The Second Draconian Fleet exited hyperspace and saw, for the first time in a decade, home.
A home in the middle of a war.
Yui's fleet, which had arrived just a minute or so earlier, already was headed toward the battle, having to cross around Yamatai, and the wreckage of Hoshi no Iori, to join in fighting back the NMX and Sprufnikkamazzar, its leader and co-creator.
The Central Defense Fleet, having risen from its cover on Luna Bianca, already was engaging the enemy with everything it had. It was outnumbered nearly 2 to 1, with only 2,000 aging vessels against the NMX's combined armada of almost 4,500 modern warships, including captured YSE and Nepleslian vessels.
Those watching from the Mokuren saw a battle through a tightened aperture, as the lights from the CDF and NMX vessels were blinding. Aether beams instantly streaked in all directions, sometimes ending in brilliant orange or pink blossoms from hits. Torpedoes — pointedly coming from the NMX vessels — failed to slip past the protective field created by the CDF, but the cost was pointed.
Fighters and power armors were sacrificing themselves by ramming into the projectiles before they could get too far. Even smaller ships purposely were taking the shots straight into their hulls, just to protect the planet. It was leading the CDF to be cut down too quickly to form an effective defense.
Kotori didn't blink, even as Yukari grit her teeth.
"How can we close fast enough to engage without FTL?" she asked her XO.
Yukari knew what she was about to suggest was dangerous, but the CDF would not last and Yui's fleet was closing as fast as it could — without damaging itself.
"Microjump at 0.3 c. It will burn out their older FTL drives, but sublight throttle will be maintained without losing offensive or defensive power. They will get within 500,000 kilometers."
"Do it," Kotori replied.
"ALL SHIPS! PREPARE FOR SUBLIGHT MICROJUMP TO DISPLAYED COORDINATES!" Yukari was getting to do something, and was louder than she had to be. "ON MY MARK ... MARK!"
The fleet, all at once, stretched into hyperspace again for less than a second. Stars stretched, but then seemed to shake as the fleet was repulsed out of FTL speeds, the glowing blue-white jewel of Yamatai taking up most of the volumetric projection of the battlefield while flashes and explosions burst larger and brighter than before.
Many vessels immediately reported their FTL drives were out of commission — though many of the smaller ones, who had less mass to worry about being pushed around by Yamatai's gravitational field, remained sound, if damaged.
Kotori's fleet was within 460,000 kilometers of the NMX fleet.
Kotori, acting Taisho, looked to her Shosa XO, whose body was tense, teeming with the need to act, the need to charge, engage. To protect somehow, to handle some of the weight their actions had caused for Yamatai. She smiled, ruefully.
"Go," she said.
" ... " Yukari turned back to the volumetric panel.
"Ketsuekis, use burst-sphere aether fields to eliminate battlepods and armors! Enders, obtain firing solutions when a safe backstop is available. Kyotos and Ayames, provide fire support to the Yuumis while we head for the captured Chiharu.
" ... Yuis. Seek designated targets and eliminate them according to plan. ... Goddess bless your souls. Until the next time."
Orders delivered, the fleet suddenly shifted.
Silvery-blue scout destroyers broke away from the fleet and flashed away into the thick of the battle. Each commander already had loaded final words into Mokuren's KAMI at Yukari's request, so there was nothing more to do than fight and die.
They did. Hundreds of them. Almost at once, the Zesuaium-hulled vessels fell like swords upon an unsuspecting NMX fleet, suddenly tearing deep into their ranks right where it was meant to hurt most. Commanders of Battle Carriers and Line Battleships, focused on the CDF, received proximity warnings far too late to turn or escape.
The Yuis rammed them however was most convenient for them based on their own trajectory. Rust-colored hulls easily gave way to the destroyers, opening up their insides to the glittering Yamataian vessels slicing through them. Some destroyers hit power sources and were mutually destroyed with their targets when the unstable fusion reactors exploded. Some crashed into munitions caches, littering the field with burning orange and red blasts that enveloped the target.
