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RP: SS Raider Raider Run #2: KMS Chaos, Part Deaux.

Kai

Retired Staff
Aerin sat at her station, monitoring the three other ships in her tiny group, which was about to face the fury of an enemy that had bested the might of Uesu, and had been repeatedly pummeling the major factions of this galaxy. She looked over her assets; A light cruiser, and three light escorts. However, she did have an ace up her sleeve, in the form of a promise given her by the head of SAoY forces in the KMS: The SAoY would help open a hole in the wall of ships encircling them, allowing the tiny contingent of ships to beat their way through the slackers then hightail it out of there, before Kingdom Come, preferably.

"OIF Cashew, OIF Hope, OIF Ake, Report in." she called to her captains, looking for the file which held the line to the SAoY forces. Roke, helpful as ever, quickly found it, and engaged a line to the commander.

"Hello, Star Army forces, this is Captain Aerin Tatst, of the Origin group. We are ready to make our run out of here. What support shall I have on my way?" she asked, hoping for a response, so she could get out of here. it just felt plain wrong to be cooped up inside a Nebula, so far from her base, her work, her home.
 
"Raider, this is Captain Weber of the Hope. We're ready when you are." Jon looked over at Itsuki, who was still checking over systems. "You ready to go again, Ikki? I think miss Aerin is gettin' tetchy."
 
"Thanks for helping us with our lost stuff Captain."
"Yeah, yeah. Don't thank me until we make it out of here alive." Nanashi replied to Tsuya. For some reason, she found the younger woman's sufferings quite endearing; there was always that irresistible urge to pat her on the head or give a hug when Tsuya cried. She snickered to herself. I think the word is Moe, though I'm not entirely sure.
"What's so funny captain?"
"Don't mind it Roberto." Nanashi quickly finished the last of her drink, making a loud slurping noise with her straw before putting the juice box behind her chair. Nanashi Sumie checked again to make sure it was out of sight before going on, "This is Captain Nanashi Sumie of the Cashew. Ready and willing Ma'am." she crisply spoke over the comm. This next step is perfect for me; we get to pick up our panties and run like hell. The cautious captain thought.
 
"Commodore Tatst, this is Captain Raczak of the OIF Ake. I don't know about the rest of the ships in this little squadron of yours, but we're ready to go here. Personally, I want to get back to my family on Dawn Station. I do so miss my wife Belinda." Captain Hamish, commanding officer of the Ake, told Aerin over the radio, somewhat bored of all the waiting.
 
As the three Jinkan escorts reported in, Aerin got her support confirmation from the SAoY Sixth fleet. Sending a statement of readiness, Aerin quickly plotted an escape route and sent their predicted course to the Sixth fleet, as well as her own little grouping of vessels. Accomplishing that, the CEO contacted her Captains.

"Allright, Captains. We are running a gauntlet. The Sixth fleet has agreed to help us, and will be starting a support operation thirty seconds before we set our courses. There is going to be heavy interdiction, so we will have to make a good portion of the way out in STL, which means there will be fighting, however, there shouldn't be much for us to fight, as the Star Army will be clearing our route for us."

Aerin stood up from her captain's chair, and looked into the eyes of the three captains, whose visages were being relayed vie bridge communications. "We might not all make it. I want to tell you beforehand how thankful I am of your service. Now, we have to do ourselves proud, because no one is looking but us. It is time that we made our way back home, yes? Then let's GO!"

At that time the order to enter short-range FTL showed up to each of the ships in the squadron, with coordinates and jump times. The SS Raider was the first to jump, and therefore, the first to appear as it reverted to realspace from the expected interdiction. The Sixth fleet had already arrived, and were fighting their way forward through this line, but could not quite destroy everything in the very short window of time this operation gave them. The SS Raider opened fire on the nearest vessel, a damaged NMX battleship, positrons and lasers beating on the weakened hull that had no shields protecting it, the explosions causing the vessel to move out of the way. Two Scouts and a Patrol ship flanked it, and began opening fire on Origin Industries' flagship.
 
