Soban
Convention Veteran
- RP Date
- YE 45.8.15
- RP Location
- Kacst
Taisho Fletcher
YE 45.8.15
Taisho Fletcher stood on the bridge of the YSS Ranger. It wasn’t his flagship, but he often used it or another Plumeria like it when he needed to be in one place and his flagship in another. The Captain who took over when he promoted Signy Williams from this ship to command of the Hotaru Star Fortress and its portion of the fleet was a prim and proper Nekovalkyrja named Itari Sakamoto. Fletcher had let Signy pick her successor on the YSS Ranger and the two hadn’t had much interaction yet. Fletcher could tell she was nervous with the admiral of her entire fleet looking over her shoulder.
It was an impressive fleet, over seven hundred ships, and the vast majority of it was gathered here in Essia at the Tollgate complex. About a half dozen tunnels of light side by side linked by a structure that resembled an infinity symbol. Some ships couldn’t fit through the Tollgate, and spent a month going the long way around with the Star Fortress and escorts. However, most ships would fit through the tollgate.
“The Kactist Tollgate reports an incoming request to open the gate.” A Kodian communications officer reported to Fletcher.
Itari frowned, “Isn’t that a bit early?”
Fletcher nodded, moving over to the communications console. “It is, which means there is trouble. Communications, instruct them to open the gate. Signal the fleet, cancel leave and go to Condition Ready-Quiet. Prepare for departure. Captain, your ship will have the Pole position. When the Tollgate opens, we are going through it.”
The Ranger turned gracefully as Itari ordered them towards the gate and other ships began flocking towards the gate that was swirling with the massive energies to join two distant parts of the galaxy together. It didn’t take as long as expected, the gate stabilizing into what looked like a hole in space with blue and white streaks of light forming the walls.
“Signal all ships, follow us in.” Fletcher commanded as the Ranger plunged into the tunnel. The trip would take some time, and Fletcher had to wonder what situation was bad enough for Signy to deploy the gate early.
He pulled up a map, lining up the trajectory of the wormhole and approximately where Signy would be with the largest ships in his fleet. There were a couple of systems it could be in, their scouts didn’t have much data. However, he considered the implications of each.
Secbucal had plenty of resources, potentially a good stronghold system, possibly if Signy was going on attack against a Mishhuvurthyar stronghold. Which would be worrying, as that wasn’t her orders. Brippobitinoor was relatively barren, offering her no advantages or disadvantages. Ussae however was the most worrying as it had dense nebulae that blocked sensors. If she was there, it meant she was probably hiding from something. The only question would be what. The ships in her division could destroy planets if required. In fact, he had ordered them to do so only a few years ago. Something that could threaten them would be formidable.
The Ranger emerged into a raging battle between two mammoth Izanagi class dreadnoughts that were protecting the Tollgate. The tactical display updated, displaying that they were in what Fletcher feared, a nebula with a raging battle.
“Patching Chujo Williams in now.” The communication officer reported.
Signy appeared in volumetric form. The Minikan had long blonde hair and eyes of two different colors, one a fiery red, one icy blue. “The situation is as you see it. They’ve broken our lines and are swarming the gate.”
Fletcher nodded, putting out of his mind that he was on the Ranger. Due to the disordered joining of the battle the usual lines of command were tangled. “You retain command of what was here. I’m taking control of the forces entering the battlefield from Essia. First, we sweep up, then we take the fight to the enemy.” Signy nodded, and her image went translucent as she remained on the line and started issuing orders to her ships.
Fletcher took a moment to appraise the current situation. The two Izanagi class dreadnaughts, YSS Battle of the Binary Stars II and YSS Battle of Essia, were too large to fit through a Tollgate. They were two of the largest ships that Yamatai had ever built. They were assault ships, designed to take on a Star Fortress and other similarly powerful fortifications. The Main weapons array took up two thirds of the twenty-two and a half kilometer length of the ship. They dwarfed the actual Star Fortress they were escorting.
