RP: YSS Miharu Mission 1 "REAR GUARD", Day 4

[Fred]

<center>MISSION 1
REAR GUARD

In the wake of the destruction of Taiie, the surviving elements of the 5th XF and many of the rescue vessels scattered away from the Mishhuvurthyar forces, hoping to regroup in the nearby star systems where allied forces would come to their succor and escort them to safety while they held off Melisson's ships.

Forces the Fifth Expeditionary Fleet had in Vaalad and the Katsuko nebula along with a token force left by the First Standard Fleet were waiting, but the vessels fleeing from Taiie experienced a collective breakdown of their hyperspace fold systems - most likely consequences of the unique Anti-FTL capabilities of the new mishhuvurthyar flagship. Speculation were useless in face of the results though: several dozens of vessels unfit for combat and bulging with refugees were suddenly unable to speedily get out of harm's way. The First Expeditionary Fleet, already beset by another Mishhuvurthyar war fleet through the Sakura's gap, could do nothing more to render assistance.

Melisson, scenting blood, quickly pressed on to maximize the damage she had wrought. With Talori, Goumon, Murf, Kilnar and Taiie (though the latter was now of doubtful value) systematically taken under control in one ambitious, well-orchestrated attack, she left no ships behind in the conquered systems as she pursued: the more Star Army vessels she destroyed, the more thinly they would be spread out in their larger territory, the less likely they would be of going around to retake the systems she left unguarded.

The ninety-or-so vessels she had left, despite most of them having been damaged from combat already, still appreciably outnumbered the forces the Star Army could commit to defending the fighting retreat to Vaalad and she had hundreds more coming. She would not leave them even the slightest respite...</center>

 

[Fred]

Tsuyosa System, Nadir point
YSS Miharu NJ-X1-00

"What do you mean, we can't fold again?" Kotori glanced down at Mara, the sandy-haired sprite sitting to her lower-right on the bridge.

Mara raised her hands up helplessly. "Ichigo just told me the whole thing went up in a shower of sparks. It's ruined. We won't be able to get it back running today, even if they work the rest of the day to fix it."

The Taii frowned. Tom and his gang down there had done a good job getting them out of there safely. Had it not been of their effort, the Miharu would have been doomed to the same fate as Taiie, victim of its own experimental nature.

She wanted to praise Tom, make him and the others down there feel good about themselves. They deserved it. Instead, she was stuck giving them more work.

"What about the Combined Field System?" Kotori asked.

Mara looked over to Yukari. The Chui's console had some of the red warning windows too.

 

[Chigusa]

Chigusa looked up and around, then took a deep breath and exhaled. "Megami, where is Kotori-taisa, and if possible, may I be brought to that location?"

 

[Fred]

"There is no Kotori-Taisa aboard, silly," Miharu's MEGAMI replied.

At least the big shockwave of death was no longer outside the window. Just twinkling stars. Akina no Iori, the place she had been stationed to just yesterday, was probably gone. Had it not been for a capricious twist of fate, Chigusa would probably be dead instead of still alive aboard the Miharu.

 

[Rabbit Eclair]

After a request for Miharu to open a communication window with the highest ranking crewmember in the subdeck, both Masako and Miyoko suddenly found themselves staring back at their respective images.

Miyoko bowed to Masako's tiny hovering disembodied head-in-a-square. "Veressis-hei had a fairly bad concussion, so he won't be returning to you just yet. Does anybody else down there need medical attention?"

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yukari sighed as her hands went across the controls one by one and addressed what her monitors told her.

"Our Combined Field System has been stressed too harshly," she said. "We will not be able to attain top CFS speeds in our current state -- Miharu estimates she can reach about 149,350 c without risking herself. We also do not have the fold system, as Mara has said."

Her eyes fixed on an image of Tsuyosa. " ... Communication activity limited to Star Army vessels -- none within the immediate vicinity."

 

[Fred]

Kotori's eyes returned to Mara. "What does it look like out there?"

Mara turned back to her displays. "Well, it's a fairly spaced out star system. The star is a F-class yellow dwarf. There are four planets: the first is 0.6 AU away from the sun, is terrestrial and has an atmosphere... though the volcano and greenhouse effects makes it a lifeless, unhabitable sauna with lots of tectonic activity. No moons."

"The second is 3.7 AU away from its sun and is pretty much your typical, crater-infested airless rock that happens to be big enough to be called a planet. No moons here either."

