Masako looked over at Chigusa and pointed over towards the fold drive. "Our main priority is getting the fold drive operational," the warrant officer replied as the sprites seemed to be working on it already. "it is not going to be a quick fix either, but it is the only system that needs repairing right now. If combat causes any damage to critical systems, our priority might change, but the fold drive is our main concern," the nearly pupil-less eyes of Masako scanned over the pink-haired enlisted once before motioning to a Damage Control Room.
"Please suit up in an AMES quickly, no telling if will get breached and vent our atmosphere." Masako ordered as she walked over to the fold drive and frowned. "Ichigo, please begin fabrication of the parts necessary to repair our fold drive...if we can't do that, we might as well try to jury-rig it. We must at least get it ready for when the Taii wants to fold," she ordered as she went over to the main engineering panel and picked up her helmet.
Masako seemed to be acting more like a warrant officer, at least...in her opinion now. But she still only had her knowledge in maintenance and repair to lead the way, not the experience in it Tom had. Hopefully, with the input from the rest of the personnel in engineering, they could get it done.
* * *
Nyton dashed to his console. 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. Once seated 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.
"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."
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.
"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.
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."
Nyton followed Kotori's orders and set the main canon on pulse mode for a rapid fire effect. The torpedo tubes were loaded up and he programmed a fire pattern to send out the SDM and AM torpedoes in sequence with the SDM set to strike the battleship two seconds before the the AM torpedo. With one hand he charged up the Particle Canons and set up a quick firing pattern with three to provide auxiliary fire for the main gun while the other three to cover them should any ships suddenly get in the way. Simultaneously with the other hand he deployed the weapon pods and established their configuration. Fifteen Transphasic Beam pods were set up for anti-projectile defense while another fifteen Transplanar Phased Pulse were set up to counterstrike and lay down a heavy fire barrage while the last six were Scalar Electrogravitic Pulse pods to augment their defenses against enemy mecha or missles. The weapons pods were then deployed in a hex shaped pattern fairly distanced so as not to get bunched up and to cover more ground.
The ship made a sharp flip upside-down. Yukari then hit the throttle.
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.
No sooner had Nyton completed this then the jump occurred. "Weapons ready!"
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!"
And now comes the part where I wish I'd been trained in this... Analyzing stellar phenomena had been right up Miyoko's alley- evaluating enemy ships, not so much. Still, it wasn't too much of a battle for her to get a sensor feed on it and run a basic analysis of the target past MEGAMI, both of which she quietly routed over to tactical.
With everything lined up Nyton locked on and opened fire with the torpedoes targeted at the SMX battleship. The Subspace Detonator and Anti-Matter torpedoes were launched. "Torpedoes away and on direct bearing for Aries 1.!" Nyton said loudly and began to reload with two more AM torpedoes facing rearward. While he reloaded he monitored the progress of the torpedoes but did not let the two destroyers from Taurus group escape his notice. After the torpedo reload sequence was initiated he began to train the weapons to counter Taurus 1 and 2 from both here and their intended jump location. Nyton's hand had a grip on the fire control for the main canon and was ready for the follow up attack on the ship's flank. "Ready for the second strike!"
Yukari did not hesitate, the ship receiving her commands through her SPINE as it leaped again the moment the torpedoes were away. It zipped to a halt about nine million kilometers away from the battleship.
The ship was angled to provide the smallest target possible for Aries 1, but the destroyers had a much better target. She had to watch and wait, ready to fly them out of there as needed.
Designed to go at the speed of 17 532c, it was only a formality to track down the first AS-7 SDM warhead. The torpedo got into close proximity to its target and detonated, releasing an anti-wormhole/anti-shield field which deprived the Mishhuvurthyar battleship of its protective barrier, or folding capabilities and cut away a large part of its engine power.
The miniature CDD system of the second AS-7 was hindered by this field enough to dramatically slow down, but since Aries 1 was a sitting duck by then, it had no trouble covering the last couple of million miles to finally connect into part of the large green vessel's open maw. A brilliant white explosion spread over the vessel, ruining much of its now exposed hull armor.
