RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 14.2] The Battle of Yamatai

[Wes]

Yamatai System

In a flash of sparkling teal light, Eucharis's pointed gray and red form appeared in the starry space at the edge of the Yamatai system. Ahead lay the rest of the First Expeditionary Fleet, engines burning hard in pursuit of the massive NMX fleet.

Eucharis Bridge
Shosho Hanako, dressed in an AMES suit (minus helmet) over her bloodstained uniform, picked up the phone on her console and dialed the shipwide intercom. "Taisa...correction, Shosho Hanako speaking. We have arrived in the Yamatai system."

"Shosho, we are receiving a transmission from the flagship," Blackberry informed Hanako.

"On screen," Hanako said in her Yamataian-tinged accent.

Taisho Yui's face appeared, amidst a room filled with battle screens, sensor readouts, and unit status displays. "I am returning the shuttle I borrowed. I have sent you one of our newly created Nekovalkyrja infantry crew members since I saw you could use one on your latest missions. She is piloting the shuttle to you. Stay alert and stay alive, Hanako. Yui out."

"Ramiro, ahead full. Take us towards the rest of the fleet and the shuttle there," Hanako ordered.

- - -

NMX Progress to Yamatai: 75%

 

[Amaryllis]

Instead of initiating contact during the transition, Akemi decided to silently wait to arrive at her destination. She thought it would be best to introduce herself in person to show her respect. Once her craft had successfully docked with the Eucharis, she quickly made her way out of the ship. She emerged wearing an AMES suit of her own, holding the helmet with her right hand. She immediately headed to the bridge to meet her new commander, stopping just outside of the entrance to it. As soon as she reached Hanako she performed a stiff ninety degree bow. Afterwards, she slowly raised her head and looked at her superior while maintaining a rigid stance. "It is a great honor and pleasure to meet and serve you. I am Koga Akemi. How may I be of service?" Her solemn voice and face further emphasized her seriousness.

 

[Kyle]

Engineering

"Power running steady thats good," commented Takeyu as he stood in front of the Aetheric Reactor.

He looked it up and down then turned toward the Heisho. "Keep an eye on the shield generator and weapons systems, if you see any power fluctuations make sure to correct them in a timely manner," he knew he didn't have to really tell her that, she knew her job but he always aired on the side of caution. Only two techs, damn it. Although one tech is sufficient to run the ship, it would help to have more than that to address further problems.

With those thoughts in mind, he began to prioritize damage control, placing the systems of most importance at the top while putting those of least importance on the bottom of that list. Naturally, systems that were needed to keep the ship in motion and alive in the battlefield took precedence, such as shields and engines but also naturally the ships reactor - which was always at the top of the list.

Folding his arms over his chest, he continued to stare at the reactor, just waiting for when the Shosho announced that they would be entering the battle - once that happened things would get busy fast he felt.

 

[Wes]

Yamatai System

The ship was now in the system's no-FTL zone with most of the First Expeditionary Fleet in front of them and then the NMX behind them, who were busy dumping massive firepower into Hoshi no Iori, the ring superstructure around Yamatai.

This was when Taisho Yui tipped her hand. Dust and radar-dispersing nets slid aside as the Defense Fleet ships powered up and left the surface of Yamatai's moon. Suddenly, the NMX invaders were flanked by 2,500 ships they didn't expect. The close-in fighting began as the older-model ships of the defense fleet emerged from cover to engage the invading fleet at close range. Just then, behind the Eucharis, acting-Taisho Kotori's fleet defolded, leaving the NMX fleet both sandwiched and outnumbered. With all warships counted, the numbers were an incredible 7,000 Star Army ships versus the NMX's 4,500. Kotori's fleet of 3,000 had tipped the scale heavily in Yamatai's favor. However, the homeworld was still in extreme danger.

Bridge

Hanako gave a nod to the newly-minted Nekovalkyrja appearing in the doorway of the bridge. "Welcome aboard," the golden-eyed Shôshô greeted her. "You are our only infantry crew member at present so we will probably not be sending over any boarding parties. Stand by to help the technicians with damage control. See Nitô Juni Nayacesen in the engineering compartment."

The Shôshô then picked up the intercom. "The fleets are closing in on each other fast. Stand by."

- - -

Hoshi no Iori

Waves of explosions rippled across the surface of Hoshi no Iori. The energy shields of planet Yamatai began to flicker out as chunks of the superstructure fell to the surface below. Yamatai was now exposed.

- - -

XSS Tiamat

Sprufnikkamazzar brooded and hovered back and forth on the bridge. How did this happen? he asked himself, looking at the lopsided numbers. Focus...what now...at least let the infantry die on their feet.

