Watch: First contact with aliens in Elite: Dangerous

Elite: Dangerous has captured the imagination of scores of players around the world since its release. Featuring the Milky Way Galaxy (with hundreds of thousands of real stars, systems and objects), the title is one of the more impressive space-faring games around.

Now, the first player has encountered the franchise’s mysterious Thargoid alien race, making for rather intriguing contact.

Xbox One gamer DP Sayre was engaged in a hyperspace jump when they got pulled out of it by a mysterious force.

The player’s video shows their craft tumbling through space helplessly, eventually righting itself but with systems temporarily down. A gigantic, flower-shaped spacecraft then swoops in, ostensibly scanning the pilot’s ship before moving away from it.

DP Sayre then attempts to follow the alien ship, but it escapes through a wormhole of sorts.

Several other players have also managed to encounter the alien race, it’s been reported on the game’s subreddit.

It’s not completely unexpected, as the developers have been laying down hints, artifacts and other tell-tale signs for months now. Hell, a few months ago, mysterious probes were spotted by players in the game, disabling their ship temporarily.