RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 14.2] The Battle of Yamatai

Engineering

Takeyu had to agree, he ran a check through the system, according to his computers the portside anti-matter containment system was still operational. So why did we get a warning that it had failed... a malfunctioning sensor perhaps? he worriedly asked himself.

"Cherry, investigate the portside anti-matter containment system real quick please - I'm worried about it telling us it failed yet nothing happened, more than likely we have a sensor that shorted out but I want to be absolutely certain, then check on the CFS system and repair any damage its sustained," he ordered then turned toward Koga. "You're about to get busy," he told her and turned back toward his station to address a worrying problem.

Anti-matter containment on the portside showed stable and there didn't appear to be any other issues other than a few electrical problems that he was noticing, irregular power feeds that he was able to quickly fix with a few simple reroutes around the damaged areas. Then, he looked back at Koga.

"Although minor, I want you to investigate and repair the damage, what's minor could turn into a major pain in minutes. We have several located throughout the ship, but the ones I deem the most serious I'll give to you right now.

"Right now, I want you to head to the fabrication bay and figure out why I'm having an issue with the power coupling there. It may have been blown out of alignment, given how we were just jostled about. Realign if you can, if it's damaged in anyway, replace it - don't try and realign a damage coupling that could cause a far worse incident. Once you've gotten that done, contact me."

Then he turned back to his station and began to perform a series of system checks, power modulations and rerouting in an effort to keep the CFS System's Shield online.

Akemi nodded and went back to the storage room to find a spare coupling and a repair kit. She didn't want to try asking the ship to make one when the one she was sent to assess was linked to the fabrication machines. She queried the computer to find where she needed to be and followed its instructions. When she got there she saw that the coupling in question was thrown out of place as well as warped. She detached it, fit in the new one and fastened it. "I have finished installing a new coupling," she reported back mentally.

Helen eyed the battle as it played out. 'What a pathetic flagship', she mused as she looked upon the bargain-bin variant of the infamous design. Though, there was something quite noteworthy, the matter of the NMX's movements not being focused around the flagship as their command asset. It seemed, lopsided, somehow, if it were the command ship. It caused her to examine the situation closer.

"Sensor and fleet movement analysis indicates a discrepancy in regard to NMX fleet movements. Their primary asset does not seem to be the flagship, it is likely one of the Chiharu-Class ships, now placing indicator on tactical display, marking which ship is most likely the command and control vessel of the enemy advance." Helen decided to add one more key point as she marked the ship which was known by the enemy as 'XSS Tiamat'. "I think the flagship is a ruse. Every quill has the capacity to level a city, or with a bit of focused fire, crack a tectonic plate. If it was going to do the job, it would have already done it, and it would have done it much farther away. I base this analysis on the display of such a capability of the class during the incident with the moon in the Lor system, as well as data made available from other encounters which our fleet has had against similar vessels. Shosho, I recommend we stay on our toes, and take out the primary command and control vessel."

"I'm on it Shosho, all weapons away." Ramiro, intent on doing as much damage as possible, set the cannon to Rapid Pulse and unloaded at the charging weapon. He also reset all the dual cannons to fire at the weapon array. "Cannon firing on 2 second bursts, all dual cannons firing. Adding torpedo fire." As Ramiro said this last part he fired off one of the Anti-Starship torpedoes. With the amount of force he was putting in that ship he was confident that the enemy weapon wouldn't survive the onslaught.

Engineering

That was quick. "Good, now head to the storage bay, we got an issue there but diagnostics isn't telling me anything. Check for a damaged sensor, cracked gravity plating, blown relay or coupling or even check the power cables. See what is causing the minor power lose in the area," Takeyu said to Koga while he was still fixing the tear in the shield on the portside.

He was typing away on his console, trying to keep the portside shield from collasping. "Cherry-heisho?! What's your status," requested Takeyu in a calm tone, but beneath it was laced with a small hint of worry.

"Yes sir." Akemi did as she was told. The lights in the storage bay were out so she activated her Type 32 Floating Flashlight. After thoroughly surveying the area she contacted Takeyu. "Sir, the lights are out. A sensor is broken and another power relay needs to be replaced. In addition, a series of cables have snapped." She sent him pictures of the damage using her communicator. "Gravity remains intact. I ask that you turn off the power flowing through the cables so I can safely repair them."

Engineering

Takeyu gave a nod of the head at the infantrymens report and sent the command to shut down power to the storage bay. "Done," he sent back and keep his eyes on the monitors, while still working on maintaining the CFS system.

