...if you win the engagement.
This may already be known to many, but destroying a Scythe after it has looted your hold with its limpets ('Thimpets') leaves the escape pods you had collected (well, most of them) floating in space.
Up until the Scythes appeared I had only ever fought Thargoid Scouts, what with my ship (Cobra Mk III) only having 642 hull and 229MJ of shields - hardly conducive to going up against Interceptors or even the recent Glaives (although admittedly I haven't yet attempted Glaives for fear of being sent to Commander Jameson's Locker).
Tonight I decided to visit the Dedicant and listen to the logs. After that eerie experience, on the planet below I noticed some Distress Signal sources and knowing that would mean escape pods, I thought this could be my opportunity to see if I could entice a Scythe (I had no intention of sacrificing the occupants, but knew that was a risk).
So after landing and SRVing the two escape pods at my chosen signal source, I jumped back into hyperspace on a route to a rescue ship. Sure enough, in the second system after the jump from HIP 19600, I was Interdicted just after completing the fuel scoop at the local star. I was assaulted with energy weapons fire and missiles, and shortly after turning to face my attacker (definitely a Scythe from the images I have seen), Thimpets did their dirty deed and relieved me of the two escape pods in my hold.
Now, I may only have 642 hull and 229MJ of shields (actually a lot less than 229MJ in combat as I need three pips to weapons), but my 2 class-two Modified (Salvation) Guardian Plasma Chargers made short work of my attacker (about seven or eight volleys of two shots each - not all necessarily at full charge). My shields were of course brought down and about 70% hull remained (can't exactly remember), plus some internal damage which I mitigated with the AFMU. Interestingly neither my Guardian Plasma Chargers nor my Guardian Frameshift Drive Booster were affected by the Scythe, contrary to what I had expected.
But then I noticed both escape pods floating out there in space, and scooped them back up.
After delivering the escape pods to a rescue ship, I repeated the exercise, but this time closer to Thargoid occupied space, in an Alert system. Similar results, but on the latter occasions not all stolen escape pods remained after defeating the Scythe. Some lives were lost in the process.
In my last encounter in an uninhabited Alert system, from which I had collected three pods, only two remained. One was retrieved by an S&R ship (that's fine - life saved) and I collected the other. So I set out to gather more from the same system. Before I got anywhere near the next Combat Aftermath signal source I was Interdicted again - another Scythe. Again it took the singular escape pod from my hold and again I destroyed the Scythe and retrieved the poor chap in the pod.
This won't do, I thought, and decided just to get this one guy to safety. I set a course for Carnsan, two jumps away. I was Hyperdicted straight away by another Scythe. I decided to keep running now (not especially difficult as I can boost well over 600 m/s and have heat sinks), just to get this one pod home. In the next system I was Hyperdicted again - Scythe. Jumped away again and arrived in Carnsan, a heavily populated Federation system away from Thargoid space - but was again Interdicted by a Scythe on my way to Kuiper Orbital. They are relentless.
One escape pod - but I saved the poor chap.
Once upon a time I used to fill my hold (only 16 tonnes) with escape pods from Combat Aftermath signal sources while fighting Scouts, and get all 16 people to a station or rescue ship. What the above tale means is that this is no longer practically possible, unless I want to fight and then painstakingly retrieve all the pods each time I am pulled, or play submit-run-submit-run with Scythes all the way to a safe harbour.
Oh, well. I destroyed some Scythes tonight, so that counts for something.
This may already be known to many, but destroying a Scythe after it has looted your hold with its limpets ('Thimpets') leaves the escape pods you had collected (well, most of them) floating in space.
Up until the Scythes appeared I had only ever fought Thargoid Scouts, what with my ship (Cobra Mk III) only having 642 hull and 229MJ of shields - hardly conducive to going up against Interceptors or even the recent Glaives (although admittedly I haven't yet attempted Glaives for fear of being sent to Commander Jameson's Locker).
Tonight I decided to visit the Dedicant and listen to the logs. After that eerie experience, on the planet below I noticed some Distress Signal sources and knowing that would mean escape pods, I thought this could be my opportunity to see if I could entice a Scythe (I had no intention of sacrificing the occupants, but knew that was a risk).
So after landing and SRVing the two escape pods at my chosen signal source, I jumped back into hyperspace on a route to a rescue ship. Sure enough, in the second system after the jump from HIP 19600, I was Interdicted just after completing the fuel scoop at the local star. I was assaulted with energy weapons fire and missiles, and shortly after turning to face my attacker (definitely a Scythe from the images I have seen), Thimpets did their dirty deed and relieved me of the two escape pods in my hold.
Now, I may only have 642 hull and 229MJ of shields (actually a lot less than 229MJ in combat as I need three pips to weapons), but my 2 class-two Modified (Salvation) Guardian Plasma Chargers made short work of my attacker (about seven or eight volleys of two shots each - not all necessarily at full charge). My shields were of course brought down and about 70% hull remained (can't exactly remember), plus some internal damage which I mitigated with the AFMU. Interestingly neither my Guardian Plasma Chargers nor my Guardian Frameshift Drive Booster were affected by the Scythe, contrary to what I had expected.
But then I noticed both escape pods floating out there in space, and scooped them back up.
After delivering the escape pods to a rescue ship, I repeated the exercise, but this time closer to Thargoid occupied space, in an Alert system. Similar results, but on the latter occasions not all stolen escape pods remained after defeating the Scythe. Some lives were lost in the process.
In my last encounter in an uninhabited Alert system, from which I had collected three pods, only two remained. One was retrieved by an S&R ship (that's fine - life saved) and I collected the other. So I set out to gather more from the same system. Before I got anywhere near the next Combat Aftermath signal source I was Interdicted again - another Scythe. Again it took the singular escape pod from my hold and again I destroyed the Scythe and retrieved the poor chap in the pod.
This won't do, I thought, and decided just to get this one guy to safety. I set a course for Carnsan, two jumps away. I was Hyperdicted straight away by another Scythe. I decided to keep running now (not especially difficult as I can boost well over 600 m/s and have heat sinks), just to get this one pod home. In the next system I was Hyperdicted again - Scythe. Jumped away again and arrived in Carnsan, a heavily populated Federation system away from Thargoid space - but was again Interdicted by a Scythe on my way to Kuiper Orbital. They are relentless.
One escape pod - but I saved the poor chap.
Once upon a time I used to fill my hold (only 16 tonnes) with escape pods from Combat Aftermath signal sources while fighting Scouts, and get all 16 people to a station or rescue ship. What the above tale means is that this is no longer practically possible, unless I want to fight and then painstakingly retrieve all the pods each time I am pulled, or play submit-run-submit-run with Scythes all the way to a safe harbour.
Oh, well. I destroyed some Scythes tonight, so that counts for something.
. But no; I was hyperdicted by a Scythe. To make sure, I just looked it up in my player journal, it says I did start the hyperspace jump to my first route target, and then it logged the various interactions with the Scythe.
