RP: 5th XF A few missing peices...

Andrew said:

Battle of the Great Lighthouse

(Still may need some minor editing.)

Over 5,000 starships exited hyperspace just outside the Great Lighthouse system, with shields up and weapons ready. Led by the First Expeditionary Fleet, the large invasion force locked onto the enemy's homeworld. Taisho Yui sent the Free State a brief query: "Do you wish to surrender?"

A computer response as civilian ships began to leave the subterranean ports of the Lighthouse: "Surrender on what grounds? Perhaps my active memory module requires replacement, but I don't seem to recall the last time we slaughtered the inhabitants of a planet."

The circuits of the gunship hidden in the depths of the lighthouse began to fill, the ship rumbling to life. There was about to be a battle, and to put it bluntly, the Maras was the best chance to protect the Freespacers from the Empire. Funny that this sort of thing should happen right after they got into their port of call, the AI system Aria thought, as she began to do her duty - making sure the Maras was ready for combat.


"I'll take that as a no. Yui, out..." The Taisho sent messages to all vessels. "Proceed with the operation." A hail of FTL aether torpedoes darted towards key targets on the planet, such as ship bays, communications centers, and computer complexes. The torpedoes were followed by aether beams as the ships drew closer.

Along with the automated response, a message was sent to the Yamataian fleet, requesting that they break off their assault. "Attention Yamataian fleet." the message read. "Do not attack at this time, an ambassador and Lorath civilian are present on the Great Lighthouse." The message was set to repeat, and gave a short description of the communication specialist and the ambassador which were present. "If we are endangered, we

"Taisho Yui's taskforce just left hyperspace fold..." the science officer noted, looking towards Kiyoko. Kiyoko sat in her command chair, her black overcoat fanned over the back like a cape. "Disassociate transponders and computer systems and have the Battlegroup form up behind us." A cloud of volumetric windows opened around Kiyoko's command chair as the Battlegroup emerged into realspace. "Joutai Sensou..." the entire battle group began to power up their weapons systems, holding position at the coordinates ordered by Kiyoko.

With the impact of the aether weapons and torpedos, the order was given aboard the Maras to activate the best weapon which they had at their disposal. A sudden disruption of the energy-sea which supplied aether power to the Yamataian ships took place. The sea of energy rippled, fluxed, and in some pockets it even 'dried up'. The Maras' aether denial wave was in effect, and in it's wake the Maras rose from the planet, along its hull were several add-ons of crew quarters and extra engines. The ship made it's retreat and streaked away from the planet at super-luminal speeds.

"MA Power," Yui commanded. Her fleet switched to anti-matter reactor power. A battleship locked a graviton beam on the Maras.

Several anti-torpedo missiles launched from the Great Lighthouse to intercept a number of torpedoes. From between the planetary divide came several squadrons of Phantasm gunships and Divine Comedy assault cruisers. These vessels each let loose a barrage of cruise missiles at the attackers, accompanied by another missile barrage from the surface ports of the Lighthouse.

Sadly for the battleship's graviton beam operator which would surely be executed for failure... the Maras slipped away as a gravitic disruption flushed over its hull and broke the graviton beam's hold. They must have had one hell of a scientist aboard to know how to go about defeating the technology which was used.

The ARIA system was busy trying to keep contact with the Lighthouse, the bandwidth available simply not designed for such a mass exodus. Her circuits were at their limit trying to find storage space for so many AI systems and sorting them properly, even given the vast storage available to the ship.

Erratic patterns of energy showed up on the scanners of all sides around the group of ships, a single transmission left the Mazu. "Well...we are in position Hanabusa-sama...time to unveil our surprise." The screen revealed a single scantly clad young woman wearing a black robe. "Hold onto your panties." Realspace began to flux as the horde of Mishhu ships exited hyperspace. Two hundred Carriers, each with an escort of fifty gunships. Close behind them followed a thousand destroyers, and sixty five scout ships. The SMX vessels closed on Yui's Battlegroup engaging them.

"Vessels approaching," Aria stated through the halls of the Maras, audibly strained from the data transfer. "I count...too many signatures to detect, all of them...Dico, double-check sensors, I think something's broken in my CNS. It just can't be."