Jon nodded in response to Aerin's speech, and rested his hands on his controls. He smiled as he looked at Itsuki, and spoke. "Try to be a bit faster with the guns this time, Ikki. A repeat of last time probably would end up worse."

Despite his playful tone, Itsuki knew he was deadly serious, but responded anyway. "Then how about you fly us a little more steadily this time? I'm good, but I can't shoot them when I can't aim." She tapped into the console in front of her, powering up the weapon systems in preparation.

Jon nodded, and powered up the FTL systems, following Aerin's lead towards the blockade. When they were pulled out of FTL, he quickly brought the ship back under control, putting them between Aerin and the closest ships, without blocking her aim.

As he did so, Itsuki brought all weapon systems to bear on the same battleship as Aerin, and opened fire, trying to aim for spots that were already damaged, or vulnerable.
 
"Delay FTL jump for one second, and have us come in behind and below the Raider, off to her port side."
"Aye Ma'am." Captain Nanashi went over her controls as the ship jumped with the others. It was going to be quick and brutal, running through the gauntlet, so it wouldn't hurt of she hit the zoom button just a bit, would it? As soon as they dropped back into normal space, Captain Nanashi Sumie found herself staring straight down the barrel of an Aether cannon.
"Eep!" she squeaked. But then, it started to blessedly turn away from her precious face. Nanashi gathered herself up and returned the screen to normal, only to see the image of the Raider being set upon from the side. Her heart fluttered, and she felt like ordering her subordinate to get them the hell out of Dodge, but this wasn't an appropriate time for that. The enemy vessels were turning to flank the Raider, in front of them, so she had a good shot to their side and belly. She spat out a stream of orders,
"Weapons. Aim both positron cannons at the nearest NMX Scout; go for the reactors, point five second delay between shots, one atop the other. Fire!"
"Positrons away." Nanashi took in a long, audible breath, and got ready for her next order, never mind the fact she felt like someone winded her.
"Get us lower! Dive down now! I want such an angle on those ships, that they'll have a hard time aiming at us! Move it! MOVE IT!"
 
The Ake, late to the party again, exited hyperspace to the starboard of the Raider, the prow of the Jinkan class escort pointed directly at the NMX Patrol ship.

"Dammit! Helm, set us on a course to circle around that ship! Focus all of our HLT fire on it, and use our MPCs when its shields go down! Get on the horn, and tell the Hope to fire on the Patrolship with us, its the bigger threat here!" The Ake changed course, accelerating slightly as it moved to try to circle around behind the patrol ship, rotating slightly to provide the narrowest cross-section possible while still firing on it with the HLTs.
 
The combined firepower of the Raider and the Hope decimated the remains of the barely-active battleship, tearing it in two and sending bits and pieces flying off in various and sundry directions, some impacting on the shields of the two scouts, some on the Patrol vessel.

Cashew's fire on the nearer scout managed to bring down its shielding, and do a bit of damage to its hull, but wasn't quite enough. A countdown of Seven minutes appeared on the weapons officer's screen, showing the time till the cannons would be ready to fire again. The Second scout, however, had used its unlucky partner as a shield, and moved around the mildly slowed vessel, both of them firing upon the Cashew and Raider.

The HLT fire from the Ake caused the patrol ship to somewhat rethink its approach, and it paused to fire a couple of torpedoes before rocketing towards the group of ships at high speed, trying to get in range for its EMP generator to work.

The SS Raider turned her prow a bit from the wasted wreckage of the Battleship to fire on the Incoming Patrol with another pair of positrons, while aiming all available HLT's and Ion cannons at the Scouts coming from the other direction, to aid Sumie and her Cashew.
 
With the battleship out of the fight, and the patrol ship moving at a good clip towards the group, Jon had absolutely no problem with putting his firepower on that ship as well, drifting the ship out and to the side of the patrols ships current course.

