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RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 28.1] Kuvexian Invasion - Preparations (YE 40)

Wes

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Hanako's World
Sometime in YE 40


Hanako stood in her duty uniform at the front of a large brief room where the Eucharis crew and other crews from the First Expeditionary Fleet were gathered in stadium seating like a large college class watching a keynote speaker giving a technology talk. "Star Army Intelligence has been working on figuring out the intentions of the Kuvexian Kingdom and it looks like they are getting set for an invasion in the very near future. The Star Army of Yamatai has been working on ways to create counters to this attack without tipping our hand that we're spying on them as much as they are spying on us. But in fact we have the date and we know some of their goals," she told them.

A diagram of Kuvexian forces moving into the Kiyko sector appeared on the screen behind the Shosho.

"Primarily it seems the Kuvexians want to gain populated territory that they can use for profit. The Kuvexians are practicing slavers and they want us for cheap or free labor. They also want to sell things to our populations and violently eliminate the corporate competition. Interestingly, they also seem to be driven to war by large corporations that profit off of making war supplies. Their military-industrial complex is uncontrollably powerful. So expect to see a large number of private mercenary groups as well as their actual Navy. SAINT has determined that the Kuvexians plan to go after our industrial capacity first in order to make it difficult for us to compete in terms of manufacturing. Their first large wave will be focused on the industiral systems and shipsyards of the Ketsurui Military Sector. The Eucharis and the gunships of the First Expeditionary Fleet are going to engage the enemy there to protect our Star Fortresses and industrial planets. In the meantime I want everyone to build up their ability to work as a team and to train hard to fight the enemy. The Kuvexians will initially come in a large wave and if we can break that wave we can bankrupt them and make their venture unprofitable so their future invasion forces will come in a manageable trickle, giving us the ability to counterattack them. Questions so far?"
 
Hanako's World

For a long while, Ikigai Majime had been standing near the Shôshô in a Type 35 Duy Uniform, white paneled, with a gold sleeve stripe on each cuff, signaling the Taii's rank and occupation. Those with PANTHEON access in their mind's eyes would also be able to tell that Majime was also the XO of the YSS Eucharis, an estimable Plumeria with a long standing as the Ketsurui's shining example of leadership, with and without fail. Not everything could be perfect every mission and Majime had learned to accept that the first time she had woken up inside of a hemosynth tube. Despite that, she was hopeful beyond compare to any other briefing she had yet encountered. She was certainly set on the missions in the Eucharis' future working out in ways they had not even thought to estimate.

She wasn't about to pencil in a number for how many eggs the Eucharis held in her basket, but she was certainly counting them. Not only that, she liked the odds.

"No questions from me, Shôshô," she said with a curt shake of her head to either side and solemn demeanor.
 
Hanako's World
1XF Gathering


Arria Smith trembled slightly in her spot, golden red turned upward towards the impressive and ever-beautiful Hanako. This was the first time in years that she was going to serve on a real starship, and on top of that - which is enough to make many a soldier rather excitable - she was assigned to the famous YSS Eucharis! Inside her lightly fidgeting body, the girl's mind whirred away to itself, responding to and sometimes repeating the woman's speech.

They'd do right to attack our production... No new ships means that we can't reinforce. Cutting off supply lines is the best way to defeat an army of any kind. Even our best ships can't hold out against an assault without a safe place to repair and restock their munitions... Arria's hair cascaded like water behind her as she briefly looked to either side - so many people were gathered here. All of them risking their lives to protect this beautiful empire that they all lived in. All of them, soldiers.

So they plan to defeat us with a single overwhelming attack? That would be effective but... Hmm... Splitting the forces is useful still. A reserve force specifically to follow the main to defend their rear and also destroy anything that might have repelled the vanguard... The Elysian was... very clearly deep in thought, even as Hanako continued to speak.
 
