The Thargoids have been at it again, this time in the nattily named Pleiades Sector IR-W d1-55 system, a little trek rimwards from the Bubble. This time, the aliens had been hitting megaships in the area and, ever willing to help, Commander Altsain considered which ship to take.

The problem was that the commander had never broken into a megaship before (this time would be for legitimate purposes though), but she knew it would require several limpet controllers, and she fully intended to remain Fuel Rat ready during the expedition – which would require yet another controller, and few ships have that many spare module slots.

In the end, she opted for the Anime Princess, her Imperial Clipper.

The ship was fast (other commanders would be in the same area, and not all of them could be trusted), had a decent jump range and, with a bit of squeezing, could fit controllers for Fuel Transfer Limpets, Collectors and Hatchbreakers. With a quick double check to make sure everything had been installed properly, the Anime Princess departed for the Pleiades!

The commander arrived in system, and quickly located the Lowell-class science vessel HLD-667. However, it was not alone, and the commander had a very close encounter…

Deciding that discretion was very much the better part of valour, the commander backed off and the Anime Princess maintained a healthy station-keeping distance from the Thargoid as it mooched over the science vessel, scanning for whoever knows what.

Eventually, it departed, and the commander set to work – just as another ship arrived, an Asp Scout. That ship’s commander linked comms and offered to work together. Great, Commander Altsain thought, as she had never tried to hack into a megaship before.

As it turned out, nor had the other commander…

There was a bit of headscratching, as the two commanders tried to work out how to scan the ship, and the other commander offered the opinion that perhaps he should head to a station to pick up some Hatchbreaker Limpets. Then, a breakthrough – Commander Altsain figured out that she had to use the sub-targetting menu after scanning the megaship in order to give her Hatchbreakers a target.

Messaging the other commander not to depart, she broke into the science vessel, and lots of escape pods came tumbling out, more than enough for both ships to carry.

Boosting away from the megaship, the commander successfully rescued more than a dozen crewmen, and quickly returned to free more from the stricken vessel.

In all, this was a successful rescue operation and, fortunately, no more Thargoids returned to the science ship, though the Anime Princess was ambushed on the return trip by Thargoid scouts. Quickly dispatching those, the commander considered returning to the Pleiades with her Thargoid-hunting Type 10, the Auricwing…