Hotaru Star Fortress wasn’t intimidating in the same way as the Izanagi. It was an Iori-Class which resembled a disk with the Star Army Hinomaru emblazoned on top. Around the edge were sixteen large bays that could fit warships up to about two kilometers long and over a kilometer in width. However, it was meant to be a relatively fixed fortification to resupply and repair an entire fleet. It was meant to be visible, a reminder that the Star Empire of Yamatai had claimed this space.
Mentally, Fletcher rearranged the battlespace. He decided that the main bulk of the enemy fleet was ‘down’ and the two Izanagi were to his ‘left’ and ‘right’. Hotaru was below him, between the dreadnaughts. Enemy gunships had broken through, now flowing around the ‘front’ and ‘back’ of the formation to the gate. Below that was the enemy’s main wall of battle, advancing now that the Yamataian wall had broken. Below the enemy wall of battle was a pair of Mishhuvurthyar dreadnaughts who were preparing to come in once the escorts had been finished.
Fletcher started by tasking the ships coming in with orders. He didn’t want the enemy gunships to join up, so en ships flowing in from Essia would join together just above Hotaru. Half would go to the front, the other half would go to the back. With that command given he checked the orders for what was left of their wall of battle. They were retreating to behind Hotaru so they could reform a wall of battle with the reinforcements. “Williams, who has command of the wall?” He asked.
Williams' volumetric appearance solidified, “It was Chujo Hitomo, she took command from one of the ships of the wall, but her ship is destroyed at the moment, I’ve taken temporary command and delegated it to Shosho Enceladus, but he’s here with me on Hotaru.”
Fletcher nodded, not having a commander with the element they were commanding was a problem. “When Shosho Orochi arrives, give her command of it. We’ll reform the wall and see if we can turn the table on these dreadnaughts.”
Williams nodded, and went transparent. Given the reinforcements he knew would be arriving, he wanted to pin the dreadnaughts down. He selected a few gunships and gave them orders to remain in contact with the dreadnaughts, but outside of weapons range.
“Sir, that’s going to put us in danger, this isn’t the Denetsu.” The captain o the ranger protested.
Fletcher looked up from the tactical display at the Captain. One grey eyebrow rose on his dark toned face. “Captain?” He asked, trying to figure out why she told him what he already knews perfectly well.
“You have us leading the attack on the wall. If we get hit, that could take you out of the fight.” She explained.
Fletcher nodded, “Captain, leading from the front is something I value in my officers. we don’t win battles through timidity. I won’t order my ships to do something I wouldn’t be willing to do myself if I were in their shoes. The squadron that came through first is in the best position to make that attack run. so we will make it.”
The captain nodded, her face still frowning. She didn’t want to be the one to get a Taisho killed, even if it was because they were following his orders. “Yes Sir.”
The squadron of Plumaria that were following the Ranger dove through the protected gaps between the YSS battle of the Binary Stars and the Star Fortress.
They didn’t focus on one of the larger NMX ships directly, they wanted to bring them off axis and force them to target something other than the weakening shields of the fortress.
The ships inertial dampeners fluttered lightly as they were hit by defensive fire. However, the shields held as they weaved between the larger ships of the wall and kept their main aether array firing at targets of opportunity. If they had been a single ship, they might have been more seriously damaged or destroyed, but the return fire was spread across the six attackers in their squadron. By the time they had made it across the formation, second squadron was coming following up from in front rather than the side, exploiting openings that the first pass of the gunships had mad.
However, only ome of the attacking ships in the NMX wall turned to fight the newcomers to the battle. Others continued to pore fire into Hotaru. The shields protecting the massive station turned white hot and failed leaving it’s armor exposed. With that the enemy dreadnaughts below the station sensed heir opportunity like sharks, they approached closer despite the two Yamataian dreadnaughts return fire that caused their own shields to start glowing. They fired long thin beams of aether light, striking deep into Hotaru while the smaller ships kept up their bombardment. Hotaru rotated, spinning slowing in space to present a new shield face to the attackers as black smoke started billowing out of the long scars where it had been hit.