Yukari received a warning courtesy of WARMS that Aries 1 was bringing to bear almost a hundred medium tunneling positron cannons on the Miharu. It also quickly confirmed eighteen positive target locks coming from the two destroyers: they were about to launch their quintessent hyperspace torpedoes.
Timing, it seemed, would be everything.
As WARMS notified her of the cannons aiming their way, the torpedo locks were going to be far more troublesome. And they were much faster than any shots coming from Aries 1.
The data from Miyoko's sensor feed was noted and Nyton began to figure on where Aries 1 had suffered the most damage and how to press the advantage. Unfortunately there was no chance to fire the main gun when Yukari made a quick announcement...
"Engaging CFS stealth system! We are going blind!" The sensors went dead, but Yukari's memory had clearly imprinted upon it the positions the ships had been in. Right then, Taurus 1 and 2 were screaming that they had lost their target locks, but Aries 1 had a rough estimate of where the ship had been, which was enough for a volley.
Nyton braced for the maneuvers and while they were moving he used his memory file to estimate the enemy ship's positions when they came out of the maneuver. He kept one hand on the main gun's fire control but at the same time monitored the other systems to make any adjustments as necessary.
Yukari wished she had enough time to relay her plan to Nyton, but she was still moving. Hitting the throttle again, she made a short, curved jump, one that kept them about 10 million kilometers away from the center of the spherical SDM explosion. If her jump calculations were correct, they would end up above the three vessels.
Her mind ticked the second or so the Miharu needed to make the jump, then let the ship fall out, pulling a similar drifting maneuver compared to the one she had used near the Iori. "Dropping stealth!"
The sensor screens and monitors flared to life again, showing that Yukari had been off in her calculations by about 900 kilometers -- close enough for this work, she grunted mentally. However, Nyton's shots were lined up, and Taurus 1 and 2 were now frustrated into reacquiring their torpedo locks and maneuvering themselves into place.
Dull in the starlight, the battleship's dorsal side was in full view for Nyton to fire his rearward torpedoes. As soon as he did that, she would fire the engines and drift again, spinning the ship to allow him to fire the aether cannon.
Perfect chance. Let's see them shrug this off. Nyton thought and he targeted one of the weakened sections of armor before he released both AM torpedoes set to strike the target simultaneously this time. "Second volley of torpedoes away!" he announced. He tracked the torpedoes progress and stayed alert for anymore maneuvers by Yukari this time. While no orders for torpedo configurations had been given Nyton prepped the torpedo tubes with an AM and SDM for versatility, this time facing forward but refrained from reloading in case a change had to be made.
Both AS-7s arrowed toward the Blrakkrashiverinth, slowed down enough by the expanding (and fading) anti-wormhole field so that Nyton could have, this time, the time to track their progress... and see them explode prematurely as the SMX battleship took them out with its scalar arrays.
Then, the diarhea-green warship's shields and engines came back online; suddenly pitting the Miharu against one very angry Aries 1 and its Taurus cronies.
Kotori's eyes widened a bit: when the Blrakkrashiverinth's shields had been down, it had been the perfect opportunity to lay waste to it with repeated shots from the main gun. Now, that opportunity was ruined and they suddenly faced very bad odds.
"Hold your fire! Navigation, go in CFS-stealth, make an FTL jump 10 AUs away and go into silent running," the Taii ordered, obviously thinking it was better that the experimental escort disengaged before it took on more than it could chew.
Nyton felt anger at the torpedoes being intercepted but he refused to show it and instead steeled himself for another approach. Damn it, of all the luck. We HAD them, he mentally cursed. He held his fire and focused on the ship's operation.
Yukari did not hesitate, though she cursed herself for not realizing the mistake sooner. The ship went blind again as the Miharu made another curved jump, this one about 10 AU away from the three vessels pursuing it. After finishing the jump she then cut propulsion all together and let the ship glide slowly through space while stealthed.
She looked to Miyoko. "Can you activate our RDD sensory array? I must be able to see something if I am to dodge any weapons that come our way."