Hanako’s World

Having arrived early to the briefing, Ozaki Kasumi had taken a seat in her designated row, clad in the ankle-length variant of her Type 30C duty uniform. Given the broad strategic scope of the briefing, it was surprising to her that enlisted personnel had been required to attend. She had always considered such overarching strategic discussions to be the exclusive domain of the officer cadres, while the enlisted ranks focused on squad-level tactics. Regardless, Kasumi trusted that her presence at the briefing had not been ordered without reason. After all, she could gleam valuable information regarding the context and grand strategy of the defense operation, along with the chance to give direct inquiry about the operation.

As she listened to the briefing, Kasumi took notes in a loopy and flowery script, with exaggerated curves and long, flowing lines, while utilizing the pull-out surface pulled from the crevice between her seat and the one adjacent to her as a writing surface. Any important points that she could not write on paper were copied to memory. Like many Nekovalkyrja, Kasumi preferred the sensation of physical text over digital files and datapads. However, she was not averse to digital text formats, by any means. She simply found more sensational value in concrete texts.

She set her pen down when Hanako offered the opportunity for questions. Kasumi glanced over her notes to search for areas where clarification was needed, or if there were any concerns on her end. As she scanned her outlines and memories of the speech, Kasumi realized that there had been an uncanny emphasis on the financial aspects of the invasion, specifically in reference to the invading Kuvexian fleets. The words, “bankrupt”, “profitable”, “venture”, “value”, and “yield” appeared frequently. It had been mentioned before that the Kuvexians sought to conquer in pursuit of profit, rather than for imperialistic motives. Therefore, she reasoned that a long, drawn-out conflict would represent one of the best-case scenarios for the defense, so as to strangle the financial resources of the kingdom in a long (and expensive) invasion.

Kasumi raised her hand, and when she was called upon, the white-haired Neko rose from her seat. “Nitô Hei Ozaki Kasumi.” She opened with a deep bow towards Hanako. “Shôshô, given the financial motivations behind the Kuvexian invasion, in order to achieve victory conditions, do you believe that a long and drawn-out conflict is necessary, or do you think that we can wipe out their major financial and military assets in a few decapitating strikes?”
 
Hanako's World

A red-skinned Nito Heisho observed the reactions of the crowd for a minute, giving the silence a pace. The collective shrug of learning the enemy was still coming for them, that was something you had to let people breathe out.

Still, sitting there in the brightly lit board room, typical Yamatai silver and ivory furnishings... A couple of dozen doll-like Nekovalkyrja with the same absolute dedication to ironing their uniform, giving their badges and belt buckles that extra sparkle... Toyoe Tsuguka could only wonder what a spy would think of their brazen reaction, sitting silently somewhere amongst them.

The input of the white-haired elven officer, as well as the following response by Hanako, at least told her that their internal clout was still there. It made her wonder how they could be forced to make the enemy spend their resources, even if they couldn't totally derail them financially.

"Ma'am." After having waited their turn, the soldier stood up straight and bowed attentively before talking, observing perfect decorum before angling their sharp green eyes back towards their leader. "What about our auxiliaries? Has any effort been made to form new allegiances in the sector?..."

They also wanted to ask what was being done to destabilise that of the enemies' fleet, and was mentally forming a dozen plans as such, but wasn't about to go about discussing such back handed topics in public.
 
Setsuya Itatski had arrived around the same time as everyone else and taking her designated seat. She wore the type 30 uniform like most, though being a NH-33a which were still fairly new, she was taller than most. Having this noteable difference made her realize she most likely stood out. No matter, hopefully her default neutral expression and posture would lessen that. Listening through the briefing, everything to her was sound, the only thing she could think to ask was specifics. Regardless she made personal notes on the briefing on her datapad as she listened.

When others began to ask their questions she listened. Particularly when she heard a familiar voice, her expression broken by a slight smile as the pale Neko with black hair, turned her golden eyes to Kasumi. The red highlighted long bangs that framed her face would wave as she turned back. She knew she'd be here of course, the seeing reafirmed that, with a surprisingly unexpected happy feeling. After Ozaki and Toyoe had asked their questions, she raised her own hand.