However, that moment of victory was short lived as the reformed wall of battle was revealed by the turning of the station with Fletcher’s flagship in the top right corner, leading the charge. This suddenly much larger wall overwhelmed the smaller wall in front of it and kept charging at the NMCX dreadnaughts.
What had been an almost certain victory for the predatory ships was turning into a rout. Fletcher nodded, issuing the pursuit orders. The captain looked at the admiral, but didn’t balk at their orders. As gunships, they couldn’t do much more than scratch damage against a battleship. However, They could get in, get closer and scrae of turrets and prevent them from launching fighters for fear of getting a gunship in their own hanger which would be a disaster no matter how you sliced it.
A dreadnaught as a fearsome combatant, but could be picked apart and rendered completely ineffective without escorts. The battle had stripped the escorts from the dreadnaught, proving a golden opportunity for the smaller ships to prove their worth.
Fletcher looked at the tactical plot and worried if this could be some kind of trick. “Deploy SOFT teams, I need to know what I’m dealing with.” He ordered the gunship captains who had them. He handed off that part of the battle to the Shosho who was commanding the wall.
“Get us in close. I’m boarding that dreadnought.” Fletcher said, turning to leave the bridge.
“Your going to do what?” The Captain asked.
“Risk is all of our jobs.” Fletcher told her.
On the display the two dreadnaughts activated their self destruct, huge explosions emanating from them, catching a few gunships off guard in the explosion. Fletcher sighed, annoyed that the opportunity for valuable intelligence was gone. “Take us back to the Flagship.” He said, resigned to not getting to have fun fighting the Mishhu face to face. The doors closed and the lift whisked him away back to his quarters.
Captain Sakamoto gave a sigh of relief and turned back to the screen as the gunship flitted back towards the YSS Densetsu.
YE 45.8.15
Taisho Fletcher stood on the bridge of the YSS Ranger. It wasn’t his flagship, but he often used it or another Plumeria like it when he needed to be in one place and his flagship in another. The Captain who took over when he promoted Signy Williams from this ship to command of the Hotaru Star Fortress and its portion of the fleet was a prim and proper Nekovalkyrja named Itari Sakamoto. Fletcher had let Signy pick her successor on the YSS Ranger and the two hadn’t had much interaction yet. Fletcher could tell she was nervous with the admiral of her entire fleet looking over her shoulder.
It was an impressive fleet, over seven hundred ships, and the vast majority of it was gathered here in Essia at the Tollgate complex. About a half dozen tunnels of light side by side linked by a structure that resembled an infinity symbol. Some ships couldn’t fit through the Tollgate, and spent a month going the long way around with the Star Fortress and escorts. However, most ships would fit through the tollgate.
“The Kactist Tollgate reports an incoming request to open the gate.” A Kodian communications officer reported to Fletcher.
Itari frowned, “Isn’t that a bit early?”
Fletcher nodded, moving over to the communications console. “It is, which means there is trouble. Communications, instruct them to open the gate. Signal the fleet, cancel leave and go to Condition Ready-Quiet. Prepare for departure. Captain, your ship will have the Pole position. When the Tollgate opens, we are going through it.”
The Ranger turned gracefully as Itari ordered them towards the gate and other ships began flocking towards the gate that was swirling with the massive energies to join two distant parts of the galaxy together. It didn’t take as long as expected, the gate stabilizing into what looked like a hole in space with blue and white streaks of light forming the walls.
“Signal all ships, follow us in.” Fletcher commanded as the Ranger plunged into the tunnel. The trip would take some time, and Fletcher had to wonder what situation was bad enough for Signy to deploy the gate early.
