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

[Strangelove]

"Oh, wow." He said flatly. He paused in thought as he tried to take it all in. 'The Taiie system was destroyed? The fold drive is fried? How fucking long was I out?' He bit his lip as he glanced out the window once more. He couldn't make out the enemy ships just yet, but in his gut he could feel them. At least he hoped so, or he had been hit on the head harder than he thought.

Leutre scratched his chin as he turned away from the window and glanced back at Mara with a smirk. "Well, no worries Mara. You have me, and I have Lady Luck on my side. And everyone knows it's far better to be lucky than skilled." His gaze flickered to the windows once more as the view reminded him that time was ticking. "Now I should probably get going. It won't do at all to keep the gobshites waiting."

 

[Fred]

"I really have to go to the recreation room to get Mizuho too," Mara started out up two steps before Miharu suddenly told her Mizuho had ended up on the bridge.

The sprite hung her head, sighed and ran back down the stairs.

<center>* * *</center>

Kotori gestured quickly for Mizuho to settle on the bunk behind her and listened to Miyoko's report.

At the end of the report, the gold-eyed Taii nodded. "We shall remain in silent running until our energy reserves are restored," She then turned her seat to face Mizuho. "Evacuated ships from Taiie folded her to regroup with the Kinkou group before jumping again to Vaalad, but we all experienced fold drive failures which prevent us from folding out again. A battlegroup of Mishhuvurthyar ships composed mostly of the new scouts and gunships jumped in and began harassing us - I suspect they are the advance force which is to pin us down until other mishhu forces can make it here."

"I decided to attack the head of the group, a battleship guarded by two destroyers. Our surprise attack didn't work as well as I wished, though, and I pulled the Miharu back before they could retaliate." Kotori grinned. "They raised their interdiction field, probably intending I don't sneak up on them with a short FTL jump and a couple of AS-7 torpedoes again."

"Anyone has any suggestions to offer?" Kotori asked.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yukari's first thought was along the lines of "do not attack again and let us continue our mission."

The chance to help was one she had difficulty passing up, as she assumed Kotori would too. But with the interdiction field up, and their own systems not fond of being pushed, she could not see how they could reliably stage an attack and expect to survive.

The problem, as Yukari saw it, was keeping the ship in good condition. They could not afford to rush headlong into battle as the Sakura had, as no repair facilities were available to them. Risking the vessel in a fight they might not win was unwise.

... Unless a pincer attack was attempted. They were, after all, two vessels. If the Hoshi flew in stealthed and fired distracting aether beams, perhaps the Miharu could fire torpedoes ...

No, Yukari thought. Even if the ship did not notice the torpedoes actively, their scalar field would destroy them. Beam weapons were equally slow. The interdiction field was making things difficult.

... Ah!

"We could use AS-5a's," Yukari said, slowly. "One burst of gravimetric propulsion can put us on a course with the vessels. We need only get within 5/8 of an AU to be in range. When the time is right, we blink from stealth, fire, and restealth. Another gravimetric burst in a random direction would put us safely away from them." She calculated in her head the times and speeds. "At 0.80 c, which we can attain with a hard burst, we will reclear their interdiction field in 5 minutes. It would take longer if we went deeper into their ranks. With the state the main ship is in, two AS-5a's should destroy it ... neh?"

She was unsure if she overstepped her bounds.

 

[Fred]

Kotori stroked over the black hair spilling down the front of her shoulder thoughtfully. "That'd be nice... if we had AS-5s in the first place. The Miharu's current torpedo load is 16 AS-7 torpedoes and 8 Chibi-MEGAMI probes; of those 16 AS-7s, 3 are subspace detonator, 4 are transphasic aether and 9 are anti-matter warheads."

The black-haired nekovalkyrja grimly added: "That battleship is probably coordinating this attack. If we get rid of it quickly, odds are their group coordination will drop, insuring less of our people will die. I think we need to take it down faster than that: we don't know when the second wave will jump in."