Sune started a detailed sensor scan of the identified ship, looking for any potential weakness. He searched the shielding, energy flows, and fed that data to the tactical systems to assist.

Meanwhile he was adjusting the data for the EWS system, programming it to create minor errors in the sensor data to skew the enemy shots. It wouldn't ensure they always missed, but it might buy them a few misses depending on the weapon used and range.

As it was hit with Eucharis' volley of fire, the enemy flagship's main cannons warped, bulged, and then violently exploded, sending a shockwave of purple lighting into nearby ships which took secondary damage. As the shockwave hit the Eucharis, the shield bubble collapsed. This was followed by a number of hits to the ship by surrounding enemies, leaving the ship pockmarked with burns and craters.

A fire flared up in the port CFS maintenance area as the giant electrical lines partially melted in the energy surge. The ship computer showed that the coolant pumps were offline on that side. The starboard main engine was also showing a fire warning.

- - -

Bridge

"Relay the flagship information to Kotori," Hanako told Helen as the ship was buffeted by explosions and impacts. Luckily, a lot of the enemy hits were only glancing blows or near misses due to Sune's quick thinking.

The Shosho turned to Ramiro. "Take us toward the planet where we can intercept NMX landing ships."

The ships of the defense fleet were now expanding their shield bubbles to block NMX shots at the planet surface, saving lives by providing a barrier against incoming fire. If the NMX could be quickly defeated, the damage to Yamatai might be minimal. However, thousands of NMX transports and shuttles were trying to slither through the defense and deposit their mayhem-causing troops on the surface.

"Moving!" Ramiro called out. Pointing the Eucharis in the safest pocket between enemy ships that he could find, Ramiro put full power to the engines. When he did, however, several volumetric windows began flashing red. "No, no, no! Why an engine fire of all the times!?" With all haste he sent a quick message to Takeyu.


"Shosho, we've got an engine fire that may compromise our speed, but I asked engineering to make that our top priority. I will begin firing once we're within a close enough range that it will be safe for us to fire our weapons without a chance for negative repercussions."

Koga finished replacing the shot relay with a nearby spare and soldering the cables just as the ship was rocked once more. She managed to retain her footing and reported in to her superior. "I've dealt with the relay and cables sir."

"Data already available to the fleet, will place a priority message to the Acting Taisho to grab her attention." Helen stated, as she watched the way which the fleet moved to defend. It was a sound tactic really, to put a ship between a burst of planet scorching fire, though, it again brought the Yamataian forces into a herded position.

"Shosho... I have very distinctive concerns about the way this is playing out. Our entire fleet is huddled on this hemisphere of the planet, in this tiny section of the system." Helen started, she was going to have to speak up, no one else up higher was thinking of what was on her mind, it seemed. "We have seven-thousand ships. Enough ships so we can spare half of the gathered fleet, for the purpose of sweeping and securing the rest of the system while still having a surplus to handle the NMX which are here since we are in a superior defensive position. It just seems strange that we have enough ships to repeat the way in which Uesu traveled to the KMS, only to have them stuck in what could possibly become a kill zone." Helen's mind then went to the known count of ships and equipment which could possibly cause a problem with their current situation. "I also must point out, there has only been one confirmed kill on an NMX flagship by our forces, while SAINT is aware of at least four prototype units in circulation, plus additional units of inferior quality... If any one of those flagships were to be in this system, aside from the one we're looking and shooting at right now, with a sufficient firing position, our entire fleet could be wiped out. I highly recommend we handle this far more cautiously, and not to turn this battle into a close-quarters exchange."

Engineering

Takeyu grumbled, he was about to actually report the engine fire when he received the message. Well aware of that... he thought with a slight shake of the head, though him not getting a message back from Cherry was worrisome.

"Koga, change of plans. Get your ass to the portside pylon!"

"Cherry-heisho what is your status?!" ordered Takeyu as he continued to monitor the various warning messages.

"Trying to get these pumps going," Cherry growled. The port-side maintenance tunnel was full of smoke and smoldering fires and Cherry was deep in it, setting up battery packs to provide power to the coolant pumps.

Just then an explosion shook the ship. The aft end of the ship had taken a direct hit and the hull head breached in the room where the maintained tunnels met. Air containment forcefields managed to stop the airflow.

Around the ship, swarms of battle pods continued their fight against the ship's constantly-firing AA guns. Several of the turrets were damaged already.