"Deploy all planetary forces immediately. Focus fire on the defense fleet and stay close to the planet where they cannot use their anti-fleet weapons. Keep the path clear for our landing forces," the old Mishhuvurthyar ordered. "Do not worry, reinforcements are coming," he lied to the younger Mishhu and faithful Nekos on his bridge.

NMX progress to Yamatai: 90%

 

[DocTomoe]

During transit, Helen took the time to wiggle herself into an AMES suit, before she again took her position standing with volumetric displays around her, as she began to analyze the situation. Things seemed reasonable, the Yamataian fleet had a sound defensive position, the firepower of Hoshi no lori was on their side, as well as any surface weapons which were deployed... unless the parasites got to them, but that was still beside the point. There was no way that the NMX fleet was going to survive the encounter without being severely weakened, to the point where support could easily arrive from the Elysian or Nepleslian fleets, so the Yamataian fleet could remain evenly distributed to prevent an attack on their other assets. Everything seemed perfectly fine, relatively speaking.

Everything seemed fine, until Helen observed the ships led by Acting-Taisho Kotori, that was when she face palmed and shook her head. It was a massive miss-allocation of military resources. Seven-thousand ships, dedicated to the defense of a single system. It was absurd, it was nonsense, it was an act of sentimental foolishness, and it made Helen clench her teeth before she released a near silent utterance of a vulgarity. There were too many ways in which such a strategy could turn around and bite the Empire in the ass, and it left Helen reeling. Though, she was far too low on the totem-pole of the command chain to do anything about it, she was in a position of being voiceless, she was merely a Shosa, on a ship with a Shosho, watching the actions of an acting Taisho, no doubt operating on orders from a full Taisho, which would undoubtedly be part of the family of the Empress, resulting in Helen's words not amounting to even rival the value of a bag of rice. Though, to remain silent, was to ignore her duty.

As she watched the arriving ships, and observed the NMX making their move on Yamatai, Helen mulled over every way things could go bad. Mainly, she thought on just how many systems were vulnerable with the Empire's focus settled on its doorstep. Mevar, Yicuqibu, Anisa, those were the systems most likely to be scooped up as a repercussion of the fleet movement. More so, with the fleet watching inward, that left the Bard Cluster isolated, especially since their south-eastern flank had been rendered exposed since the fall of the United Outer Colonies. Though, the notion of systems being scooped up was actually the least of her worries, there was one problem, even greater than that, and it was something she could possibly help to prevent, if anyone listened.

"Shosho." Helen spoke, as she hoped that her words would amount to something. "With the arrival of Acting Taisho Kotori's fleet, our primary concern should be the prevention of any desperation tactics which the NMX may use to tilt the conflict in their favor. They still retain the capacity to severely damage Yamatai itself. Orbital bombardment of the planet would only take a single volley of their primary weapons to render the planet uninhabitable. More so, they may also target the star and trigger a repeat of Taiie."

 

[Amaryllis]

"Yes ma'am." Akemi bowed once more, this time faster and only half as deep. Then she turned around, mentally asked the ship's computer to guide her to her assigned location and followed its directions. A moment later she was standing in front of Nayacesen and executing another forty-five degree bow. "I am Koga Akemi. I have been ordered here to standby to help with damage control."

 

[Kyle]

Engineering

Takeyu was looking over the readouts. "Anti-matter chamber is stable and functioning within perimeters," commented the man, he didn't notice the infantrymen walk in.

"Slight power flux in starboard coupling," his voice trailed off while he corrected the issue, but then saw the issue go away and smiled at the Heisho. "Good, keep an eye on the coupling for the time being."

When he heard the infantrymen he turned toward the soldier. "Thanks, once things get heated, will use all the help we can get," commented the Chief Engineer as he got up from his station. "My names Nitô Juni Nayacesen Takeyu, Chief Engineer," he said in introduction. "Welcome aboard."

 

[Amaryllis]

"Thank you. It is a pleasure to meet you." Akemi stood still and quietly watched as Takeyu and his subordinates went about their work.

 

[Nashoba]

Sune continued monitoring the sensor data, isolating specific aspects given the number of vessels in the vicinity. There were a good number of older Star Army craft in the mix, which he recognized as the force of ships they had seen in Nataria. As he tightened his scans, he started picking up what appeared to multiple small craft departing the ships. They are not battle pods, those are already deployed. he thought, as he calculated their trajectory.

"Shôshô, picking up a new set of signals. The Mishhu have launched another group of craft too large for battlepods. They are heading towards the planet on what appears to be an deorbital trajectory. Most likely troop transports." he called out.

