RP: YSS Imperator [YSS Imperator] Mission Two: Going In Deep

[HAMnJAM]

YSS Imperator
5月 20日 YE 39
Kuvexian Frontline

Silence...

The Star Army's 1st Expeditionary Fleet's Third Division laid still in the blanket of space. Their leading Plumeria had detected something at extreme range while the division was tailing the remnants of the L'Kor fleet they had learned was a vanguard fleet.

With the intelligence department close enough to deciphering their tactics and communications, some higher members of the command staff of the Division were beginning to think they were on the verge of breaking the communication barrier with the L'Kor. At least at a level where they could understand basic communications between ships.

The Star Army fleet was set up slightly differently than before. The majority of the cruiser section was placed infront of the battleships with the bare minimum taking up the flanks of the Sharies. The Plumerias were in their usual placement, at the corners, except for the leading one. It laid out a long distance patrol pattern chasing the errant signals of the L'Kor.

It was all silence.

Bridge

It was the end of the night watch, the night shift tiredly being relieved by the first watch. Kaede himself slated himself on first watch command duty, relieving the overworked junior officer that ran the ship when neither the XO nor himself were present. The weathered Taisa saluted to night watchman and took the command seat while looking up the ship's readiness from a datapad he had in his hands.

They were at Condition Three, shields up but weapons inactive. The Chujo wasn't expecting anything to come at them, considering the state she left the L'Kor fleet in the previous engagement, and there was nothing to be expected.

Galley

The night watch that didn't immediately fall into their bunks, or did and came back for their late night munchies, slowly walked in for what they could find. It was evident that some of the months away from port was getting to some, as one Neko was fast asleep at one of the far tables, wrapped up against a Minkan from damage control who was quietly eating like nothing was wrong.

Meanwhile across the room, their was a group on marines talking about whether they would be ever able to board the enemy at any time soon, or be boarded. As well as the latest gossip of the day. It seemed business as normal for one of the massive battleship's common room.

 

[Immortal Cyan]

YSS Imperator
5月 20日 YE 39
Cabin 4

Yamasaki Ayane had finally procured a music stand for herself after going for a long period without. The previous night, the stand had arrived at the Imperator's post office, and Yamasaki Ayane had just finished setting it up before she began to practice her scale routine. At that instant, Ayane was thankful for the Star Army of Yamatai's commitment to morale and soldier well-being. She greatly enjoyed playing violin before or after a long duty shift, even if she did lose a few minutes of sleep.

After practicing for an hour, Ayane began to stow away her violin and to take apart her modular music stand. She had woken up early for practice, but now, it was time for her duty shift. After setting her music equipment aside, she moved to her drawer to change into her bodysuit uniform. After changing, she went to the mirror to look herself over before projecting an indigo lip shade and a neutral eye shadow appearance over her face.

With her appearance taken care of, she stepped outside of the room, taking extra care not to wake up her room mate, Ayane Akagawa.

 

[Navian]

YSS Imperator, Bridge

ATIKA had no physical needs beyond a working computer bank and her emitters, but she hadn't been engineered from the start for her current existence, and one holdover was that she needed to spend a few hours a day semi-conscious and dreaming to avoid going progressively insane, at least more so than usual.

Still, while she usually projected a physical form on the bridge to make others more comfortable working with her, staying on the bridge 24/7 might have done more harm than good even if she didn't spend some of that time sleeping. When she wasn't on duty--and she didn't have the mental endurance to routinely pull 20-hour shifts, either--she'd stop projecting, and though technically still on the bridge, would not be seen, heard, or likely be paying attention to anything that was going on outside of the ship's computer unless called upon.

That was the case, now. Cracking the L'Kor communications was dry work, but a fair challenge. The linguistics, though... battlefield communications seldom provided a great wealth of cultural context, and while some would be satisfied with 'cracking their code' just by comparing what they said to what they did in response, or observing what they reacted to, that was more like careful research than it was solving a puzzle. She not only felt her talents were wasted on it, she was also frustrated because it was something organic brains were better at than computers! Taking long breaks from it--or even an extended vacation--did not bother ATIKA, as much as she liked to work. She hoped to find an L'Kor star system, soon.