He pulled up a map, lining up the trajectory of the wormhole and approximately where Signy would be with the largest ships in his fleet. There were a couple of systems it could be in, their scouts didn’t have much data. However, he considered the implications of each.
Secbucal had plenty of resources, potentially a good stronghold system, possibly if Signy was going on attack against a Mishhuvurthyar stronghold. Which would be worrying, as that wasn’t her orders. Brippobitinoor was relatively barren, offering her no advantages or disadvantages. Ussae however was the most worrying as it had dense nebulae that blocked sensors. If she was there, it meant she was probably hiding from something. The only question would be what. The ships in her division could destroy planets if required. In fact, he had ordered them to do so only a few years ago. Something that could threaten them would be formidable.
The Ranger emerged into a raging battle between two mammoth Izanagi class dreadnoughts that were protecting the Tollgate. The tactical display updated, displaying that they were in what Fletcher feared, a nebula with a raging battle.
“Patching Chujo Williams in now.” The communication officer reported.
Signy appeared in volumetric form. The Minikan had long blonde hair and eyes of two different colors, one a fiery red, one icy blue. “The situation is as you see it. They’ve broken our lines and are swarming the gate.”
Fletcher nodded, putting out of his mind that he was on the Ranger. Due to the disordered joining of the battle the usual lines of command were tangled. “You retain command of what was here. I’m taking control of the forces entering the battlefield from Essia. First, we sweep up, then we take the fight to the enemy.” Signy nodded, and her image went translucent as she remained on the line and started issuing orders to her ships.
Fletcher took a moment to appraise the current situation. The two Izanagi class dreadnaughts, YSS Battle of the Binary Stars II and YSS Battle of Essia, were too large to fit through a Tollgate. They were two of the largest ships that Yamatai had ever built. They were assault ships, designed to take on a Star Fortress and other similarly powerful fortifications. The Main weapons array took up two thirds of the twenty-two and a half kilometer length of the ship. They dwarfed the actual Star Fortress they were escorting.
Hotaru Star Fortress wasn’t intimidating in the same way as the Izanagi. It was an Iori-Class which resembled a disk with the Star Army Hinomaru emblazoned on top. Around the edge were sixteen large bays that could fit warships up to about two kilometers long and over a kilometer in width. However, it was meant to be a relatively fixed fortification to resupply and repair an entire fleet. It was meant to be visible, a reminder that the Star Empire of Yamatai had claimed this space.
Mentally, Fletcher rearranged the battlespace. He decided that the main bulk of the enemy fleet was ‘down’ and the two Izanagi were to his ‘left’ and ‘right’. Hotaru was below him, between the dreadnaughts. Enemy gunships had broken through, now flowing around the ‘front’ and ‘back’ of the formation to the gate. Below that was the enemy’s main wall of battle, advancing now that the Yamataian wall had broken. Below the enemy wall of battle was a pair of Mishhuvurthyar dreadnaughts who were preparing to come in once the escorts had been finished.
Fletcher started by tasking the ships coming in with orders. He didn’t want the enemy gunships to join up, so en ships flowing in from Essia would join together just above Hotaru. Half would go to the front, the other half would go to the back. With that command given he checked the orders for what was left of their wall of battle. They were retreating to behind Hotaru so they could reform a wall of battle with the reinforcements. “Williams, who has command of the wall?” He asked.
Williams' volumetric appearance solidified, “It was Chujo Hitomo, she took command from one of the ships of the wall, but her ship is destroyed at the moment, I’ve taken temporary command and delegated it to Shosho Enceladus, but he’s here with me on Hotaru.”
Fletcher nodded, not having a commander with the element they were commanding was a problem. “When Shosho Orochi arrives, give her command of it. We’ll reform the wall and see if we can turn the table on these dreadnaughts.”
Williams nodded, and went transparent. Given the reinforcements he knew would be arriving, he wanted to pin the dreadnaughts down. He selected a few gunships and gave them orders to remain in contact with the dreadnaughts, but outside of weapons range.
