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

The two anti-ship torpedoes streaked ahead on the main viewing screen, just above the line of white fire so fast they really only left an after-image in Nyton's sight, though as far as the tactical display was concerned, the torpedoes were going at a leisurely pace of 3.2c inside the interdiction field. It'd be around 6 minutes before they'd get to their target.

The Mishhu would have plenty of time to see it coming.

In other news, Taurus 2 was not being idle as it was being shot at. It tried moving away, accelerating at top speed, and turning to present another fresh facing... but Nyton kept tracking the vessel with the Miharu's aether beam cannon, aggravating the damage.

The Ghullfrashirv was just too slow to get out of this one. It wouldn't quite be the drilling Nyton had hope for, but he was well on his way to chopping the whole ugly green-and-pink ship in twain.

"Load two additional anti-matter warheads and choose Aries 1 as tertiary target. You may fire once ready, then reload with a similar load and fire again on the same target," Kotori coolly ordered.

You're not getting away from me. Nyton thought as he continued to focus the beam on the destroyer.

"Load two additional anti-matter warheads and choose Aries 1 as tertiary target. You may fire once ready, then reload with a similar load and fire again on the same target," Kotori coolly ordered.

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Nyton had become more versed with the torpedo commands now and reloaded the torpedoes without much thought to it. He targeted the battleship as soon as the tubes were loaded. "Torpedoes loaded. Target acquired and locked." He fired the salvo. "Torpedoes away." He immediately reloaded the torpedo tubes with another pair of AM torpedoes and fired but while they were locked on the battleship they were given a different heading then the previous pair so that they could not be shot down with the same blast. "Second barrage of torpedoes fired at Aries 1."

All the torpedoes being fired either they'll be distracted long enough so we can keep picking them off one at a time or we might get lucky and actually hit them. Nyton thought as he continued to keep the aether beam's path tight onto the destroyer so the intensity of the blast continued to rise.

The Miharu's beam bored deeper within the futilely maneuvering Taurus 2 until the SMX destroyer seemed to wilt altogether and then broke up. Soon after, the broken remains were swallowed by a deflagradation around the engine area which caused it to scatter into fused debris.

On the tactical displays, the Taurus 2 indicator went from red to gray, indicating a neutralized target.

Both other vessels had turned toward the Miharu and were coming at full burn. Yukari received several dozen torpedo aspect lock warnings through WARMS originating from Taurus and Aries 1.

"Gotcha! Taurus 2 destroyed!" Nyton said excitedly. As the announcement of the target locks began to appear he had the defensive weapons go more active. "Anti-projectile defenses online and ready." he said.

"Tactical, select Taurus 1 as your next target and fire the main gun." Kotori said and then looked over to Yukari. "Navigation, stand by for evasive maneuvers. Use WARMS to synchronize the desactivation of our interdiction field with theirs."

As Tom and the sprites began to work on the fold system, Masako was suprised to learn the CFS wasn't working at 100%. It only made her really feel foolish for a moment as she headed towards the two enlisted. "Ok then, Veressis-Hei, it's good to see you up and about, but please work on the central CFS unit. Amagasaki-Hei, if you can, work on the starboard CFS unit while I work on the port CFS," she ordered.

"I want each of you to scan your respective CFS units and check for any destabilization gyros," she explained as she frowned. "I'm guessing that will probably be the main issue we see, but also check power relays and other critical systems for prblems. Hopefully, if you detect any minor destabilization issues, we may be able to correct the problem using the software and fix it totally. Any unit with a destabilized gyro greater than 10% will have to be repair manually, but due to the combat situation, we can't afford to deactivate a CFS unit to do so. In light of that, use the CFS units software to correct the destabilization as much as you can. Any other problems," she explained as she looked at both the pink-haired yamataian and blonde Nepleslian. "Any other problems, use your best judgement or ask assistance from one another or myself," she amended.

"Let's get this task done so we can assist Freeman-Heisho, Ichigo-san, and Nimura-san with the fold system. And be ready to execute some damage control if we get hit," she warned before smiling at both enlisted. "And be careful," she said as she turn towards the Port side Damage Control Room.

Grabbing a toolbox from a locker, she then disappeared into the Port side Systems room. "Ok Miharu-san, let's see if I can't get this unit running at 100%," she mumbled as she set her tool box down. Opening it, she pulled out a small sensor unit and activated it. First, gyroscopic stabilization, she planned in her mind as she clipped the sensor unit to her gunbelt and went to the monitoring panel next to the port-side CFS unit. Pulling up the status of the gyroscope within the CFS unit, Masako frowned slightly as she saw a slight error in stabilization. At least it's only a 2.5% destabilization, she thought. Easily correctable with a bit of calibration. With that, she began to input the numbers necessary to calibrate the problem.