One flight of scouts — the Isshi no Amano, or Divine Arrows, arguably the most decorated combat flight in the whole fleet — decided to spin as they hit their targets. Instead of producing a narrow rent, in and out, they twisted decks and hull planting, creating a hole dozens of meters wide that forcibly decompressed entire decks of their target in an instant. The move arguably was more painful for the enemy, but it definitely was for the Divine Arrows, as they spun, often with engines busted off, toward another target, and another, and another.
Yukari counted one as having eliminated five vessels before exploding into a sixth, a Cruiser. With no shields, it fell to a lucky shot of aether from a CDF Yuumi.
The destruction was over in just a few seconds, but the effects were immediate. At the cost of 400 Yui destroyers, 250 of the NMX's largest vessels were destroyed, another 50 damaged, and another 100 smaller ships were eliminated.
The attack not only breached chaos into the NMX fleet's hierarchy, it distracted them for the minute Kotori's fleet needed to close in.
Especially on the stolen Chiharu.
While Yui's fleet was beginning to join the battle, Mokuren navigated through the thin escort group protecting Sprufnikkamazzar's backside. The heavy Ayames hammered through the smaller ships, sending Megamishhu and Kilomishhu designed to ward off gunships and heavy fighters, to early graves. The Chiharu itself joined the battle too late, having focused too hard on obliterating a trio of Irim gunships.
* * *
Hoshi rattled. The signal that Mokuren had just rammed into the CFS of Sprufnikkamazzar's ship.
The signal to teleport.
Coordinates blinked in front of each of the Black Knights. Nimura hoisted her two aether rifles, one new and one old, before she nodded to Nyton.
The Black Knights disappeared.
* * *
When they returned to the world, they were bathed in red light from a distant source. Their backs were to a wall. They could only go forward.
Forward led to the tip of the second story of the three-tier bridge from the Chiharu ship. Chairs lined the rim of it, uniformed NMX Neko taking up positions at each. The ceiling was barely three meters above them, and the red light was pinpointed as coming from the wall behind them — leaving them spiny, silhouetted figures to the nearby Neko who were tossed backward by the Knights' teleported appearance.
There was no cover to be had, but so far no one had drawn on them in the three seconds they had existed on the bridge. But some were getting ready, drawing sidearms and shouting a call to arms.
A home in the middle of a war.
Yui's fleet, which had arrived just a minute or so earlier, already was headed toward the battle, having to cross around Yamatai, and the wreckage of Hoshi no Iori, to join in fighting back the NMX and Sprufnikkamazzar, its leader and co-creator.
The Central Defense Fleet, having risen from its cover on Luna Bianca, already was engaging the enemy with everything it had. It was outnumbered nearly 2 to 1, with only 2,000 aging vessels against the NMX's combined armada of almost 4,500 modern warships, including captured YSE and Nepleslian vessels.
Those watching from the Mokuren saw a battle through a tightened aperture, as the lights from the CDF and NMX vessels were blinding. Aether beams instantly streaked in all directions, sometimes ending in brilliant orange or pink blossoms from hits. Torpedoes — pointedly coming from the NMX vessels — failed to slip past the protective field created by the CDF, but the cost was pointed.
Fighters and power armors were sacrificing themselves by ramming into the projectiles before they could get too far. Even smaller ships purposely were taking the shots straight into their hulls, just to protect the planet. It was leading the CDF to be cut down too quickly to form an effective defense.
Kotori didn't blink, even as Yukari grit her teeth.
"How can we close fast enough to engage without FTL?" she asked her XO.
Yukari knew what she was about to suggest was dangerous, but the CDF would not last and Yui's fleet was closing as fast as it could — without damaging itself.
"Microjump at 0.3 c. It will burn out their older FTL drives, but sublight throttle will be maintained without losing offensive or defensive power. They will get within 500,000 kilometers."
"Do it," Kotori replied.
"ALL SHIPS! PREPARE FOR SUBLIGHT MICROJUMP TO DISPLAYED COORDINATES!" Yukari was getting to do something, and was louder than she had to be. "ON MY MARK ... MARK!"
The fleet, all at once, stretched into hyperspace again for less than a second. Stars stretched, but then seemed to shake as the fleet was repulsed out of FTL speeds, the glowing blue-white jewel of Yamatai taking up most of the volumetric projection of the battlefield while flashes and explosions burst larger and brighter than before.