Although she was asleep, arriving late for her shift wasn't a problem. She didn't even need to set an alarm, as suddenly finding herself physically on the bridge was enough of a shock to wake up immediately. Even so, it might have been more wise to prepare for her shift in advance, and that she hadn't bothered to do so was a sign of disorganization, if not laziness. She appeared, looking upright and alert, if only because no one had the chance to see her be jolted up into that position, and glanced about in bewilderment that could almost be passed off as an effort to check on the other bridge crew, rather than a sign of her general disorientation. "Hi. Good morning, everyone," she added, automatically.

 

[Ametheliana]

Bridge

The lights of the bridge seemed to brighten as Hoshi walked out of the port side lift —if that was because the day shift had just started or because of Hoshi's presence, nobody could likely say. The light blue to white haired Neko looked over her instruments with one hand and pursed her lips without sitting down. Her other pink-skinned hand held her cup before she softly put it into the cup holder. She turned to Atika as the construct said hello to the bridge crew and her lips went into a frown, though it looked forced and her eyes were sparkling. She was hiding a smile. Her eyes went to Kaede just after her face went placid again and she smiled, for real this time, as she took her seat. She connected into SPINE and telepathically spoke out to the man in command.

"Well rested, Captain?"

 

[HAMnJAM]

Bridge

The Taisa responded telepathically as well, as he was reading over a datapad describing the state of the fighter wings, pilots, and weaponry from the new CAG. His eyes lifted of of it only t send the message and give a light smile,

"As much as a captain of an old warship can be, Miss Hoshi."

Kaede sat his datapad in the spot for it in his command chair and leaned back into the chair as he waited for the rest of the first shift to take position. Most of them were probably still getting breakfast down in one of the galleys and were on their way up. The Neko manning their stations could last a little while longer, then they could get to their cat naps in the ship's basket quarters.

Something appeared for a moment on the sensor console at extreme range, within the range of the Plumeria running recon, but before it could be confirmed the reading disappeared from Imperator's screens. The sensors operator rubbed at her eyes and stifled a yawn as she stretched inside of her chair.

Space
Extreme Sensor Range

The YSS Daikyū came out f one of her patrol patterns and began turning back towards the fleet. They were a good few minutes away, even in FTL, so the crew had a little bit of time to relax and converse while the drives charged. It was the usual gossip of who was dating whom, what was for chow later, and what exploits of the more popular crew members.

Just at the drives charged up, three sensor readings appeared behind the small gunship which dwarfed it by a large amount. Three damaged ships: two battleships and one carrier. Both battleships discharged their plasma lances, one missing while the other contacted on the aft barrier. The bright blue flash of light from the gunship's aether generator detonating as well as the launching of the soul survivor pod and the automatic defense beacon beginning to transmit gave it away that the poor YSS Daikyū had lost their engagement with the L'Kor.

The three wounded ships took up a wide formation, pointing directly at the Third Division's formation and charged their drives. The three crews were readying themselves for war, an utmost sacrifice, a last ditch effort to halt the Yamataian advance before their allies and masters could arrive.

A small ship, about the size of a Star Army scout ship, took off from a docking port on the carrier, turned off aftward, and jumped to FTL back far behind the Kuvexian Alliance lines. That left only the three remnants of the L'Kor vanguard fleet, their remnant crews and damaged ships.

With the coordinates set, and the drives beginning to charge, the die was soon to be cast.

 

[Pancakei]

YSS Imperator
Medical Bay

The door to the medical bay opened quietly as a disoriented figure emerged from it. A neko with unmistakably vibrant orange hair peered out, wearing a Type 22 bodysuit, that may or may have not been projected due to the situation at hand. The medical suit almost matched the odd skin color of the neko as they stepped out into the corridor outside the Medical Bay.