Nyton quickly selected Taurus 1 and locked onto it with the main cannon. "Taurus 1 selected and locked." he said. You're next. Let's see you dodge this as well. he thought as he tried to focus the aether cannon's beam around the previously fired torpedoes to try and box in the destroyer and make it's evasion more difficult. "Opening fire!" Nyton said as the beam lanced out to their target.

Yukari remained at the ready, WARMS already feeding her a constant flow of possible maneuvers and situations based on the available data. The SPINE connection was so much more different than what she had been used to, with flight sticks and such ... it was less about piloting and more about responding. She set her eyes on her monitors.

Leutre gave Chigusa an amused smile as he put on the helmet and sealed it. "Thanks, Saki-- Erm, sorry, Ama-ga-saki. Usually I'm against safety equipment, having Lady Luck watching over me and all, but Miyoko will probably chew me out if I don't wear this damned thing." He tapped the side of his helmet with a gloved hand. "You know how those demanding doctor types can be. But that's enough of my mad ramblings. Let's get to work! As always, may you go with the Lady's Luck."

Leutre then moved over to the monitoring panel of the central CFS unit and brought up the status of the unit. 'Now what did it say in the manual about gyroscopic stabilization? The next step is...' He bit his lip as he tried to recall the technical manual he had studied prior to boarding the Miharu, but found he could only vaguely remember the the procedure for gyroscopic stabilization. Oh well, I'm sure it'll all come back to me once I get started. If not, I'll just improvise and rely on Luck to guide me. When it doubt, let Luck sort it out!' He chuckled to himself, but felt somewhat nervous as he began the calibration process.

Masako was doing well enough adjusting the CFS unit she was working on: the work was painstaking since there were 16 different figures to keep track of as all had to be kept from descending lower whiel she tried to improve others (it was more of less a balancing/number juggling act with the other paired channels), but she managed to slowly improve it on her side.

It was easy to see why the Miharu had spent extra time in space dock. Usually, Star Army vessels limited themselves to a pair of Combined Field System units, making it so that there was only one field compatibility factor to take into account... but the Miharu's 4 different CFS systems, with the addition that one was actually detachable and independant fromt he rest of the ship, forced them to keep track of sixteen different field compatibility factors.

Summed up, the ship, when it wasn't working right, was a nightmare to put back into good working condition.

On Leutre's end though, progress was not anywhere as smooth as Masako's: hestarted out with an average of a 5.6% destabilization... but after a few tries he ended up making it 2.9% worse, which in turn added to the destabilisation factor in the related fields for Masako and Chigusa's units.

With the central CFS unit now at an hazardous 8.5% destabilization, he had little leeway for further error. More than that would not be recoverable within putting the unit offline. Apparently understanding he was experiencing trouble, the Miharu's MEGAMI made a couple of holowindows appear at his side at eye level, skimming over large section of technical text until they finally ended up showing how to actually do the procedure correctly.

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As the argent tongue coming out from under the Miharu's nose caressed over the second Mishhuvurthyar destroyer, the anti-FTL field the Mishhuvurthyar battleship had been emitting swiftly receded. A quick 1.6 second countdown came to Yukari's attention indicating the launch of the many quintessent hyperspace torpedoes.

1.6 seconds was not much time.

Kotori had said not to be jumpy. An interdiction field was up, anti-projectile defenses were up, and even though she was receiving some disturbing numbers from the CFS systems --

One second was even less time. Not enough to do anything fancy. So she did the only thing she could think of. A spark touched her brain, just for a moment. A spark she had not felt for some time, but it jolted her.

She fired the gravimetric engines, just enough to shoot the ship forward about 2,000 kilometers ahead of where it had been. It had worked in simpler times; she hoped it would work here.

While the Miharu made her brief burst of speed forward, over 26 hyperspace torpedoes shot out from the two mishhuvurthyar warships, closing the distance between themselves and the Miharu at a speed the mind couldn't really register... until they came in contact with the Miharu's interdiction field.

Had it not been for the interdiction field Yukari had forgotten to deactivate, the Miharu would surely have been destroyed - an evasive maneuver at sublight would have spelled their deaths.

Kotori's plan of removing both fields simultaneously while making a FTL jump out of the way from the SMX torpedoes (similarly to as Yukari had done the other times) and allowing the six AS-7 torpedoes previously fired to attain their top FTL velocity to destroy the mishhu ships didn't seem to be unfolding all too well, though.

Sure, Kotori hadn't exactly spelled it all out, but she had hoped it would be fairly obvious by now she was giving the mishhu the choice of dying either by the aether beam cannon or have them risk firing their torpedoes and dying because of the AS-7s she had thrown at them. It had been a lose-lose situation for them.

If pulled off right... which was not the case. Now the Miharu was stuck with its own torpedoes still within the interdiction field... which was also buying them around a dozen seconds before the mishhu torpedoes traveled the distance to the yamataian ship.

Both mishhu ships, understanding their predictament, added oil to the fire by firing another volley of torpedoes to insure the Miharu's destruction. Miyoko's sensor station clearly showed both vessels were also priming up their fold drives: should the Miharu survive, they weren't going to keep fighting when the Miharu could outrange and outmaneuver them.