Many vessels immediately reported their FTL drives were out of commission — though many of the smaller ones, who had less mass to worry about being pushed around by Yamatai's gravitational field, remained sound, if damaged.
Kotori's fleet was within 460,000 kilometers of the NMX fleet.
Kotori, acting Taisho, looked to her Shosa XO, whose body was tense, teeming with the need to act, the need to charge, engage. To protect somehow, to handle some of the weight their actions had caused for Yamatai. She smiled, ruefully.
"Go," she said.
" ... " Yukari turned back to the volumetric panel.
"Ketsuekis, use burst-sphere aether fields to eliminate battlepods and armors! Enders, obtain firing solutions when a safe backstop is available. Kyotos and Ayames, provide fire support to the Yuumis while we head for the captured Chiharu.
" ... Yuis. Seek designated targets and eliminate them according to plan. ... Goddess bless your souls. Until the next time."
Orders delivered, the fleet suddenly shifted.
Silvery-blue scout destroyers broke away from the fleet and flashed away into the thick of the battle. Each commander already had loaded final words into Mokuren's KAMI at Yukari's request, so there was nothing more to do than fight and die.
They did. Hundreds of them. Almost at once, the Zesuaium-hulled vessels fell like swords upon an unsuspecting NMX fleet, suddenly tearing deep into their ranks right where it was meant to hurt most. Commanders of Battle Carriers and Line Battleships, focused on the CDF, received proximity warnings far too late to turn or escape.
The Yuis rammed them however was most convenient for them based on their own trajectory. Rust-colored hulls easily gave way to the destroyers, opening up their insides to the glittering Yamataian vessels slicing through them. Some destroyers hit power sources and were mutually destroyed with their targets when the unstable fusion reactors exploded. Some crashed into munitions caches, littering the field with burning orange and red blasts that enveloped the target.
One flight of scouts — the Isshi no Amano, or Divine Arrows, arguably the most decorated combat flight in the whole fleet — decided to spin as they hit their targets. Instead of producing a narrow rent, in and out, they twisted decks and hull planting, creating a hole dozens of meters wide that forcibly decompressed entire decks of their target in an instant. The move arguably was more painful for the enemy, but it definitely was for the Divine Arrows, as they spun, often with engines busted off, toward another target, and another, and another.
Yukari counted one as having eliminated five vessels before exploding into a sixth, a Cruiser. With no shields, it fell to a lucky shot of aether from a CDF Yuumi.
The destruction was over in just a few seconds, but the effects were immediate. At the cost of 400 Yui destroyers, 250 of the NMX's largest vessels were destroyed, another 50 damaged, and another 100 smaller ships were eliminated.
The attack not only breached chaos into the NMX fleet's hierarchy, it distracted them for the minute Kotori's fleet needed to close in.
Especially on the stolen Chiharu.
While Yui's fleet was beginning to join the battle, Mokuren navigated through the thin escort group protecting Sprufnikkamazzar's backside. The heavy Ayames hammered through the smaller ships, sending Megamishhu and Kilomishhu designed to ward off gunships and heavy fighters, to early graves. The Chiharu itself joined the battle too late, having focused too hard on obliterating a trio of Irim gunships.
* * *
Hoshi rattled. The signal that Mokuren had just rammed into the CFS of Sprufnikkamazzar's ship.
The signal to teleport.
Coordinates blinked in front of each of the Black Knights. Nimura hoisted her two aether rifles, one new and one old, before she nodded to Nyton.
The Black Knights disappeared.
* * *
When they returned to the world, they were bathed in red light from a distant source. Their backs were to a wall. They could only go forward.
Forward led to the tip of the second story of the three-tier bridge from the Chiharu ship. Chairs lined the rim of it, uniformed NMX Neko taking up positions at each. The ceiling was barely three meters above them, and the red light was pinpointed as coming from the wall behind them — leaving them spiny, silhouetted figures to the nearby Neko who were tossed backward by the Knights' teleported appearance.
There was no cover to be had, but so far no one had drawn on them in the three seconds they had existed on the bridge. But some were getting ready, drawing sidearms and shouting a call to arms.