Endo Hatsuyo wasn't entirely sure of the situation going around her. In fact she was quite oblivious, only haven woken up transferred in a tube minutes ago. The tired Nekovalkyrja made her way down the halls of the Imperator, using a mental recreation of the warship's default layout in an attempt to find the bridge. Her damp hair laid flopped over her bronze eyes as the reached the outer doors of the bridge. She was blissfully unaware of the situation that had just come up from the sensors, not being fully connected to the ship's crew or AI.

After a few moments of waiting, she knocked on the locked door, clearing her throat before speaking. "Hatsuyo-Hei, reporting for duty."

 

[Arbitrated]

Shosha Serphine seemed to float to a position behind the new medic, her own datapad glowing dimly in one arm. Aside from a small yawn, she was able to keep herself looking professionally bored. A cup of coffee danced atop her off hand as it occasionally swiped at the data she was observing. The main aether array was planned to go into maintinance within two hours, and one of the CFS emitters was running at 110% the optimal heat output again. She didn't seem to pay attention to Endo, although she at least perceived the neko enough to avoid running her over accidentally.

 

[Talarn]

YSS Imperator
Cabin 4

Akane awoke with a start, some remnant of drool left on the side of her mouth, which was promptly wiped off on the sleeve of her pajamas. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she realized her roommate had already gone, causing the raven-haired Neko to pout a bit.

Why didn't she wake me up?

Sliding off the bed, she went to gather up her second spare Type-35 and wandered off to freshen herself up. Fixing her hair, combing it down until the strands became straight and flowing again; washing her face and brushing her teeth. Whatever happened outside of the bridge, she was the image of professionalism and showed little of the cheer when prepped and ready for battle stations. Checking the ship's current readiness level, she made a note to also go and gather her AME from the locker.

YSS Imperator
Bridge

Walking through the Imperator's halls, she waved, greeted, bowed, and saluted to most everyone she passed; smiling up until she took the lift up and stood in front of the door leading into the bridge. Breathing in, she allowed the smile and cheer to fade away, replacing it with a solid professionalism that made itself known only within the borders of these four walls. Stepping through, she briskly made her way down towards the first level of the command center, turning to snap a salute up towards the Captain and XO already at their chairs, then settled into her seat.

At her station she checked the weapons system, interacting digitally with KAMI through the SPINE system in order to better fulfill her job; despite the fact weapons weren't online and currently not in use. She liked to think the difference that separated her from the rest of the Neko crew, her counter-part included, was that she knew when to put on a face for society and when to slide down the mask she was born into.

War.

Despite her meaningful words and nods of understanding, she didn't truly dislike what was going on, had her career gone differently she was certain that it would be her in command of one of the cruisers currently bolstering the Sharie's front-line. Alas, that was a thought best left to the past, as Akane was just as happy laying waste to the enemies in front of her with extreme and merciless prejudice. It wasn't too far to say she had more "fun" on the bridge then anywhere else.

 

[Ametheliana]

Bridge

Taiyou Hoshi again frowned, this time her blue eyebrows pushed together in the center of her pink face and she looked over the instruments, then at the sensors operator.

"Captain?" Taiyou Hoshi said, wondering if he had seen what the sensors operator had not. Both the XO and Captain were connected to much more of the ship than just one facet and one of them would have had to have caught it. Her eyes flickered to those coming onto the bridge and she telepathically spoke to the engineer and medic simultaneously as to not yell across the large bridge.

"Welcome. Do you need something?"

 

[Arbitrated]

Bunny Den (Bridge)

The response towards the pleasant neko was slightly weak for the short range and eye contact, "No, thank you. Just reporting..." The Angel briefly interrupted herself with the dose of morning coffee before continuing, much more strongly yet still in the telepathic way, "Just reporting to the bridge. Going to see if it'd be easier to organize the technicians from up here..." The albino Elysian strode cooly through the command room, setting herself up, in a way, at her station with another significant draft of the caffeinated, heated beverage.

