took one look between the technocracy pilots vessel, and the alien formation before i was told to go to toledo and wait for them. Strange alien crafts, and i get told to wait away, like a badly behaved child? Yeah. Thats really gonna happen.
Flew, 20 klicks from the destruction site, til all the contacts were off sensors, then cloaked. No way i wasn’t going to go and wait idly for whatever was about to happen… Set up my comms to record, and kept distance, to see… i don’t know what it was. Some form of… alien reveal itself. It used one of the pilots in formation around it…to talk. At least… thats what i could make out from what was said. Names popped up that i have no idea what they mean, Laz, Caliban, Harbinger…
In losing myself in the conversation… i didn’t see the approaching swarm. Next thing i know.. they’re in formation!? Cloaked, and they still found me!? Cruise on, burn to maximum, try and make it to Delta before the alien got close…. To escape. Not today… With my hands shaking on the controls, i lost speed and direction. But even when everything was at maximum, i couldn’t have outrun it… the alien… was moving far faster than i ever could. When my ship de-cloaked, my engines died. The formation on me started engagement. Revenant, didn’t seem the least bit surprised to see me, but the alien… i could feel the…. Anger and betrayal from them… almost overwhelmingly so.
Freaked out and bleeding structural integrity, i hoped that they’d just make it quick… when Revenant spoke of sparing me, that i was just curious. Curiosity was the least bit on my mind. If i wasn’t so.. fearful. I would have asked questions. But anything i thought to ask was firmly locked away by the feeling of impending doom. Fear, turned to shock when it actually… listened to Revenant. They let me go, and left. I hightailed it out to Delta, to the Freeport. Made a stop for repairs and flew on to Pygar.