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yukari's brow furrowed -- she had not spoken out of turn, but she should have reviewed the ammunition count. Idiot, she thought it Japanese. She looked down and let the others do the strategizing.

 

[Strangelove]

Leutre once again bounded down the hall and into the main passageway, for the second time. 'This seems eerily familiar for some reason... This must be what they call déjà vu. Oh, wait, I actually did come down here earlier didn't I? By the Bloody Mayhem, my head hurts...'

As he reached the bottom of the main passageway he sang loudly, "Seven hells and glory be, watch your ass, look out, it's me! I hear we're under Mishhu attack, but worry not, I'm dead and back!" He giggled to himself as he climbed through the entrance into the engineering bay. It was good to be back among the playground they called the sub deck. The loud hum of machinery and the crowded halls of bare equipment reminded him of his home, which never ceased to stir a feeling of serenity in his heart.

 

[Fred]

Ichigo and Nimura were busy removing the top cover from the hyperspace fold system. Tom had disconnected power to the unit and he and the sprites had quickly taken into account which circuit boards seemed nonfunctional so that he could go and replicate some.

"Veressis and Amagasaki-Hei, you two might want to start working on our Combined Field System," Ichigo said, the dark-haired sprite pointing them both to the spherical unit nearby. "Even though we changed the breakers, the four CFS units are only working at 77.58% effectiveness."

 

[I'm Only Dancing]

Mizuho lifted her eyebrows lightly with a vicious grin.

"By the looks of it, Kotori-san, the most logical conclusion would be to stay back. I don't particularly support this line of action..." A pondering glance away. She was struggling a bit with this. Hoshi and Miharu both needed to work in this, and the presence of the interdiction field left much of their armament pleasently helpless. Fingers brushed over her lips, and she spoke again.

"The W2901... subspace particle cannons..." She pursed her lips, searching her memory. She had studied the Miharu's systems to an extent, but was, indeed, not fully proficient with them. "...should be unaffected by their scalar defenses. And their shields..."

A tilt of the head, with a light grin. "And with the battleship already injured, they should be more than capable of removing it, from a full AU distance. The Hoshi could provide a bit of cover while we moved into range for the kill..."

 

[Fred]

Kotori did not particularly care for resorting to the particle cannons against a capital vessel. They would have to get in much closer than 1 AU for the attacks to actually have a chance to hit Aries 1 without it having time to dodge... not to mention that the Miharu had 6 particle cannons to the SMX battleship's 350 or so. The experimental escort, despite its shields, would be chewed to pieces before they'd know it.

Splitting the ship when odds were like this wasn't especially good either. Sure, the Hoshi could serve as a diversion... but the difference in firepower made it doubtful that the Hoshi would survive the attempt - even a Yui 5-class scout destroyer would have a better chance at surviving that sort of stunt.

"Why do you think staying back would be the best thing to do?" Kotori asked Mizuho, ignoring the tactical recommendations.

 

[I'm Only Dancing]

"Because we are outnumbered, outgunned, and can easily be outmaneuvered if we press ourselves." Mizuho almost purred this response. "If we assault them, any weapon we have that can pierce brings us in too close to have any good chance of survival. Even with a pilot like... Yukari, was it..?"

She laughed it off, continued. "We stand little chance of survival, let alone actually helping anymore. They aren't taking chances. They're simply using every advantage they have, and holding the Star Army in place. And it looks as though it's bound to work."

A pair of hands trailed back through her hair, drawing it into a pony-tail, then letting it fall back to settle around her shoulders. "So, we could perform a suicide attack, perhaps delay the inevitable, and if we are extraordinarily lucky, perhaps even come out of it alive. Assuming most every possible factor plays in our favor, I would still bet on our destruction."

A narrowing of her eyes. "And I'm reasonably certain that our mission has little to do with rescuing the Expeditionary Fleet or dying in a hopeless struggle. I reccomend, still, staying back. I don't like it, Kotori, but you have my analasys."