"Launch a transphasic torpedo and detonate on intercept of enemy warheads!" Kotori yelled. Hopefully, Nyton would see how screwed they were and react in time. Hopefully, he wouldn't hesitate despite her order deliberatingly likely causing their own torpedo's detonation to damage the Miharu itself.

Nyton did not hesitate. Instead he followed orders to the letter. There was no emotion here, just the swift urgency of getting the job done to survive. A transphasic torpedo was loaded into the tube and fired as soon as it was ready. "Torpedo fired and on intercept course for enemy projectiles." he said quickly. No sooner had he completed his report then the torpedo arrived at it's target and he hit the detonation. "Torpedo detonated! Brace for impact!" he announced to the bridge. He tried to follow it up by sending another announcement down to engineering. "All hands in engineering, brace for impact!"

White all-encompassing light suddenly filled the main viewing window as the AS-7 transphasic warhead exploded. The aetheric blast immediately slammed against the Miharu's shields and while the defensive barrier held much of the brunt of it, the explosion was powerful enough to scorch over the paint job in places over the front of the ship and to dislodge a couple of zesuaium armor plates.

Kotori had grabbed onto her own console hard and the ship rocked violently once. Some of Miyoko's windows went blank. The Taii turned around to look at the ship condition display Mizuho was sitting next to and noticed that while the ship's armor was still mostly hale that their forward sensors and communication systems had been knocked out of commission.

"Operations, reroute our sensor and communication control to the Hoshi's C-IES and send a request down in engineering that I'd like them to go up and fix the main arrays." Kotori turned her head to Nyton. "Tactical, can you continue attacking?"

Miharu's MEGAMI had quickly compensated for the sudden sensor troubles by switching Nyton's console over to the backup FCS sensors lying atop the vessel's torpedo launcher pod. Nyton had witnessed that shortly after the transphasic warhead had destroyed all the quintessent torpedoes as well as the AS-7 AM torpedoes thay had formerly launched, the two mishhuvurthyar vessels had folded out of the system.

Yukari had barely considered her actions, it seemed. Everything had happened so ... fast. Now the vessels had escaped and they had data on a vessel the Mishhu commander had previously thought to be an ally.

She simply looked down and put a hand on her head, just for a moment. This was not going to be comfortable any time soon, she thought wearily. Then she dropped the interdiction field, as the damage she had helped do to the ship was already done and the enemy was gone, and she waited for further orders.

Moments later, sensor feeds were restored courtesy of the Hoshi's CIES computer and Kotori examined the tactical display. There was no way they could pursue the two vessels that had fled, so Kotori began pondering what to do next.

The Irims from the Kinkou group seemed to be doing well... the new SMX scoutships were really the most problematic. They had only lost one ship since the last time Miyoko checked the logs and in turns had destroyed two other Yui 4s within the confines of the asteroid field.

"Navigation, move us into proximity of where the Mishhuvurthyar scouts are fighting the Fifth's Yui destroyers," Kotori said. "See if you can't hail the crippled Yui; their emergency beacon is on and no one seems to have the luxury of helping them out at the moment."

"Hai, Taii-san," Yukari replied, her voice betraying her feelings only a little. She hoped it would be tallied under the loss of getting the kills, but it was an empty hope.

The ship turned and headed toward the asteroid field where the ships were still fighting back and forth. Communication, Yukari thought, might be hampered, so she increased the strength of the signal.

"5th Expeditionary Fleet destroyer, this is -- " A brief hesitation -- "a fellow YSS destroyer. We have received your emergency transmission; can you respond?"

There was no answer on the comm channel. The reason why quickly became obvious when the Miharu reached visual range of the Yui.

There was a big hole where the scout destroyer's bridge had been. Rents scarred across the hull of the vessel and one of the two engine pods to the side was missing, even going so far as showing parts of the corridors inside the ship. The underside of the Yui 4 was partly gutted.

Barely legible over the burned paint on the side of the vessel were the decals GSS Shikaku.

After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Kotori looked back toward the sensor display, which showed fighting still going on. "Well, let's come back a bit later. Maybe there are still people in environmental suits without any means of communication... even if that's not the case, we can at least still salvage their AS-5 torpedoes."

"Heading, Taii-san?" Yukari did not want to look at the Yui a moment longer -- seeing the obliterated bridge of the destroyer was not healthy for anyone. She turned the ship away from it on purpose.

Nyton could only shake his head at having lost the two SMX ships. The situation had shifted. Survival was no longer as threatened but they had lost a tremendous opportunity. But it could not be dwelt upon. He focused on verfiying the weapons were functional and reconfiguring them for the next conflict against the remainder SMX ships with the data from their scanners. Any weapon pod losses from the previous blast were already being compensated by the fabrication systems.

"Weapons systems are all online and operational. Standing by now." Nyton reported.