 

[Gabriel]

Ramiro's hands flew as he opened up one volumetric window after another, surrounding himself with them. As his chair spun from him rotating between windows he called out updates for the Shosho. "Engines at full. Shields power has been shunted fully to frontal shields. Weapons on standby. Approaching weapons range for fleet engagement. Scanning for targets." Ramiro began manually searching through data to try and locate targets. After a few seconds he shook his head because there was simply too much data to go through. Suddenly, his head popped up and his eyes widened, like a light switch has been turned on. I've done this before, at Elysia Novus!

Ramiro quickly began writing a code that would identify the importance of a ship based upon size, firepower, the amount of incoming/outgoing communications, and location in the fleet with priority set to those most protected. "I really need to write a permanent program for this," Ramiro muttered to himself. After a few seconds to calculate the information his system began spitting out results which he combined with the Eucharis' radar so that it would color code enemy vessels. On the radar the enemy ships began to change color from red to orange to yellow and every shade in between. Ramiro then uploaded this to the main screen for Hanako to see. "Shosho, I had the computer set target priority to ships based upon several key factors, the results are on your screen. Red targets are those that are considered the most important and whose destruction would be most damaging to enemy efforts. Yellow targets are those that are less important grunt ships"

 

[Wes]

Yamatai

NMX forces concentrated their fire on the Defense Fleet, causing heavy losses and breaking more holes in Yamatai's defense. As the fight moved into orbit, the planet's evening skies were filled with the flashes of exploding ships, streaking of weapons fire, and thousands of shooting stars as debris and escape pods fell to the surface. As Mishhuvurthyar ships surged forward, some them began to bombard the cities on the surface.

"Go for the big one first," Hanako instructed Ramiro.

Eucharis entered the fray heading toward the largest enemy ship, a massive black spine covered beast of a ship with the potential to destroy the planet. The NMX were outnumbered. As they became more desperate there was an increasing possibility of a doomsday scenario. Hanako's mission was to disable its weapons. Between the Eucharis and their target lay hundreds of enemy escorts.

As Eucharis joined the deadly fight over Yamatai, it was predictably singled out for the NMX's wrath and Ramiro found himself having to do a lot of fancy dodging and weaving to avoid being hit. Meanwhile, a large collection of enemy battle pods were in pursuit.

Engineering

"Do you think they will try to board us and take Hanako hostage if the shields fail?" Cherry asked Takeyu as she emerged from a conduit, sounding a bit anxious. She turned to see a new face in the room. Her eyes looked at the wide hips in surprise and then to the neko ears. "Hello!"

Meanwhile, the ship rattled and bounced as her field bubble was peppered with large and small hits.

 

[Kyle]

Engineering

Takeyu gripped the edge of his console for a moment. "I do, so let's get things ready just in case. We can vent particular areas of the ship in case they do board but naturally if they are in PA that would be rather meaningless," Takeyu turned toward the Heisho and said before placing a hand up against his chin in thought.

"We need to give the shields as much power as needed, monitor the levels, if you see them drop down below twenty percent, then start to draw power from non-essential areas. The crew cabins, along with the gally come to mind. Hell, in fact, let's do that right now. Seal off the Gally and Wardroom since that's where we have the largest fire risk right now, shut down the gas to the hibachi, then seal off life support to those two areas. Draw that power to the shield generators. Then, continue to monitor the levels, as the shields go down, seal off one crew cabin at a time, start with those not inhabited first then move on to those that are. It's a small amount of power, but every little bit helps.

"After we've exhausted those avenues, then concentrate on the recreational lounge, which is also not used during combat. Hopefully we won't need to go this far, but this is going to be a large battle, and I doubt well get out of his unshaced. Thats where you come in," he turned toward the Koga.

"Once things get started, I'll be assigning you repair tasks. You'll be getting a crash-course in our job and what is needed to maintain and fix the ship, but it'll go a long way to helping you out in."

Then he turned back to his console and began to type up a list of commands to help make what he had just stated a bit easier. "Of course, if they 'do' board us, we can always instigate an electrical blow out in that area of the ship to kill or injure them, but I highly doubt the Shosho would appriciate us damaging our own ship plus we could also inadvertantly cause more damage than intended."

 

[Amaryllis]

Koga turned to Cherry briefly. "Hello ma'am," she said with a nod of her head. Then she resumed facing the chief engineer. The soldier gave another nod. "Yes sir." She intently read the display of the console he was using and continued to keep up the formal posture she had taken when she first introduced herself.

 

[Wes]

As Eucharis rushed forward into the enemy formations, the battle pods tailing her began to launch their torpedoes at her. As some of them made it close to the ship, the ship rocked with the blasts. Subspace torpedoes were damaging the combined field system. A shower of sparks in engineering as a minor power relay blew out from a power surge. The computer monitor showed a catastropic gravitiy failure had just occurred in one of the crew cabins. Inside the thankfully empty cabin, the gravity had jumped to 10 G and then failed completely. Luckily it was cabin 2, which was not currently claimed.