 

[Ethereal]

SAINT Office

Shosa Aerlia Lei'Shela leaned against one of the dimly-lit walls of the SAINT command center, appearing to be relaxed despite the serious expression she seemed to always have. Today would be the day - she was sure - that their unit would crack the L'Kor's communications. She had hand-picked some of the best to join the Imperator on its mission and the Venis would be damned if they let the enemy have any sort of advantage. They had made significant progress throughout the night and once they finally cracked it they could listen in on L'Korr comms to the Kuvexians all they wanted. Her chalk-and-charcoal striped tail flicked anxiously from side to side as she continued observing the black-paneled soldiers diligently working.

 

[Pancakei]

YSS Imperator
Bridge Entrance

Endo pushed her damp hair up a bit, looking at the engineer that appeared behind her. She was about to greet the odd head engineer, before being interrupted by the telepathic greeting. She responded in the same manner. "Endo Hatsuyo, at your command. I transferred from the YSS Kaiyō on necessity!"

The vibrant Nekovalkyrja gave a bright, toothy smile before realizing she was still all the way across the room.

 

[Ametheliana]

Bridge

Taiyou Hoshi nodded to each of the newcomers, noting their lack of formality and salutes. Her eyes strained as she watched the head engineer set up shop on the bridge on the port side of the same main level that Hoshi was operating on.

"Yes, logistics station should work for your needs," Hoshi told the pale technician. "Seeing as how our logistics personnel aren't all too attached to it for the time being."

She then turned to the medic, whose personnel file she had gotten a chance to go over. She started by stating their surname, not given.

"Endo-hei. This is a bigger ship than you may be used to and the protocol is much more strict. An interview will be conducted at a scheduled time."

 

[HAMnJAM]

Bridge

Kaede had noticed it, it was obvious as he gave an obvious look of confusion, ignoring everyone for a moment, before he went to speak, "Sensor, port bow quadrant anomaly, ran-"

The Taisa's face went to a sudden look of sheer confusion with a hint of slight terror. He blinked once or twice as he observed it through SPINE as the sensor console mirrored what he saw. Three large contacts bearing down at them at FTL, with a destination of somewhere unexpected.

Kaede's face twitched for a moment before he interrupted the quiet atmosphere, "CONDITION TWO! RIGHT NOW!"

Space

Unexpected, all three L'Kor ships had jumped, and they were going for blood.

First to appear was the massive carrier, which materialized a mere handful of thousands of meters off of Imperator's port side. It's slight de-fold movement forcing a collision with one of the heavy cruisers that it had jumped almost on top of. Next, the two battleships materialized amidst the fleet at more of a range from the Imperator, but on top of numerous amounts of ships. Using Aether Arrays at this close of a range was almost guaranteed to contact friendlies, so the guns would have to work.

None of the Star Army ships had their weapon's online, and the ones that had seen it before it happened were only in the beginning stages of charging. Luckily, the L'Kor had the same problem, but that left one thing unchecked. One thing that they would have to worry about almost instantly.

Why did they bring a carrier to a gunfight?

It seemed that if it could fly off the L'Kor carrier's deck, it was in the vacuum. Something was wrong though, the intelligence had not seen any formations like this. Shuttles were flying like fighters, bombers streaking around alone, and fighters making bee lines for targets. It was only when the CFS shields of the rammed cruiser fell and a fighter streaked into the area surrounding the bridge did anyone realize the L'Kor's objective,

They were not expecting to survive.

An explosion rocked the mighty Imperator, and the systems console that was previously dormant read breaches in the ship's port side near one of the docking ports. The cross section image showed three object connected, three L'Kor shuttles. Two of which were clamped on, and the remaining one was lodged in the armor plating shortly before detonating and creating a breach point for the L'Kor boarding parties.

YSS Imperator

Almost fifty power armors were on board, with a few random handfuls of unarmored L'Kor running around wildly from the entry point then in all directions. The power armor teams split up in to two main groups: one heading towards the bow, and the other towards the stern.

They had been boarded in the chaos.

 

[Talarn]

YSS Imperator
Bridge
Tactical Station

Ayane could feel the tension on the bridge, casual and minor interjections here and there aside, the ruby-eyed Neko felt the hairs on the back of her neck tingle; warning her of something amiss. She felt the pressure change, her ears popping, going briefly deaf as she turned her head and looked up.

Condition Two.