"Ikki, you heard the orders, and I happen to agree. That ship doesn't seem too happy to see us, and personally, I'm none too happy to see them either. Lets try and do something about that, eh?" He only spared enough time to glance at her before his eyes darted back to the visuals, keeping an eye out for any possible incoming battle pods.

Itsuki didn't bother to respond, calmly shifting her aim to the new target, and setting up a new firing protocol to stagger volleys for more or less constant fire. She glanced at the readings her station was giving her, confirming that they were untouched so far, and as unnoticed as could be expected.
 
'I messed up, I messed up, I messed up...Aaarrrg!' was all a psychic would find if they somehow existed and/or read Nanashi's mind. A simple, small innocent mistake had scared the stockings off of her, and caused her to make a decision she regretted. Now, with both canons otherwise spent for the time being and a more serious threat looming, Captain Nanashi Sumie felt like slamming her head to a desk, or perhaps doing the classic facepalm.
"Navigator, rotate ship twenty degrees to port and face that scout. Nose down seventy degrees and forward!" Nanashi ordered about. "I need half our HLT's on the upper hull and firing at that Scout! Turn it's guns to slag for me."
"Aye Ma'am"
'I don't want to be nearby when that EMP goes off, but I don't want to ditch Aerin. Never that. Damn. I hope two stupids make a right...'
 
"That ship wants to play chicken, does it?" Captain Raczck smileld at the thought of desperate NMX trying to ram the raider. "Right then. Helm! Set us on a collision course with that cruiser, flank speed! Guns, I want you to try to bust down their shields with the HLTs, then fire all of our positron guns!"
 
The Cashew began taking heavy fire from the two scoutships. Luckily, they couldn't quite bring their main guns to bear, but their secondary weapons were doing a number on the Jinkan's shields, quickly bringing them closer and closer to failing.

The Hope fared a little better, as the Patrol was being greatly distracted by the sheer volume of fire thrown at it. only a few scattered bits of fire made it to the Hope's shields, most of the Patrol ship's fire being sent toward the Ake, whose very close position caused it to be a nice juicy target.

However, the Patrol itself wasn't doing too well, HLT fire from the three ships attacking it, as well as positron blasts from the Raider brought its shields down in almost no time, and then the Ake's Blast of Positrons pretty much ripped the missile launchers out of the craft's belly, the detonation pitching the ship upwards, exposing its damaged belly to more fire.

"Turn us towards the scouts, the Hope and Ake can handle that patrol now." Aerin barked, "Put us between the Cashew and the Scouts, then fire all HLT's and as many other weapons as you can bring to bear on the one without shields!"

The Raider responded by moving, complying with the captain's orders and blocking off the brunt of the scouts' fire while leaving the Cashew a window from which to fire.
 
Jon jiggled the steering, shifting the ship to a lower position for a better firing angle. "Ikki, see if we can take out the Patrol ship here quickly. We might be able to bust through if it's just the scouts."

Itsuki nodded, and brought the Positron Arrays and all of the laser turrets she could to bear on the underside of the Patrol Ship. She fired the Positron Arrays first, followed by a quick volley by the turrets.
 
Nanashi gave a sigh of relief and slouched a little in her chair; her boss was being merciful. 'Does she know I messed up? Of course she doesn't. She can't read minds....can she? Hmm. I wonder if she's working on that. I'd turn quite a profit.' The Geshrin Captain made a steeple with her fingers, glaring at the screen in thought. 'What do I do with this opportunity? Change targets to the Patrol as I should have earlier? Or keep shooting?'
"Tsuya, Positron Cannon charge?"
"At approximately 14 percent ma'am" She pushed her fingers together more tightly as she thought. 'I want to run. But I can't. Damn patrol. The sooner it dies, the sooner the interdiction goes down, and the sooner we can leave.'
"Lets make the most of Chief Aerin's kindness! Hideki, reroute all power from the positron cannons to the Heavy Laser Turrets. Roberto, roll our Cashew starboard by forty five degrees and get our deck facing that Patrol." Nanashi's hands separated and gripped the arms of her seat. "Tsuya, would you kindly kill that Patrol?"
 