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yukari did not look at Mizuho. She still found the woman ... disturbing. And she was not about to offer such a frank analysis, no matter how accurate it was.

It must be possible to help the 5th ... we cannot abandon our fellows-at-arms.

"Must we destroy the group?" Yukari said. "If we are able to distract them long enough for the other vessels to flee, we will have done our duty."

 

[Fred]

Kotori frowned and opened a holowindow. "Mara, can you tell me if we can register any incoming or outgoing communications beyond Tsuyosa?"

The sprite's face appeared on the volumetric display. "Just a moment. I'll- eh? ...that's odd. No, I'm not getting anything. I'm getting FTL and hyperspace communication as far as 155 AU away from the system, but then it becomes a complete blank. Can't receive anything from beyond and probably couldn't send anything out too."

"Thank you. Now please try to get better scans from the asteroid belt. I'd like to be able to navigate in it later."

"Right on it, Taii."

Kotori closed the window with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Melisson mentioned communication jamming. That means a Black Spiral ship should be around here somewhere. Even if SAINT apparently countered their efforts in Taiie, Melisson's continued push deeper in the Empire's territory indicates that she was counting on continued assistance or even planned ahead for some. Her dismissing the Kurohyou from going to Tsuyosa firmly indicated there was no need of us there because someone else would be here already to do the job."

The black-haired neko's hands came together, fingers intertwined and then closed. "If I let Melisson and her Black Spiral helpers have their way, they are quickly going to waltz toward Vaalad and lay waste to whatever she find there before moving on to the core systems of the Empire. Supply lines would be disrupted and support behind the 1st XF and 2nd SF would be broken. Even if Melisson's fleet doesn't manage to get past Taisho Irim's 1st SF, it would be a major blow against the Empire unless we can slow them down enough here."

Kotori's hands returned to her lap. "How can we do that? We chop off the heads; we destroy their command structure and unit cohesion. We can also try to hinder the Black Spiral's efforts here. Amaya's Gate is a good clue, but its nothing that warrants going away on a wild goose chase when we can make a difference here. Even if odds are bad, we are still the only ones whom can do something about it." Having made up her mind and seeing that the capacitors were back to full charge, the Taii turned her chair back toward the front of the ship. "Tactical, load 2 anti-matter AS-7 torpedoes in the front tubes and switch the main cannon to beam mode. Our target is going to be Taurus 2. Navigation, drop CFS-stealth and put us 2 AUs away from the Taurus group. Deploy our interdiction field to a 1 AU radius upon arrival."

 

[Strangelove]

"Righto. Ama-- Amagu-- Amagusaki?" Leutre snorted angrily as he tried and failed to pronounce her name properly. "Oh sod it all, I'm going to call you Saki. Now, grab me a helmet and a tool kit so we can get down to cracking this nut. Get to it!"

Leutre turned towards the spherical CFS unit and slowly walked over to it. It's casing seemed to entrance him, and he suddenly felt a sudden calmness come over him. He hesitantly reached out with a gloved hand and touched it's cover, and began slowly caressing it. Quietly he muttered, "They all think I'm a little crazy, don't they? Maybe I am, but I can truly comprehend your power. I can hear it, I can feel it. And now I get to tinker with it. The god to my own little world we call the Miharu." He stepped back and placed his hands on his hips. With a small smile he said, "I love my job."

 

[Chigusa]

Chigusa picked up the helmet and toolkit, put on her own helmet, and delivered the other one and the toolkit to Leutre. "It's Ama-ga-saki. Now, where to start?"