Engineering

"Roger that, with the fires we have on the ship, I'm going to vent the port and starboard pylons along with the rear to snuff them out. You have ten seconds to brace yourself and get ready, once the fires are out you should be fine," ordered Takeyu as he moved his hand over the controls and decided to use the hull breach in the back of the ship to make the venting easier.

"Koga-hei! Brace yourself, if you near the rear of the ship or near the portside then grab hold as I'm venting those areas to snuff out the fire!" he warned telepathically.

He waited ten seconds, then sent the commands to vent those areas.

"BREACH!" Ramiro called out suddenly. Half of his windows were flashing red as they alerted him of the situation. He flipped from one window to another trying to deal with what he could and, at a minimum, make the flashing and beeping stop. "Rear of the ship, at a maintenance tunnel junction point. Air containment is online." In just a little bit of time Ramiro had managed to make all of the alerts shut up and at this point his brain, having noted that Hanako's helmet was not on, went into security mode.

"Shosho, as your crew member I am obligated to suggest that you put your AMES helmet on at this time. I also recommend that the blast doors be closed as a preemptive measure to prevent enemies from boarding the ship. Your safety, as a Ketsurui and Shosho, is my first priority."

"Understood sir. I am near the portside." She quickly looked from side to side, then ran to and flung her arms around the nearest handrail she could find, actual or improvised.

Sune donned and secured his helmet when the systems monitors showed the hull breach in the aft. He double checked his seal and that the suit was operating normally.

He watched as the emergency systems and shutters were engaging. But they only would ensure the crew would survive as long as the Eucharis remained.

"Valencia-Heisho, the Shôshô knows how to don her gear, focus on doing your job which is flying this ship. To that end, try maneuvering us to put some of the NMX transports between us and those battle pods. Use what speed and agility we have to keep us functioning."

Sune brought up the ships ventral graviton beam projector and programmed it to push upon the battlepods. As thick as they were, he might be able to get some to ricochet off each other. "Engaging the graviton beam to try get some heat off our stern." he called out.

Unfortunately, the graviton beam projector had been located right where they had just been hit. There was no response to Sune's attempts to use it. It no longer existed. In its place was the hole in the stern, venting the air that Takeyu had released to quell the fires.

Although it was more dangerous, Hanako chose to keep the helmet off so she could more easily issue orders and see what she was doing.

Engineering

Takeyu gave a satisified nod of the head as the fire alarms began to ping out in the starboard and portside pylons. "Venting completed," he announced to Cherry, Koga, Pineapple, and Victory then hit the switch to stop the venting process.

"Koga, you're clear. Get in there and assist Cherry-Heisho," ordered the Chief Engineer as he switched to addressing Cherry. "Heisho? Koga-hei is coming to assist you, let her know what you may need."

He went started routing more power around the damaged systems, in an effort to bring the CFS Systems back online, they needed shields. "If I route power around this, then draw power to here...." he muttered aloud as he typed in commands, his eyes moving across his status screen as he realized that the portside CFS system was not getting much power, it was getting some, but according to his systems it wasn't enough to fully re-establish the shields. Yet, as he diagnost the system he found that several the primary power cables that ran from the reactor to the CFS system were no longer carrying a charge.

Looking off to his side he found the issue, there were several blown relays and even four malfunctioning coupling that were in the path. He knew the amount of time it would take to replace those was just too much. "Gotta be another way," he said as he scanned through the systems and soon found a possible solution.

His screen showed him a missmash of power feeds running throughout the ship but he also saw that one of the main power feeds that supplied the CFS system with power ran near the vehicle storage bay. Getting someone to connect an Aether generator into the power socket in the vehicle bay just might be enough.

"Koga, detour. Head to the vehicle storage, with the damage to the ships systems and power cables, I can't get power to the portside CFS system. However, there is an uninterrupted power feed directly from the vehicle bay. Get to vehicle storage and grab a portable aether generator or one of the vehicles we have there and hook the thing up to the power grid. You'll find ports for doing so on the eastern side. Once it's hooked up, tell me!"

"Cherry-heisho, I've had to divert Koga-hei for the moment. Portside CFS isn't getting any power from the reactor, I'm having Koga connect a portable generator to the power-grid. In the mean time, once you've gotten the pumps online again, please investigate the CFS system there and figure out what-else might be wrong."

Then, glancing off to his side, with sweat beating down his back.

"Pineapple-heisho, once you're at the starboard engine. Inspect the damage and repair. Victory-hei? Inspect the CFS system please and tell me what you see as any potential damage please."

He wanted to wipe his forehead, but instead he sent a status update to the bridge detailing what was going on.