"What amount of ground and possible boarding action can we anticipate to happen ma'am? In addition to fleet activity.", The woman asked.
 
Nito Heisho Yoshida Kokoro, as per the usual arrived only just before the breifing was supposed to begin, practically skidding to a halt as she bolted into the room, and hopped over the back of her own chair to plant herself within it right along side Kazumi. Pumped up as she was, she stared attentively as Hanako began speaking, detailing virtually what would hopefully be exactly how the war would play out in the coming... hm, months? Perhaps longer. As she was doing her best to make it look like she was not infact, still catching her breath she neglected to speak up right away and thus, most of te good questions, particularly Kazumi's question.

The little cat couldn't help but grin at the question, and gave her a thumbs up. Certainly, that was indeed the question. Burn and raze everything while retreating to prevent any form of profit maybe? Ah but that started smelling of thigns such as 'war crimes'. Probably best to not bring something like that up. "Wonder how good their forces are relitive to ours... probably hard to judge if they are all using different stuff with different training? Well if they are a lot of mercenaries they can probably be bought... aggh."

Yoshida talked, mostly to herself and then started rapidly messing with her own hair in a small degree of frustration along the realization it was slightly messy from the run. She truly didn't expect to say anything world changing herself, so she finished with a "Well... no actual questions." Rather quietly, and red in the face. She infact, regretted thinking aloud as much as she had.
 
Wazu was doing his best not to think.

When he opened his mouth, people tended to take things the wrong way. Small probing questions from the guy that wasn't a part of the SAoY could certainly come off badly. To make matter worse there were a lot of faces he didn't recognize here, and a lot more that were missing from the crowd entirely.

But Tugs was still around.

that was certainly pleasing.

Her question was a good one too. Certainly something he wouldn't have been able to ask without coming off like an asshole. She was also the logical choice to take over the command of the armor team. If anyone could prevent another team-wipe it would be her.
 
Hanako answered Kasumi first. "The Star Army will fight whatever type of conflict we need to fight to achieve victory. We are not in this for money or entertainment, we are in this to win and to protect the Yamataian way of life. By all measures it appears that Kuvexian oligarchs feel like they can take over Yamataian planets and kill Star Army soldiers for personal profit and corporate boardroom talking points. We are going to put forth our best efforts into making their plans fail spectacularly."

Next, Hanako answered Tsuguka. "We have been working on defeating some of the Kuvexians' allies. The L'Kor, an avian race, has already fallen to the Star Army and they will thus be excluded from participating the upcoming invasion. We have also developed an anti-Rixxikor spray that sterilizes them so they don't reproduce uncontrollably. As for other allies, we do not have any in the Kuvexian sectors but the Nepleslians are in this fight in our sector. That said, the Star Army does not rely on other people to solve its problems and we intend to lead this war."

"I am not sure about boarding actions. It will depend on the circumstances," Hanako answered Setsuya.
 
Hanako's World
1XF Gathering

Will stood at the back of the room, the chairs made him feel claustrophobic due to his bulk and if he was at the back, he wouldn't be blocking anyone's sight. As he listened, he tried to think about his father's advice about listening to briefings and what questions he could ask that would help not just himself but others understand the situation better. "Do we have any idea where they will strike first?" He asked.
 
“Do we know which tasks would be most profitable for the Kuvexians during their invasion?”

The question felt right this time. Not pressing too much, perhaps just enough to get the Star Army thinking of this endeavor as a Profit/Loss statement rather than in territory or ships lost. He could think of at least one war nearly lost due to insurance costs for merchant ships traveling between areas that should be safe.

Wazu didn’t win that war of course, but all things considered when blockaded by the SAoY he was happy to take a ‘not lose’.

He also couldn’t help but notice just how much Hanako sounded like Yui just now. That had all sorts of baggage attached to it... for now it felt best to focus on who might be dieing because of their actions...

“And what about the Rixxikor that have been pushed into this area? I could arrange to start moving unwanted Rixxikor migrants to a colony world outside of Yamatai space. With proper management they would no longer pose a problem.”
 
Hanako's World
1XF Gathering


Matsuvo Shinomori sat at the back of the briefing room, intimidated by the size of the group he would be working with. He had only ever worked with the smaller crew of the Kaiyo, just a single ship, and in the grand scheme of things he wouldn't be playing a very major role in the battles to come, as he was only an infantry soldier.

Still, he had an idea and he felt it best to share it.

"If we're facing an enemy like this, losing part of our production abilities might not be avoidable. If that's the case, it might be better to minimize our losses by pulling out our forces ahead of any attack and destroying the equipment we can't bring with us, to deny them any assets."

"Since we would have avoided battles wherever possible, pulling troops out instead of defending systems and losing costly ships, we could present the image that we don't represent a threat, and that might keep the Kuvexians from sending reinforcements since they wouldn't have met major resistance, and without assets that we left behind they'd have to rely completely on supply lines and the forces they already have."

"If we keep retreating without major losses, and keep them from sending any reinforcements, we can eventually get them to spread their forces thin, allowing us to attack with overwhelming force and cut them off from supply lines, stranding their invasion forces without supplies and leaving them surrounded on all sides."
 
Setsuya was more or less satisfied with the answer she received. Listening to further questions as they were asked, but most she cared very little for. With the exception of one, asked by a man from the back of the room. His tactical analysis, at least to her was sound in theory. The man spoke with a clear wealth of experience, and this intrigued her.

"I have to agree, the more we deny our enemy, the faster their supplies bleed. Make it a mobile siege through a scorched Earth policy. Plus pulling back forces from those areas and garrisoning them back with the rest, ensures increased firepower to put into a defensive. It would be like causing a tsunami effect.", The tall Neko concluded with what Matsuvo had said. She sat queitly as after speaking, hoping she had not been out of line for giving her thoughts on the suggestion.

She was a lowly Santo-Hei and not a officer, so she felt it might have been rude to do so. Hopefully her words would not be looked down upon for this reason, as she genuinely saw it as a wise strategy.
 
Hanako's World

"You're talking about intentionally turning half of our own supply planets into battlefields? I'm sorry, but I don't see the logic in that." Tsuguka had been calm and patient after Hanako's response, but she agreed rather less with that kind of statement. "Not only will we diminishing our limited reserves and letting the enemy dig in, we will be inviting the enemy to lay siege to us on a much greater scale!"

The angular, devil-coloured nekovalkyrja gave the white-haired elfen man a long hard glare. Steely body language suggested more of a robotic personality than any directed hate, but it was pretty clear that the seasoned veteran had no qualms about standing up to someone the same rank.

"...No, this is exactly why I was concerned with auxiliaries. Space isn't a flat plain where you can erect walls. Everywhere is vulnerable to sudden and immediate attack." A ponderous tone, trying not to patronise. Tsuguka ended up crossing her arms and closing her eyes, working out all of the possible strategies in her head. Working out what she shouldn't say in case there really was a spy present. "In my opinion, the best defence, the best way of burning enemy resources, is to give them no clear target to attack in the first place... Increase our use of civilian ships tenfold to boost our numbers, hide Saint crews in their mist. Use Nepleslian or even dirty Freespacer backups if we must. If we must allow the enemy to take planets, this will allow us to choose which ones are left vulnerable, which ones are ample for counter-attack before they can dig in."

"You give something up only when the response is swift and immediate. You take a cut, they take an open wound... That's how you make an enemy pay for every inch." A sigh, raising one hand to the back of her head, then turning a newly focused look forward. "I agree with Wazu. We need to find out exactly what the enemy wants, and constantly make it more trouble than it is worth."
 