"Then, we have lots and lots of smaller floating rocks between 4.1 AU and 17 AU of the sun... which is a whole lot of asteroids. We have about 12% of Type Cs, 29% of type Ss and 16% of type Ms. The rest are actually in a pretty big patch of asteroids which emits high enough radiation to mess up with our sensor reading: I'd bet most of them are Type Ms and would probably be good for mining if our instrumentation would work around there."

"The third planet is a rather cold gas giant - can't really blame it: it's 29 AU away from its star. It's sort of bluish, has a ring system and about 54 moons which I won't detail."

"The fourth planet is 36 AU away and terrestrial dwarf. Moons around the third planets are actually bigger than this one. Tourists would probably go there for ice skating... since what this small thing has in abundance is ice." The sprite turned to look back at Kotori. "We have Star Army ships. You want me to list them? Registry code, name, everything?"

"Only by type and affiliation," Kotori replied.

"All of them are from the 5th Fleet. Most of the ships that left Taiie ended up here I guess, and they all somehow scattered in the system."

"Fold problems?" The Taii asked.

"Probably, seeing I wouldn't want to drive an Odori in an asteroid field with radiation like this one. We have 4 Irims, 10 Odoris (I think), 1 Noujou - that's a Novacorp agriculture ship, and two Hummingbirds with Katsuko colonies." The sprite transmitted a tactical view of the system, which showed another formation of vessels which were moving in to assist the ships caught up in the asteroid belt. "And that's the Kinkou carrier group, which includes 9 battle-ready Irims and 12 Yui scouts."

Apparently, their fold troubles were shared. That probably was an after-effect of the Anti-FTL field Melisson's vessel had used back in Taiie. Kotori ran her fingers through a lock of hair that spilled over her shoulder as she considered the system's map and their situation until she finally nodded to herself.

"Alright, the forces the 5th XF sent can probably get them back to Vaalad safely. Yukari, make us go into silent running while we deal with the engine trouble and try to see if you can have the IES check for mishhuvurthyar hyperspace communications - Taiie's only about four light years away and we might get something. Also have it keep an ear out for Star Army communications - I want to know if the other part of the rescue vessels experienced the same kind of trouble with their fold systems."

Kotori stood up and gestured to Mara. "Mara will handle things here on the bridge. I want us - along with Yukisato-san and Saito-Hei - to go to the science lab and see if we can dig something out of the PANTHEON database that could be related with this so-called "Amaya's gate".

 

[Nyton]

Nyton stood up and followed Kotori, however he immediately assumed his thinking posture even as he walked. "Amaya...Amaya.... there was some reference made to that name while I was researching last night. What could it be?" he thought out loud. As he scrolled through the memory files on his cybernetic memory stores he could not help but feel slightly agitated at not being able to remember exactly what he looked for.

I really must see about getting a newer model memory system. I shouldn't be tripping on a memory like this. I usually have everything locked in even after just two hours sleep. Perhaps it was something I felt insignificant? No wait, there it is-! Nyton's memory found what he was looking for and brought it forefront to his mind.

"Subject Amaya, former GSA personnel, deceased. Ah yes, the reason I looked into her was her connection to Kai Ashigari, a Shosho who had been assasinated by Naraku." Nyton said quickly. "There is more information but I don't know if it is pertinent at the moment. Let's first see what we can find on that gate thing."

 

[Abwehran Commander]

Masako blinked as she suddenly faced the ship's violet-haired science specialist and smiled kindly. "No, no one else needs medical treatment down here," she replied as she scratched her left ear. "Though that's awful to hear Veressis-Hei was that injured," she went on with a frown. "But I thank you for taking good care of him Saito-Hei."

Hearing the orders Kotori was giving on the other end, the young neko bowed slightly. "We're not out of the woods yet ourselves," she said with a weak smile. "Good luck in the Science Lab," she spoke quickly as she close the window and audio to the bridge.

With a small sigh, kept scratching her left ear and walked away from the console and towards the fold drive and the raven-haired sprite beside it. "Ok, we know it's ruined," she started. "Is there anything, even a single part, of the fold drive salvagable?" Masako asked as she crossed her arms under her breasts. "If not, can we fabricate the parts necessary to get the drive operational or is this the job of an Iori's shipyard?" the warrant officer asked.