“Sir, that’s going to put us in danger, this isn’t the Denetsu.” The captain o the ranger protested.
Fletcher looked up from the tactical display at the Captain. One grey eyebrow rose on his dark toned face. “Captain?” He asked, trying to figure out why she told him what he already knews perfectly well.
“You have us leading the attack on the wall. If we get hit, that could take you out of the fight.” She explained.
Fletcher nodded, “Captain, leading from the front is something I value in my officers. we don’t win battles through timidity. I won’t order my ships to do something I wouldn’t be willing to do myself if I were in their shoes. The squadron that came through first is in the best position to make that attack run. so we will make it.”
The captain nodded, her face still frowning. She didn’t want to be the one to get a Taisho killed, even if it was because they were following his orders. “Yes Sir.”
The squadron of Plumaria that were following the Ranger dove through the protected gaps between the YSS battle of the Binary Stars and the Star Fortress.
They didn’t focus on one of the larger NMX ships directly, they wanted to bring them off axis and force them to target something other than the weakening shields of the fortress.
The ships inertial dampeners fluttered lightly as they were hit by defensive fire. However, the shields held as they weaved between the larger ships of the wall and kept their main aether array firing at targets of opportunity. If they had been a single ship, they might have been more seriously damaged or destroyed, but the return fire was spread across the six attackers in their squadron. By the time they had made it across the formation, second squadron was coming following up from in front rather than the side, exploiting openings that the first pass of the gunships had mad.
However, only ome of the attacking ships in the NMX wall turned to fight the newcomers to the battle. Others continued to pore fire into Hotaru. The shields protecting the massive station turned white hot and failed leaving it’s armor exposed. With that the enemy dreadnaughts below the station sensed heir opportunity like sharks, they approached closer despite the two Yamataian dreadnaughts return fire that caused their own shields to start glowing. They fired long thin beams of aether light, striking deep into Hotaru while the smaller ships kept up their bombardment. Hotaru rotated, spinning slowing in space to present a new shield face to the attackers as black smoke started billowing out of the long scars where it had been hit.
However, that moment of victory was short lived as the reformed wall of battle was revealed by the turning of the station with Fletcher’s flagship in the top right corner, leading the charge. This suddenly much larger wall overwhelmed the smaller wall in front of it and kept charging at the NMCX dreadnaughts.
What had been an almost certain victory for the predatory ships was turning into a rout. Fletcher nodded, issuing the pursuit orders. The captain looked at the admiral, but didn’t balk at their orders. As gunships, they couldn’t do much more than scratch damage against a battleship. However, They could get in, get closer and scrae of turrets and prevent them from launching fighters for fear of getting a gunship in their own hanger which would be a disaster no matter how you sliced it.
A dreadnaught as a fearsome combatant, but could be picked apart and rendered completely ineffective without escorts. The battle had stripped the escorts from the dreadnaught, proving a golden opportunity for the smaller ships to prove their worth.
Fletcher looked at the tactical plot and worried if this could be some kind of trick. “Deploy SOFT teams, I need to know what I’m dealing with.” He ordered the gunship captains who had them. He handed off that part of the battle to the Shosho who was commanding the wall.
“Get us in close. I’m boarding that dreadnought.” Fletcher said, turning to leave the bridge.
“Your going to do what?” The Captain asked.
“Risk is all of our jobs.” Fletcher told her.
On the display the two dreadnaughts activated their self destruct, huge explosions emanating from them, catching a few gunships off guard in the explosion. Fletcher sighed, annoyed that the opportunity for valuable intelligence was gone. “Take us back to the Flagship.” He said, resigned to not getting to have fun fighting the Mishhu face to face. The doors closed and the lift whisked him away back to his quarters.
Captain Sakamoto gave a sigh of relief and turned back to the screen as the gunship flitted back towards the YSS Densetsu.
Last edited:
