RP: YSS Aeon [Mission 1.1] A little training Exercise

The Aeon's combat systems came online, bringing the warship to her full potential. The protective shields formed around the ship, and the turrets powered up while the weapon pods deployed.

Ahead of the ship in the test area the target drones could be tracked as the deployed to their positions.

Meanwhile a tiny dot appeared on edge of Siyun's sensor screen.

Katae smirked as she watched how well the Kohosei handled the Hei's mistep. Eternity, so far I think the new recruits are working out. While the bridge crew goes through the weapons test, I think it would be a good time to give Haruhi the opportunity to drill her team in damage control. When we fire the main cannon, trigger a fire warning in the fabrication area. she sent telepathically to the MEGAMI.

Toranaga’s pale cheeks flushed in embarrassment at the mistake. Nervously dipping his head towards Kim-Shoi Kohosei he apologized for the mistake “forgive me Kim-Shoi Kohosei.” As he returned his attention to the sensors readouts he briefly glanced at Haruhi-Juni. Is she mocking me? He wondered feeling ill about the slip. With a shrug he decided not to dwell on the mistake.

The sensors easily identified the target drones as they moved to their designated positions but something on the periphery of the grid caught his attention. What is this? He slid a finger across the screen towards the unidentified blip. His brows knitted as he studied the passive sensor readout “Kim-Shoi Kohosei” he said without breaking his gaze from the sensor palette “detecting unknown object approximately 100,000 meters to port closing in at 3600 KPH. Conducting TQP-RDD remote scan to identify the nature of the object.”

He paused as he waited for the readout. The information scrolled across the screen and his eyes widened “object is composed of nickel, iron, and carbon.” Toranaga finished the scan and finalized the calculations in his head “it’s an asteroid with a mass of approximate 25 metric tons. On its current trajectory the asteroid will impact the Aeon in one minute and seven seconds.” His voice was even, he was too busy processing information to panic about the giant rock hurtling towards them.

Eun-Kyung suppressed a snort of amusement at the Juni's response before turning back to focus her attention on the main display. Acknowledging Toranaga-Hei's unnecessary but appreciated apology, she called up a main systems overview and was rewarded with indications of smooth running throughout the ship. But her attention was quite unpleasantly snatched by the Hei's warning a moment later. She remained silent as she pulled up the information herself until he finished his final report; a moment later - all options considered - she snapped
into action. "Helm, get us clear of the object's course and standby the boosters. Guns, get a targeting solution and warm things up. Also, let's make sure our shields are vectored towards projected impact." Without waiting to see her orders executed, she switched briefly to telepathy. "Eternity, please sound the collision alarm and secure systems for potential impact." She whipped around as the klaxons began, again, and pitched her voice to be heard across the short distance. "Ma'am, is this to be considered a free fire zone? If so, permission to release weapons if a collision is imminent?"

Asteroid? The weapons test range would not be anywhere near the path of any asteroids. Katae thought briefly. She faced Eun-Kyung, "Safety of the Aeon is priority, fire if no other alternative works. Toranaga-Hei extroplate that asteroid's trajectory, I want to see where it was heading, and where it came from."

"Aye aye Kim-Kohosei mam."
Alia then did a short but hard acceleration leaving the asteroid to float harmlessly by. She began the process of acquiring a targeting solution on the asteroid and the target drones. She then started the warm up procedure on all of the offensive weaponry. As she did these things she doubted the necessity of the weapons. After all asteroids can't steer themselves.

Toranaga nodded his head “understood Ise-Taii.” He brought up the known trajectory of the asteroid from it’s point of discovery towards the Aeon. With that data he calculated the likely point of origin and then refined the trajectory calculation to include any deviations local gravity fields might caused to the asteroid’s movement. “Point of origin extrapolated.” he said nonchalantly and continued with his work. Using the same data he calculated the asteroid’s heading also making adjustments to it’s probable heading to include the effects of local gravity fields. He confirmed his calculations through MEGAMI and turned to Ise-Taii “probable heading extrapolated.”

The asteroid flew past the Aeon and continue out into open space. If the Aeon had been traveling much slower the asteroid could have represented a serious threat.

Katae looked at the data, the projected path had the asteroid coming from way out beyond any asteroid belt in the system, and its path did not take it close to any vital target. This war has me seeing enemies where there are not any. Obviously just a rogue rock.

"Kim-Shoi Kohosei, proceed into the test area and let's get the weapon testing done. We have an appointment with the Henry Chen and I do not want to be late. Good job though people."

"Aye aye, ma'am," replied Eun-Kyung turning back to watch the asteroid continue on its course. "Let's stand down weapons for the moment and get our shields back to standard distribution. Helm get us back on course and making up for lost time." She spent another moment watchng the slightly odd track of the chunk of rock before tilting her head towards systems monitoring. "Haruhi-Juni, please make a note of this event in the ships log... and flag it for later analysis." She turned entirely in her chair to face the Taii. "I wouldn't presume to tell you what you do or don't know ma'am, but if I were given to guessing I would say you had not planned that as a test."

Katae smiled at the midshipman. "You are correct, if I was going to plan a test it would not be something as simple as a rogue rock streaking by. I am much more devious than that Kohosei when it comes to my tests."

"Understood ma'am, adjusting course for hard burn in 10 seconds."
Alia powered the guns back down and manipulated the sheath of energy around the ship to it's nominal state. Then she changed the acceleration from very slight to 75% of maximum ability. Those not in their stations could very well be pulled towards the aft of the ship. She let the burn run its course.