 

[Doshii Jun]

"Alright, the forces the 5th XF sent can probably get them back to Vaalad safely. Yukari, make us go into silent running while we deal with the engine trouble and try to see if you can have the IES check for mishhuvurthyar hyperspace communications - Taiie's only about four light years away and we might get something. Also have it keep an ear out for Star Army communications - I want to know if the other part of the rescue vessels experienced the same kind of trouble with their fold systems."

"Hai, Taii-san," Yukari said. She reduced the throttle down to just 0.005 c and fired the gravimetric engines twice to achieve that speed. With the CFS no longer taxing itself with propulsion, she switched it to covering the ship's various energy signatures -- it would at least keep roving "eyes" away from the vessel.

As the others left, she was busy instructing the Miharu to do her dirty work. "You understood what Taii-san said, Miharu-san?"

"Yes," the ship replied. "Do you require further assistance?"

"Feed the Star Army channels through my communicator, please," Yukari said. "And I will keep the headset?"

"Sure," the ship said. "Any particular channels?"

" ... Highlight calls for technical assistance, and medical aid."

"Done," the ship said.

Yukari nodded, then followed Kotori.

 

[Chigusa]

Chigusa had fallen over when the fold engaged earlier, and was getting back up quite slowly. "Son.. Of... A... BITCH!"

"Megami, please open a comm channel to Kotori-taii for me..."

She was on the verge of crying.

 

[Fred]

Ichigo shook her head. "If we had a spare fold drive, we could take one or two hours and just replace this one with the other, but we don't." The dark haired sprite gestured at the damaged unit. "Since that's the case, we have to cut power to it, remove the cover and start replacing most of this electronic components. the jump coils are fine - it's really the circuitry that's ruined and needs replacing and then much testing, recalibration and simulations to make sure we can survive a hyperspace fold."

Nimura, still hoisting the fire extinguisher she had used to get rid of the small fires that had gushed out of the unit when it had undergone the sparking chain reaction, suggested: We could get to the fabrication room and try building an entirely new hyperspace fold system assembly. It'll still take long, but not as long as repairing and troubleshooting our current unit." The other sprite nodded. "The ship's fold system is probably one of the rare components we have down here which is actually not experimental - it will be easier to set up to run properly."

"Wouldn't that waste this unit?" Ichigo countered her twin sister.

Nimura shrugged. "We can repair it later at our leisure and have it as a ready replacement. More importantly, it will have the ship be able to fold sooner."

<center>* * *</center>

Just as soon as the three bridge officers left through the door, Mara came flying after them. "Taii!"

Kotori stopped in her tracks - the MEGAMI had just been telling her about Chigusa's request to talk with her - and turned to Mara.

"This might be a bad time for a debriefing." The sandy-haired sprite winced. "Mishhuvurthyar ships are folding in the system."

"What?!" Kotori immediately walked past the sprite and returned to the bridge, where the main volumetric window still showed a tactical display of the system.

24 SMX contacts had appeared at the edge of the system. Informative labels next to the red dots identified them as Aries 1 for a Blrakkrashiverinth-type battleship, Taurus 1 and 2 for a pair of Ghullfrashirv-type destroyers, Gemini 1 through 8 designating the new scoutship types and Cancer 1 through 13 for the Xianthrafruglu-type gunships.

They're pushing on the offensive already? Kotori stared at the display incredulously and jumped into her command seat. "Miharu, sound battlestations!"

Klaxons sounded through the ship. This wasn't just a couple of alarm tones - this was a call to arms.

 

[Chigusa]

Chigusa's mind clicked. The call was almost like a sort of trigger - Chigusa's defensive mechanisms reacted automatically. She rushed out of the wardroom and started making her way to the power armor bay.

"Megami, please inform the Taii that I'm suiting up."

 

[Fred]

A text message came to Kotori as the klaxons turned silent. "Nyton, can you please tell Amagasaki-Hei to report to the engine room? With Tom working on the fold system, I'd rather have her help out everyone else down there."

 

[Nyton]

Nyton dashed to his console as he received Kotori's orders. "Roger that, Taii." he said quickly. Damn, the SMX are already here. It only makes sense to press the initiative if you have it. Damn I should've expected this but with our systems damaged we can only do so much.

As he sat down he quickly got about being set up. "Miharu, please open a comm window to Amagasaki-Hei." When he was patched through he quickly looked at her with a calm expression. "Amagasaki-Hei, your skill is required down in engineering. Please assist Freeman-Hei with any work that needs to be done there. Do you copy that?"