The next few moments passed in a blur of movement as she clasped the AMES in one hand, the other quickly removing the belt holster for her Type-33 Pistol, nearly throwing it down onto the bridge floor as she worked the environmental suit around her body; sliding into it with a practiced ease. Clenching her fists, she straightened out any creases and adjusted the helmet, sliding it on and securing it before settling back into her seat. To her, she felt as if the whole affair had taken an hour, whilst in reality Ayane had gone through the motions so quickly it looked as though the Type-28 AMES had simply swallowed her whole. She took in a deep breath of the suit's internal air system, letting it start up as it registered her status as Star Army personnel.

A blur of movement, despite what had just happened, she was already connected to the weapons through her SPINE interface and her actions on the bridge translated into movement outside on the Sharie-class. Bristling with weapons, the Imperator was a force to be reckoned with - in a fight where they had the advantage of distance, surprise, and the ability to aim their arsenal at will. The L'Kor had made a suicide jump, slipping themselves in-between their fleet's ordered formation. She would not let this be her new home's end, Ayane's eyes being lit up as by the console lights flashing around her.

"Point defense turrets going active; tasking with area suppression and perimeter guard. Loading SDM and MSAP missiles, setting fire solution to launch intermittent volleys of five by five each to complement anti-starship torp fire."

The Imperator's super-heavies lay behind their protective domes, the job of laying waste to the daring L'Kor ships given to the smaller but more numerically superior array of point-defense, missiles, and torpedoes that began to awaken from their digital slumber. The panels on the left side of the Imperator opened up, revealing a plethora of missile launchers, the tower-like structures spinning in place as it launched it's deadly pay-load, leaving dozens of contrails behind as an initial volley of Subspace Detonator Missiles streaked towards the enemy carrier. A few seconds later, a flurry of Multi-Purpose Shield and Armor Piercing Missiles followed suit.

Following that, a hundred retracted Anti-Fighter Turrets popped up from their pods and, having received the general command to suppress and target hostile craft began to open up, the area surrounding the Sharie-class a terrifying image of firepower as muzzle flashes from the turrets clashed with the black expanse of space.

 

[Ametheliana]

Bridge

"Condition one!" Hoshi called out and the klaxons blared while some tertiary lights of the bridge flashed ominously.

"We have a breach of what looks like dozens of..." Hoshi said, trailing off as she guided KAMI to count the number of hostiles on the ship. "We have a breach of fifty or more power armor units with a much smaller amount of unarmored individuals. Two groups. One heading towards us and one towards the stern." She looked to Kaede after spinning in her chair and her pink lips stayed slightly agape after she spoke out. "Captain?"

 

[Immortal Cyan]

YSS Imperator
Ready Room

Yamasaki Ayane changed quickly into her flight suit, slipping the tight-fitting polymer over her body in a few trained movements before exiting the ready room. She took off at a full sprint towards the hanger bay, passing by many other running figures as the entire ship rushed into combat readiness. A scramble order had been called by the CAG, so Ayane ran alongside many other aerospace suit clad figures as she got closer to the hanger bay.

Hanger Bay

Seeing her craft, a newly-decorated Hayabusa, Ayane ran and flew up into the cockpit area to avoid the scrambling pilots and orange-paneled logistics personnel. She strapped herself into the cockpit, then began to perform last-minute technical checks before full launch procedures could begin.

She thought of Ayane Akagawa, who was either in the cabin still asleep or up in the bridge area operating the weapons station. She would be helpless against power armor, if there were no active defense forces set up by the bridge. She muttered a quick prayer to the Empress, entreating protection for Ayane Akagawa.

I hope our power armor teams get in position before the boarders reach the bridge...

With all technical checks and status reports showing green, Yamasaki Ayane sealed her helmet on as the cockpit window closed above her.

"This is Avatar 4 on standby. Initiating launch procedures."

 

[Pancakei]

YSS Imperator
Bridge

Endo nodded and saluted at the comments of her higher officer, preparing to speak before all hell broke loose.