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Hanako's World
1XF Gathering


William shook his head slightly, "A mobile siege strategy isn't going to work. The Kuvexians can cross Yamatai space in what, four hours? A better option might be to leave a system with the non-millitary production facilities intact. Mines and things like that. Let them claim it and think it's theirs. It's their proof that this war can be worth it. Then we strike at the supply lines going back to Kuvexian space. Show them that even if they manage to hold one of our planets, their not going to get anything of value back. It will also pin a portion of their fleet to defend it. if they manage to get any major construction equipment into the system, that's when we attack and take it back so they can't use the resources to build more ships here. However, that's primarily a defensive strategy."

William continued, "Offensively, we should move one of our older Star Fortresses, like an Iori, towards them. Put it a few days off a direct route. Hide it and use it as a forward base to conduct rapid mobile strikes at the heart of Kuvexian territory. Nothing disrupts a war for profit like having a home front that they have to defend first. What we can pin down there, can't be used to assault us here. Due to the time it takes to get from one front to the other."
 
Hanako's World

Majime put a finger in between her brows as if pushing up the bridge of glasses that were not there and cleared her throat tersely, saying to the crew, "As the Shôshô said, the enemy's initial wave will focus on industrial assets of the Ketsurui Military Sector. The First Expeditionary Fleet, including us, are going to engage the enemy there. That part of the plan should not be hindered when discussing possibilities as it has been secured as their course of action, as well as ours. What's more, the strategy for the fleet, as well as Yamatai as a whole, has been decided by Admirals, such as the one before you, already." She hoped this answered the dark-skinned man, Will's, question on where they would strike first as well as put to bed the new ideas about scorched Yamatai policies and the like. She was interested in pasty-skinned Wazu's Rixxikor option as well as Tsuguka's position on what was most imperative and how Hanako reacted well to the heavily birthmarked Nekovalkyrja. She looked to the Shôshô and tilted her deep red haired head towards her, which was plated in a way that that curved around her large feline ears and down her shoulders in one sweeping fishtail braid.

"Ketsurui-Shôshô will be able to say more on the matter of what can and cannot be decided at a meeting , though."
 
Hanako’s World

“Thank you, Shôshô.” Kasumi answered, before taking her seat once again. She listened to the other questions that were asked as well, which pertained to auxiliary forces, boarding actions, and most controversially, a scorched-earth strategy.

Her knowledge of military strategy was limited, but Kasumi did not like the principles behind the Shinomori-Heisho’s idea. Yamatai was strong enough to engage the Kuvexian fleets in a symmetrical war. There was no dignity in relinquishing populated or valuable systems early on, especially when such actions could permit the Kuvexians to establish staging areas at the frontiers of Yamataian space, from which they could easily launch reconnaissance missions into the core.

The Star Army could fight the war without having to preemptively retreat from frontier worlds, executing massive evacuations, and destroying their own military assets. That was no way to fight a war against an invading force that was their match in military strength, and had she been a louder, more assertive, and higher-ranked soldier, she would have called him a coward.

Instead, she contented herself with a cold and neutral stare.
 
"Do we have any idea where they will strike first?" He asked.
"Our best information is Cosmos Star Fortress/Scrapyard, UX-13, Hanako's World, and Himiko. At the same time," Hanako answered.
“Do we know which tasks would be most profitable for the Kuvexians during their invasion?”

“And what about the Rixxikor that have been pushed into this area? I could arrange to start moving unwanted Rixxikor migrants to a colony world outside of Yamatai space. With proper management they would no longer pose a problem.”
"It is my impression that they have a large slavery industry and they want to grab up our people for use as cheap or free labor or as products to sell. As for the Rixxikor civilian colonists, they are not a high priority compared to the Kuvexians because they do not have a lot of spacecraft which limits their mobility in our favor."
"If we're facing an enemy like this, losing part of our production abilities might not be avoidable. If that's the case, it might be better to minimize our losses by pulling out our forces ahead of any attack and destroying the equipment we can't bring with us, to deny them any assets."

"Since we would have avoided battles wherever possible, pulling troops out instead of defending systems and losing costly ships, we could present the image that we don't represent a threat, and that might keep the Kuvexians from sending reinforcements since they wouldn't have met major resistance, and without assets that we left behind they'd have to rely completely on supply lines and the forces they already have."