"Continue our advance, and keep up the laser barrage!" The captain of the Ake yelled out, the constant barrage of fire from the Jinkan intensified as more power was drawn from the engines to the HLTs and Shields, which for now was weathering the return fire from the Patrol ship.
 
As the Scouts moved around to regain their shots on the Cashew, Aerin had the raider turn back toward them, and, once the nose was about lined up, the Raider fired a positron blast at the damaged Scout, canceling (and blowing) a nice hole in its side, causing it to veer off course, obviously out of the battle. The other scout, however, continued to fire, pounding the Raider's relatively weak shielding down closer to its breaking point.

The utter pounding the Origin ships gave the patrol practically tore the ship to bits, creating a bit of a wreckage cloud off to one side. The major threats gone, Aerin decided it was time to skip out to the next line of interdiction.

"All captains, Course two, Set, We're going .5 AU towards galactic north, where the next line of interdiction is expected. Jump in five Seconds. Four. Three, Two, One."

The Raider disappeared from that region of space, reappearing as predicted a little less than half an AU away, to face down several more NMX Patrols, as well as several of the Escort destroyers. Another battleship could be seen at the center of the interdiction, and it was being heavily bombarded by fire from the 6th fleet, whom seemed split between holding a perimeter and trying to take out the ships within the protected area.

The Raider Answered by firing all its HLT's Ion cannons, and PDW's at the nearest of the patrols, trying to punch a hole in its shielding so it could fire a positron blast at the ship. Aerin was keeping watch of the positron capacitor, her five shots previous had brought the reserve down, and she hadn't been holding it long enough for another shot to charge itself up, meaning she only had 3 left, which she had to make count. She waited for her escorts to show up and help.
 
When the scout blew, Jon immediately begin maneuvering to be ready for the next attack, but that worked out just as well for the purpose of following Aerin. After a quick warning to Itsuki, they followed Aerin, dropping in only a few moments after. Taking his lead from the Raider, Jon told Itsuki to hold what power they had left in the positrons back, and simply concentrate all of he fire they could from the laser turrets on the same general spot as Aerin had ordered, hoping to drop the shields fast, maybe enabling them to jump right by this group of ships.
 
As soon as the NMX Patrol broke apart into a mess even the knights wouldn't dare put back together, Nanashi barked out her order, "Roberto, after the Raider. I want us reappearing above it's deck by 500 meters. Punch it!"
"Aye ma'am." The Cashew vanished a moment after the Raider, and appeared 'above' it just as the main cannons fired. She didn't make the same mistake twice; this time, she had a good view, and sized things up quickly.
"Focus fire on the most heavily damaged patrol ships for now. I'm forecasting that the 6th will attack the battleship. And Aerin will too. But we got to focus on the interdiction!"
"Hehe." Tsuya giggled to herself, "Nana thinks she's a tactical forecaster!" she whispered to the others.
"What was that?" Nanashi snapped.
"Ah! Nothing ma'am!" Tsuya quickly blurted. In truth, Nanashi wasn't confident they'd last another round after this, and kept thinking forward to much. 'How many interdiction lines do we have to penetrate anyways?' she thought. 'Ugh. If we survive this, we're probably going to be run ragged. I have the feeling we're doing our Final dungeon grind in a very linear Fantasy game."
 
The Ake showed up last, and added its guns to the fight, also blowing into the NMX patrol. Before the ship could even respond it was beaten into submission and began drifitng in the opposite direction, but the other two patrols as well as the Escort-destroyers continued on their way, Firing back on the Origin ships, and pounding shields that had had little time to recharge, making all four ships in the formation go down to extremely low shields. They would have to do something soon or losses would be inevitable. The Raider switched targets to one of the Escort Destroyers, leaving the Patrols to her escorts, as it was a more even match. The Origin CEO called her captains "Try as hard as you can to avoid fire! We can't take much more, so your first priority is to get away, killing enemies is only a secondary concern!"
 
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