Conditions were rising, claxons were beginning to shriek as emergency lights began to pulse all around the bridge. The Santo Hei medic shrank a bit, eyes widening like a deer in the headlights. Maybe she came into the bridge at a bad time. It took her a moment before she spoke up again, over the noise of the alarms. "Where am I to report!?"emembers.

While her voice asked for commands, Endo's energetic and wide eyes scanned the bridge for any injured members.

 

[Ametheliana]

Bridge

Looking to the doors from the bridge that said in bright pink lights, "LOCKING SYSTEM ENGAGED" then to Endo, Hoshi called out to the orange-haired Neko medic.

"Blast shutters on the bridge won't let you out, now! Better to stay put and stay useful! Check for wounded and stay ready to help them!"

In all earnestness, Hoshi was deliberating exiting the bridge herself, but the part of her that wanted to protect her ship and captain in that way, by fighting the boarders in close quarters combat, was overshadowed by the part of her that wanted to figure out what they were doing, exactly.

She looked over the status reports, hoping to glean some kind of information from them.

 

[HAMnJAM]

Space

The SDMs streaked on their heading towards the carrier and connected against their hull before the L'Kor carrier's shields kicked up by the time the mass of MSAPs arrived and the shield took the brunt of the hit. Explosions covered the visible section of the carrier, barely being picked up by the Imperator's inertial dampeners. While the SDMs had been on the purpose of disrupting the shields, connecting with hull did cause scorches and nicks in the hull. The nearby cruisers had begun to engage at this point as well, their smaller guns smashing against the shields and causing single percent drops with every massive volley.

The carrier's own defense guns had come online as well, but did not make it past the CFS shields of the mighty battleship. Either ship would need to bring up their larger guns to bear to pierce the defenses of the other.

Meanwhile the L'Kor fighters began to fly more erratically. Either by frustration, desperation, or the Combined Field System's nervous system overloads, one of the fighters broke off and made a beeline for Sharie's hull. It connected in a ball of fire with an adjoining explosion as the aft most section of the fighter sheared off by the sheer connecting force. It bounced off the port side and onto the large brick of hull in between the prongs of the Aether Shock Cannon.

This action looked like an isolated incident until a bomber tried to go after one of the domed turrets, increasing speed and going for a dive before being shot to pieces by the point-defense turrets that brought themselves to bear. The bomber banked off in a ball of flame and detonated in a large explosion that seemed too large for just a regular detonation.

There was only one reason that immediately came to mind, they had rigged their craft with explosives to maximize damage.

Flight Deck

The voice of the new CAG echoed over the comms of Ayane's fighter.

"You all are tasked with downing the incoming enemy craft. Keep your distance, KAMI reports that the vessels are laced with explosives."

There was an audible click as the CAG switched channels before transmitting across the entire Imperator Fighter Radio Channel, "Avatar One, launching."

The CAG's adorned Kawarime II streaked out of the Imperator's deck, evidently not having enough time to change the writing from her original squadron under the cockpit on the port side that read 'FUKUGUMI UME - HEARTBREAK ONE - YSS ULTIMATUM' in silver lettering.

Avatar Two, someone from another shift of the CAP flight, went up after her. Two's fighter followed close to the CAG's tail, acting as her wingman.

Ayane's fighter was next to be lined up, the ground crew scurrying about as they went at scramble speed. The carrier's 'shooter,' the person in charge of launching the fighters, was trying to get Ayane's attention to give her the launch signal, and as soon as she looked up, saw them make a crouching stance and pointing out to space.

Port Rupture

The Bow team made tracks off towards the access halls, not caring about Star Army regulation about running with their shields up. They broke into one of the ready rooms of a deserted damage control station, and proceeded to tear it apart before setting something down and leaving it while making more tracks towards the center of the bow section.

The Aft team was doing about the same, but was heading for the Port Pyramid after watching signatures moving around at it's height. They were beginning to try and burn through the blast doors that had sectioned them off before one of them pointed back and screeched in their language.

Once the team had back off enough, the remaining L'Kor began punching into the door around the access console, trying to rip into something that said 'EMERGENCY ACCESS UNIT' and generally breaking things.