Miyoko nodded, but hesitated after navigating the console's display to the appropriate screen and turned back to Yukari. "I apologize, but do you want them in active or passive mode? I'm not familiar with their combat applications."
"Passive. Just a brief RDD peek out will suffice," Kotori quickly answered back to the science specialist. After all, it wasn't like they needed to find a hidden, cloaked enemy: they knew where the three SMX ships were. "I'd like to know what was happening elsewhere in the system before we jumped away. Sensors should have been monitoring the rest of the battle. Can you check back on the logs back when they were active?"
Miyoko took several seconds to acquaint herself with the recordings and new sensor readings. Giving a full description would take longer than the Miharu's direct involvement in combat had been- better to keep things brief, then. "The battleship and destroyers have interdiction fields online and are probing the system with active sensors, but we're not a very big target this far away. All three are damaged but operational, though the battleship may have lost use of its positron cannon. The Kinkou group has engaged the Cancer and Gemini groups. Cancer has lost 5 vessels, Gemini is at full strength, the Taiie survivors have lost 2 Odoris and an Irim, and the Kinkou group has lost 3 Irims and 5 Yuis, with another Yui crippled. The Gemini group is using the asteroid field as cover for hit-and-run swarm attacks on the carrier group's pursuing Yuis, but the Taiie survivors are on a heading suggesting that they plan to hide there, as well."
* * *
Leutre sat up in bed and wiped a some drool from his chin with his gloved hand. Where am I? My quarters... I remember something about... Mara, Miyoko, and capacitor cells. What the fuck is that about? Was all that stuff a dream? He glanced down and noticed he was still wearing a complete AMES, minus his helmet. He also felt his head throbbing painfully. An AMES? Maybe it wasn't all a dream. Or maybe I just did something stupid while drunk again. The last time I had a headache this bad was from a hangover.
He rolled out of bed and carefully climbed to his feet, still feeling quite groggy. Slowly shuffling his feet, he made his way out of his room and down the passageway towards the wardroom. I hope the Taii won't lash out at me for being asleep during-- What the hell is that? He covered his eyes as a torpedo launched and a bright flash filled the room.
"Damn it, MEGAMI, what the fuck is going on?"
"The ship is currently engaged against two SMX destroyers and a battleship," MEGAMI dryly answered Leutre.
Mara, whom was suddenly there running up the stairs, noticed Leutre. "Veressis-Hei! Are you okay?"
Leutre nodded "My dear, I have Lady Luck on my side, which makes me effectively unkillable. She loves her scoundrels, the Lady does. Though my head feels like the inside of an anti-matter reactor. And I can't exactly remember what..." He paused as he watched another bright flash through the Wardroom windows. Turning back to Mara, he recalled his attempts to fix the capacitor with Mara. "Oh fuck, that reminds me, did we ever get that capacitor trouble sorted out? I should probably get down to engineering and help Tom finish fixing that bank before all hell breaks loose..."
Mara flinched a moment from the bright flash and quickly began counting things off her fingers as she tried to explain the situation to Leutre as quickly as possible. "The mishhu lay waste to Taiie and we had to escape. CFS and capacitors work, sort of, but our fold drive was screwed once we dropped out of hyperspace. We're now in a neighboring system defending the evacuees' ships - their fold system circuitry isn't working, same as us... so they're kind of stranded here at the mercy of Mishhu pursuers." The sprite brought her hands down. "I'm sure they'll be relieved if you come down and help out."
"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 is 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."
"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.
* * *
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.
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.
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."
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.
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..."
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.
"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 is 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 recommend, still, staying back. I don't like it, Kotori, but you have my analysis."
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."
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."
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?"
"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."
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
You're not getting away from me, Nyton thought as he continued to focus the beam on the destroyer.
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.
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 break 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."
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 is 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.
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 is 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 they 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.
* * *
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 is 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.
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."
"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!"
Chigusa picked up the helmet and toolkit, put on her own helmet, and delivered the other one and the toolkit to Leutre. "it is Ama-ga-saki. Now, where to start?"
Leutre turned towards the spherical CFS unit and slowly walked over to it. it is 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 is 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."
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 is 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 is 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.
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.
