You can read more about Elite Dangerous here, and it's expansion, Elite Dangerous Odyssey here.

 Elite Dangerous - The Thargoid War

The Thargoid War was a series of updates, creating a player driven war narrative between the forces of humanity and the invading Thargoids in the game Elite Dangerous.

 

 

Some of the community worked together to make a fantastic cinematic summary of the events of the Thargoid War, which I've posted just below.  Below that there will be detail about each stage of the Thargoid war.

Part 1: 

Part 2:

 Finale - The Battle for Sol:

 The Thargoid War was a complicated and multi-phased event.  This page will eventually describe how it worked and my role in it, but in the meantime, below are the various trailers that were used to advertise and explain the narrative and gameplay progress of the war:

The Proteus Wave fires

The triggering event for the Thargoid War was the culmination of an existing storyline that had been running for multiple years.  A renowned, but controversial scientist had developed a superweapon that would eradicate existing pockets of Thargoids near human space.  Deployment of the weapon seems to work at first, but ultimately proves to have kicked the hornet's nest and triggered a greater response from the Thargoids. 

 

 

 The Titans Arrive

Initially obfuscated by a roiling caustic storm, the Titans arrive in human space and Thargoid forces begin to take control of nearby systems.  Eventually players will be able to pierce the caustic storm and observe (but not damage) the Titan at the heart of it.  Players can encounter Thargoid Revenants, a new hovering drone type enemy, when exploring occupied human settlements, who provide a dangerous threat to any on foot or surface based player.

 

Thargoid Spire Sites

 Player research reveals the location of Thargoid Spire sites.  These prove to be critical to the upkeep of the defenses of the Titan, producing vital materials for the Titan to regenerate it's armaments and health.  The sabotage of these sites, and ambushing of new Orthrus class Thargoid transport ships allows humans to begin the fight back against the Titans.  On the surface, players must face off against the new Thargoid Banshee, who's shutdown field missiles will cause ships to drop from the sky.  Stealthy players can get underneath the Banshee's defences to strike at it's weak underbelly.

Striking the Titans 

Materials gathered from the Spire sites unlock the development of new weapons in the fight against the Titans.  Players can now equip Guardian Nanite Torpedo Pylons to their ship, and can use them to strike at the thermal venting system of the Titan.  Doing so causes an angry and violent response, but also reveals a weak spot that players could strike.  Working in coordination with various player squadrons, players focused on individual Titans, starting with the Titan Taranis, and stripped them of their captured systems while simultaneously damaging them, eventually triggering a meltdown and ultimately dooming the Titan.  The final stage of action was a humanitarian one, where players had an opportunity to rescue abducted humans from within the Titan, bringing them back to humanity for recovery (although, the mystery of what the Thargoids did to them remains a key narrative in the game to this day).  Once the meltdown timer was complete, players were treated to a spectacular display of the Titans finally exploding, leaving behind caustic remains, and a few surviving small ships, detached from the hive mind.  Humanity had won the day and won the Thargoid War.

An epic final twist - The attack on Sol

As the players closed in on the final Titan, Cocijo, the Thargoids made one final play.  Having detected that Humanity's forces seem to be controlled from Sol, it re-engaged it's intergalactic travel and quickly crossed the Milky Way to strike at the cradle of Earth.  With the stakes high, players had to race against time to defeat this final Titan before it could cause catastrophic damage in humanity's heartlands.

Epilogue

With the Titans destroyed, humanity settled down to the difficult task of rebuilding, but with new scars across the galaxy, and new powers and factions ready to use the knowledge and materials gained from the war to attempt to seize power and carve out an advantage.