 

[Nyton]

Nyton proceeded to configure the weapon output in accordance to Kotori's orders. While he had listened to their discussion in regards to their next move he truthfully could not find any ideas that seemed feasible enough. He had considered trying to confuse the battleship commander with misinformation but that would have over reached their infiltration card like in the previous encounter. It just was not the time or place to try such a maneuver without more in depth knowledge of the enemy. The other ideas of splitting the ship were also unfeasible. It just left them too far exposed. To blunt the spear of the Mishhu attack was necessary and Nyton could only agree with Kotori's assessment of the situation.

The limitations of Nyton's learning were apparent. He simply had not been prepared enough. So he had sat and listened. The old adage of better to be a fool and be silent than open your mouth to confirm it had held his tongue for now. Hopefully he would be able to live long enough to change that arrangement.

"AM torpedoes loaded forward. Main cannon on beam mode. All weapon systems are ready." Nyton reported. He fed the sensor feed data to tactical to update his weapons readouts and focused on the Taurus group. "Shall I add any new configuration to the particle cannons or weapon pods or maintain them as is?"

 

[Fred]

"Keep them as they are. Once you get into range, fire and maintain the beam on the target. If they want to be sitting ducks and slow down the speed of their hyperspace torpedoes..." Kotori grinned wickedly. "That's their problem."

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yukari, turning back in her seat, did what she was told. She swallowed her doubts as best she could and put the ship the way Kotori wanted it.

"Dropping CFS stealth ... now. Jumping." The Miharu leapt through space and screeched to a halt nearly 2 AU from Taurus 2. Yukari kept herself on edge, ready to dodge and move as needed. Giving just a brief half-second past stopping, she activated the interdiction field.

I am not comfortable ... why am I not comfortable?

 

[Nyton]

The tactical systems received the latest position data in reference to their proximity to Taurus 2. Within one second of the target being in range Nyton locked in on the Ghullfrashirv with the main cannon while the particle cannons and weapon pods maintained their programmed functions of defense, adjusted for their new situation.

"Target in range and locked. Firing main cannon!" Nyton announced loudly as he fired on the enemy ship. The Aether Beam Cannon lanced out in a single focused ten inch beam aimed dead center on the destroyer.

 

[Fred]

The Mishhuvurthyar destroyer and the Miharu's boxy, somewhat unelegant maw just under the Miharu's nose were suddenly enjoined together over 300 million kilometers by the rift in space time created, with what part of the Ghullfrashirv flanks that came in contact with it suddenly finding its energy potential released.

More simply put, Nyton's shot dug a large, nasty furrow in the destroyer, making its already relatively unpretty armored hull even less of a fashion statement. Protective shielding not being a strong point in the older and relatively refit-neglected Ghullfrashirv, it wasn't likely even the tough armored skin of the ship could withstand this for long.

"They are bound to lock on torpedoes soon. Don't be jumpy Yukari: with the interdiction fields, they won't get to us anytime soon. Tactical, maintain fire on Taurus 2. Select Taurus 1 as secondary target, acquire torpedo lock and fire at will."

 

[Nyton]

Nyton grinned at the reported contact and recorded the moment with a note of morbid joy. My first capital ship kill. Who needs stimulants to encourage the kill? he thought as the tactical report displayed the damage the ship had received.

"They are bound to lock on torpedoes soon. Don't be jumpy Yukari: with the interdiction fields, they won't get to us anytime soon. Tactical, maintain fire on Taurus 2. Select Taurus 1 as secondary target, acquire torpedo lock and fire at will."

"Roger that, Taii!" Nyton replied and he continued to focus the beam to remain in the same place it had hit with the intention to drill completely through the destroyer. With the other hand he quickly began to seek torpedo lock on Taurus 1. His cybernetic eyes allowed him to focus on both tasks simultaneously, although the tactical station really did most of the work to provide fire correction to maintain the beam while it aimed the torpedoes. No sooner had he locked onto the second destroyer then he launched their torpedoes.

"Torpedoes locked onto Taurus 1. Firing torpedoes!" Nyton announced as he launched their third torpedo volley of twin Anti-Matter torpedoes at the other Ghullfrashirv.