 

[Amaryllis]

Akemi did not flinch in reaction to the sparks, instead she scanned the area for their sources and hastily put on her helmet to free up her hands. She ran to the nearby damage control station and returned with a fire extinguisher in case one was or soon would be needed.

 

[Kyle]

Engineering

Takeyu didn't wince, to used to it after being on the ship for a few years now. He watched the infantrywomen as she grabbed the extinguisher then stood by, he didn't need to tell her what to do and he liked that.

Thinking fast, to prevent anymore potential failures, Takeyu shut down gravity in the cabins and those areas of the ship that they were already drawing power from - such as the galley and wardroom. He then sent a series of commands to re-route power around the areas affected by the power surge, to help settle those areas down quicker.

Glancing over his screens he gave a slight nod of concern. "Power relay blew, thankfully it's not a major one, but we'll need to replace it," he commented as he routed power through another relay to help take the loud off the blown one.

Turning toward Koga, Takeyu shouted, over the whining of machines, "Koga-hei, there should be a spare relay in the back inside of a crate marked E-4. Open it, grab the relay, then use the ladder," he gestured toward the left hand side of the engineering bay, "to go up to the deck above us onto the catwalk, there's a panel to the right as you get up there, slid it open then replace the blown relay there. Once you've gotten it in place, let me know."

 

[Gabriel]

Ramiro worked very awkwardly as he steered the ship with his right hand and reconfigured the point defenses with the other. Meanwhile, he still managed to concentrate on a third task. "Charisma, use the Warfare Suite and see if you can disrupt the sensor on the torpedoes and phase out any communications being sent to them. Since I'm already moving hopefully we can avoid most of them." As a secondary precaution he also programmed the point defenses to concentrate on taking out any nearby torpedoes.

"In range, firing torpedoes." Multiple torpedoes released from he Eucharis and began speed towards their target. "Torpedoes away."

 

[DocTomoe]

As the battle carried on, Helen paid little mind to the events around the Eucharis. Either it evaded, or it did not, she would not have time to worry about it if the ship were to be seriously hit, she'd be waking up in a new body on a station a hundred light-years away. Instead, she looked at the big picture, the full picture. Her volumetric monitors and mind were plugged into PANTHEON, watching, watching everywhere there was a Yamataian asset with a IES system active. She watched for incoming support for the NMX attacking Yamatai, she watched the stations and systems through the Empire for warning signs. There was no intelligence to be gathered in the hectic battle that took place outside of the Eucharis, though, she watched none the less, for something which would give some insight into the NMX's behavior. Nothing remarkable though, at least nothing yet, caught her eye.

 

[Amaryllis]

"Understood sir," said Koga telepathically. She rushed to the back of the bay, put down the fire extinguisher and quickly searched for the crate. Spotting it, she rummaged through it to find the spare relay. Once she had found it she resealed the container to keep the contents secure lest the engineering bay also experience some form of gravity malfunction. She then headed for the ladder and nimbly made her way up it and across the catwalk to the relay. As she replaced it she felt fortunate to have already put on her environmental suit since it made the intense heat of the broken device inconsequential. Another message was mentally sent to Takeyu. "I have finished replacing the relay sir."

 

[Wes]

As Eucharis broken through the crowd of enemy ships, the giant enemy flagship loomed ahead. Surrounded by enemy ships, she was not in a good situation. Repeated hits were weakening the shields.

Bridge

"Charge the main cannon again so we can get a shot at it," Hanako ordered. "All gunships this is Eucharis. Fire at the enemy ship's main weapon array!"

Dozens of bright aether shock beams plunged into the behemoth ship's shields until they finally flickered, leaving the Eucharis free to use its main cannon on one of the three claw-like arms that cracked with lightning as they charged. "Ramiro, take them out before we have no planet to defend!"

Using the communications tracking algorithm Ramiro had developed, Helen could see that the big black flagship didn't seem to be the one issuing orders...but rather the XSS Tiamat, a captured Chiharu flagship.

- - -

Engineering

Port-side shields were failing. The ship shook violently as the shield-like CFS projector on the ship's port side took several hits, poking two jagged holes in it and tearing off armor panels. An alarm went off, warning that anti-matter containment had failed in the port side pylon...however, there was no explosion. More minor electrical hazards were detected throughout the ship.

Cherry quickly began heading over to that side of the ship. "If we lose shields we could get phasing Mishhu boarders," she worriedly reminded Takeyu.