The battlefield quickly became filled with light and dangerous energy as the Yamataian fleet filled space with electro-gravitational waves, detonating explosives, ablative materials, and frying electronics. The aether fire from the ships intensified, targeting missile launchers and the enemy ships that emerged. There were so many Yamataian starships that they just seemed to fill space with their fiery wrath. The lighthouse thus far had been deliberately spared. Behind the newly-arrived Mishhu fleet, part of the Yamatai Central Defense Fleet appeared, with some 400,000 Irim Gunships and 200,000 Kyoto Carriers. Immediately, the reinforcements began to attack the Mishhu remnants.

"Your sensors are correct." Dico said flatly as he tried his best to maintain the communication equipment and keep the new additions to the Maras' hull intact. "They're Mishhu... keep going, don't look back." Dico ordered.
Aboard the Maras, a series of Nepleslian curses spouted from the scientist which had now doubled as an engineer. "Activating the wormhole drive!" He called out over the Maras' internal comm, and before the area was enveloped in the wrath of the two fleets butting heads, the Maras disappeared from the area to an undisclosed portion of space, which not even the Maras crew themselves knew they'd end up in.

The Mishhu ships went wild, dodging in and out between the Yamataian ships, taking hits purposely, one by one they were obliterated. The Mazu Battlegroup began to move forwards placing themselves between the Mishhu and Yui's ships, they too began to fall. Panels exploded, the bridge shook and rattled as the Mazu took on fire. Kiyoko clutching the sides of her chair. "Shit...."

The Yamataians activated Anti-FTL fields to prevent the enemy from escaping. The Maras had made it out just in time.

The wave of EMP-nukes shrugged off the electroscalar wave with their Inertialess Drives generating a protective field. Though it seemed in vain as the EMP-nukes smashed against the assault fleet with little more than a painful sting to their targets. The Lighthouse sent out a message to its defending fleet: "All units, change in plans. I say again, change in plans. ECM blackout will not be initiated. All units staggered back towards the Lighthouse while covering the escape of civilian caravans. Update will follow during next broadcast."

Another hyperspace entry, just before the Anti-FTL engaged the YSS Ascendancy, the Flagship of the Fifth Expeditionary Fleet blew through the battlefield, every single one of its weapons firing hot at the Mazu Battlegroup. Two subspace anti-neutron rounds plowed into the Mazu's bow, the ship seemed to crumple, explosions rang out as the Takumi exploded.

The Great Lighthouse lost communications with Freehold Factory, which had last reported a fleet of over 4,000 starships conducting a simultaneous attack, but a mass destruction type rather than the precision attack being conducted on the lighthouse.

Escape pods flew from the remaining Mazu Battlegroup ships, haggling around Tonsho's Battlegroup as they fled. Tonsho counted down the seconds until they cleared the Anti-FTL field, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1....Get us the hell out of here..." The SMX Battleship disappeared into the night.

Divine Comedies threw forward emerald beams erratically as they retreated, while Phantasms continued to swarm over targets much to the irritation of enemy commanders. Meanwhile, the Lighthouse sent out another broadcast to the forces: "Motherships have now made it safely through the core Rift Gateway. Gateway is being redirected to extraction point; all units make your way to the planetary divide and to the Lighthouse core gate."

The Ascendancy slowly began to back away from the battlefield. Taisa Igarashi Yuka opened a communications channel with Yui's ship. "We apologize for arriving so late..." The veteran Fifth Taisa apologized to the Mistress Taisho. Tears were down the sides of her face, she looked around. This was not even her ship...

"Are you lost or something?" Yui jokingly transmitted to the YSS Ascendancy, admist the chaos of battle. As surface threats were cleared, the planetary invasion force approached the planet. An enormous amount of shuttles, landing ships, and individual soldiers in power armor began descending to the planet to secure key facilities, hoping to assimilate the Freespacer holdings rather than simply destroy them. The planet got priority over the mother ships, which were being pursued with "kid gloves," The motherships' followers shot at their weapons and engines, but not habitat areas. After the Mishhu interlopers were defeated, the Yamatai Central Defense Fleet moved out of the anti-FTL field zone and returned to Hoshi no Iori.

"You could say that..." Yuka bit her lip terminating communications. "Set course for Yamatai..." Yuka closed her eyes, now she had killed not only Katsuko once, but one of her daughters. "Send word to Taisho Motoyoshi Saito...she might want to come pick up her ship."

>PAUSE

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