After about 15 seconds of over 1.5G acceleration, Alia cut the thrusters off and let them cool. The Aeon was now a above cruising speed.

"Kim-Kohosei we have a two hour window in which we are within weapons range of the targets on our present heading and velocity."

Two hours? I do not think so. Katae thought. Eternity notify range control that I am invoking commander’s privilege. Order double the number of target drones, and have the extra drones make simulated attack runs and evasive maneuvers. Also compress time on range to 20 minutes. She sent with a smile to the MEGAMI. Immediately Taii..

Eternity’s contralto voice came over the speakers. “We are now in the firing range, per Ise-Taii’s orders, number of target drones has been increased to one hundred. Additional drones will be making attack runs on the Aeon and will take evasive action. The mission clock has been set to twenty minutes for destruction of all drones. Commence your run on Kim Shoi-Kohosei’s command.”

Eun-Kyung had been considering how two hours seemed awfully short when the Taii announced the new training parameters. She felt a chill as adrenaline flooded her system - the rush of command, thrill of anticipation, and anxiety over successfully eliminating all of the target drones jacking her up. "Okay; Helm, standby for evasive maneuvers and firing of primary weapons. Toranaga-Hei, you are taking Guns now. Watch the sensors and fire control, keep shields regulated, and standby the secondary weapons. Engineering," she said even as her hand slammed down on the intercom key. "Standby to redirect power from Auxiliary systems to weapons, shields, and engines." She let her hand slide off the key as she called up manuevering plots in the air before her. A little comforted by feeling out their surroundings, again, she nodded. "All right, standby people. Commence our attack run."

"Done and done," Haruhi deftly jotted an entry on the rouge asteroid into her terminal with her right hand as she maintained her half-facing the terminal position, tagging the short article with a follow-up flag and quicklinks to the relevant sensor data before she appended it to the ship's log.

With the Shoi Kohosei's order to begin the attack, Haruhi ran through a double-check of the systems entrusted to her - all reported back appropriate states of readiness - and then sent a telepathic message to the enlisted crew she had had standby in the power armour bay.

"Heads up, the fireworks are starting. Make double sure you're all ready to move at a moments notice and most of all don't assume anything. This isn't some text-book scenario so communicate with each other and myself."

“Watching sensors and fire control.” Toranaga repeated doing as instructed; he kept his eyes on the auxiliary weapon systems as the Aeon moved in for the attack. His eyes reflected the glow of the sensor palette as he watched the drones on the sensor screen. Toranaga’s muscles tensed as they moved closer to the targets but he felt strange. Is this excitement or anxiety? He wondered. His fingers twitched towards the secondary weapon systems ready to let loose the torrent when ordered.

"Understood Shoi-Kohosei, standing by for evasive maneuvers and firing of primary weapons. Ready upon your mark mam." Alia then connected to the MEGAMI.
Eternity can you extrapolate the scanners data and predict the drone's movements? If so could you give me your predictions as a visual similar to the visual you gave me when we pulled out of dock?

I can provide you with projections based on the drones current position and velocity. But as the Taii stated, a portion of the drones will be changing their direction and speed at unpredictable intervals.Eternity replied. As Alia's was supplied with readouts for the various drones.

Katae sent a telepathic message to Shina and Yani. She was pleased with their response.

“Excellent,” murmured Eun-Kyung, feeling the tension in the air of the Bridge heighten to the bursting point. “Haruhi-Juni, in addition to Damage Control, I would like for you to watch for opportunities to employ our armor team. Permission to launch and engage is at your discretion.” She tapped her finger on the arm of her chair for a moment as the sensor tracks of the drones drew closer. “Very well, we are weapons free. Engage targets as they enter effective range. You may fire at will.”

"Aye aye mam, weapons are free, engaging any and all targets." Alia said as she suddenly pushed the Aeon up to combat speed. She also watched the locations of the drones and began to whip around them and launched several blasts of the main gun as she launched blasts of antimatter. Even as she blew apart a few more just kept coming. A lot were too fast to hit with her capitol ship weapons. She needed Toranaga-Hei to manipulate the other guns, they were better on these kind of targets. She then resigned to focus on lining up shots for him while diving and dodging the strafing maneuvers that some of the drones were performing.

After Alia's initial volley Haruhi's Station started flashing a message.

Alert Fire Detected in Fabrication Area
Alert Fire Detected in Fabrication Area
Alert Two crewman in Fabrication Area

Click to expand...

“As the Kohosei orders...” Haruhi responded to the order to play commander to the infantry pair, not entirely enthusiastic about it. In her opinion that sort of thing was for officers, and there was a reason her circle was blue rather than white. As it happened it mattered little though, as soon afterwards her station flashed up priority messages.

“Fire in fabrication,” she called out alertly as she spun her chair around to face her station. ”Yukimura, Im'ino, triple-time it to fabrication,” her telepathy shot out at the two infantry soldiers, “fire inside so don AMES and equipment from the passageway fire station before entering. Caution, two crew inside there, condition unknown, report back before entering.”

The Juni's fingers flew deftly across her terminal as she brought down the section seals – unlocked, to allow necessary transit in and out – around the fabrication bay to prevent the fire from spreading and called up available information about the condition of the area from the ship's MEGAMI. ”Eternity, find out who the two are in fabrication, and report their vitals if possible,” She thought for a moment. “In fact, report on the location and status of all crew as well.”