After the message was delivered he then turned to Kotori. "Should I have Kurohoshi-Juni suit up? If Veressis-Hei is injured and out of action that would only leave Freeman and Amagasaki in engineering." Nyton quickly asked.

 

[Rabbit Eclair]

Miyoko greeted the call to combat with a time-honored tradition shared by ambushed warriors everywhere- she swore under her breath and really wished she were elsewhere. She briefly turned to the sprite, mumbling, "It seems I'll need to be reclaiming the sensors, Mara." Then, she turned and jogged into the bridge, once again taking up her position at the ship operations console.

 

[Chigusa]

Chigusa stopped dead in her tracks, and changed direction to the engine room. She responded to Nyton. "Copy that."

 

[Fred]

"We'll just keep the bay doors close and make sure no attack pods even gets close," Kotori told Nyton as she eyed the main tactical display. The mishhuvurthyar had folded within close distance of the Kinkou group and were the first to open fire, destroying two of the Irims and an Odori which had been relatively close together. Luckily, the rest had spread out enough to avoid the initial killing volley from the SMX gunships deadly Legacy cannons.

Kotori hissed in irritation. Most of the attacking vessels, though they numbered almost as much as a mishhu battlegroup usually was, were small, faster vessels made to harass and kill swiftly. This looked more like an advance force spearheading what would be a larger assault.

Still, she was done with seeing people dying. Being 23 AU away from the battle was hardly going to stop her from fighting this time around - not to mention she wanted to make the odds a little more even! "Tactical: set main gun to burst mode, load Anti-Matter and Subspace Detonator AS-7 warheads facing forward, arm our subspace-encased particle cannon turrets and deploy our variable pods... I'll leave their configuration to you. Navigation: suspend silent running mode and make a tactical FTL jump to get us closer to the action. Make sure to disengage distorsion speed to prioritize shielding before we get within 1 AU away. Operations: Our target will be Aries 1. Analyze the target and feed what data you have to tactical."

"Anou... Taii, what about me?" Mara asked. With Miyoko at sensors, the sprite wasn't sure of what to do.

"Get yourself quickly up to the sensor dome and see if you can't drag Yukisato-san along so she'll have a broader view of the battlefield. If possible, try to increase sensor resolution for that radioactive asteroid patch and use long range scans to see if other waves of SMX vessels might be coming in or that would be headed toward other systems."

"Hai!" Mara turned and left.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yukari said nothing as she flew back to her station instead. There was no time to consider anything but orders and survival.

The gravimetric engines were shut down as the CFS was brought back on, with a tactical jump already laid in. The CFS's propulsion would disengage entirely once they were 1.02 AU away from Aries 1. It would then switch to shielding.

"Redundant generators on cold standby. They are charging and will be at 70 percent by the time we drop below FTL speeds." She looked to Nyton briefly, as if to say "Am I harming your post?" then back at her instruments. "We should not have been detected yet, but we will be as soon as I make the jump. Please be ready."

The ship made a sharp flip upside-down. Yukari then hit the throttle.

 

[Fred]

Only the merest portion of the CFS potential was needed to span 23 astronomical units - it was the flash activation itself that gobbled the most power.

The Miharu was suddenly a streak of color as it went to 9000c, reaching the desired coordinates under barely more than a second. Gravimetric engine arrays flared to life and the experimental escort hurtled itself like an arrow toward the Mishhuvurthyar battleship.

Both destroyers, labelled Taurus 1 and 2, broke off their attack run to move and intercept the Miharu while the battleship began orienting its prow toward the small Star Army vessel which was closing in. Even though both ships were in weapon range, it would take around eight minutes for any beam weapons to connect. The Blrakkrashiverinth battleship split in the center to reveal its spinal main cannon and opened its quintessent hyperspace torpedo tubes.

At such range, the SMX battleship's large array of torpedo launchers, without the benefit of an active interdiction field, would quickly shred the Miharu into so much debris; regenerative shielding or not.

"Aries 1 should get ready to fire its hyperspace torpedoes anytime soon." Kotori began. "On my mark... Launch AM and SDM torpedoes and reload rear tubes with two AM warheads. Navigation: you will execute another jump to get within 6 million miles of Aries 1 right flank, allow tactical to fire as many burst shots as possible on the target before turning tail, firing rear torpedoes and move us away, using the expanding SDM blast as a barrier to shield us from the quintessent torpedoes from the Taurus group." Kotori held her breath as the tactical display showed the Blrakkrashiverinth finally line up with the Miharu. "Now!"