"If we keep retreating without major losses, and keep them from sending any reinforcements, we can eventually get them to spread their forces thin, allowing us to attack with overwhelming force and cut them off from supply lines, stranding their invasion forces without supplies and leaving them surrounded on all sides."
"The commander of the Star Army has directed that we fight, not run. It is a matter of honor. We also want to make their invasion incredibly expensive...to the Kuvexians," Hanako explained. "First Officer Majime is correct, the overall strategy is being decided above our level. What I control is the gunships of the First Expeditionary Fleet."

The Shosho pointed to the screen and some bullet points appear. "In the meantime, we will handle personnel matters, including promotions for those of us still here after the last mission, familiarization with the new crew members, and preparations for battle. SAINT indicates the enemy fleets are already on there way and will arrive in as soon as 3 days from now. Our ship's biggest asset is our aether shock array, which will let us hit a large number of enemy ships to whittle down their numbers. During the battle we will have to defend the ship against their fighters while we get a good firing solution and perform damage control. After the invasion is countered the First Expeditionary Fleet will embark on an expedition to counterattack the Kuvexians at their mid-way bases."
 
Wazu's mind immidiately went to the ideas that would yeild the fastest results. Biological weapons, gas, fitting some of those cute maid-bots with nukes and letting the Kuvexians abduct them.

He hated himself for going there first.

The less ethical options were abaondoned as fast as they came to him. The other options cycling through his mind, being weighed for just how useful they were to the current situation, and how useful they would be to Yamatai at large. Something too useless would be dismissed. Something too useful would invite Wazu taking on more responsibility than he was confortable with.

Under those criteria the path seemed straightforward.

Something he was afraid Yamatai would have tried during the blockade of Nepleslia.

Something he had been ready for, and could shut down.

"Then your best plan of attack would be to wait until their fleet is inside of the FTL exclusion zone around UX-13, and ripple fire your Gunship's ASCs in area effect mode in groups of 23 with a 2 second pause between shots assuming you are still using the same shock cannon from the 30s.

That leaves one aether shock blast always in motion towards targets as they enter normal weapons range which will obscure the firing gunship group which prevents them from shooting back until they are within 2 light seconds of your ships. Anything smaller than a battleship should be rendered inoperable. If they are deploying battleships then we should employ additional gunships to decrease the firing interval to .2 seconds which will land enough hits to destroy larger craft before they have the opportunity to close the distance.

Spare gunships not dedicated to the main ripple-fire operation can be used to cover other approaches.

Additionally, your sensors may be blinded by the ripple-fire operation so we should position sensors outside the primary combat area to provide a general sense of where the enemy will be approaching from."

Of course, one plan is not a plan.

two plans, is a plan.

"ASC Ripple Fire will work until the Kuvexians start employing ASC jamming equipment. A suitable secondary plan would be to pre-position a stockpile of torpedoes in the space around UX-13, Your World, and Himiko. Having them approach enemy just infront of friendly forces will force the enemy to split weapons fire between approaching ships and approaching weapon systems providing the highest rate of sucsesful attacks for the torpedo swarm."
 
Will considered Wazu's plan. "The range of the area effect is only about twenty million kilometers whereas the range of a more tightly focused beam is around three hundred million. If I were them face with that kind of fire, I would start using the same technique to block the sensors. Then I'd send my scouts to hunt down your outside sensors. As their not located on a habitable planet, I don't have any restrictions on shooting them. Then start teleporting my battalions and sensors down to the planet. Use the sensors to spot fire for me to concentrate fire on individual ships from a longer range out. While the space battle would be impressive, the battle would be won or lost based on the ability to replace and deploy sensors. As the defenders, we would be at a disadvantage as we can't just aether shock the planet as that would defeat the purpose." William said, countering with a plan of how he might react if he was a Kuvexian commander. He expected Wazu or someone else to come up with a way to defend against it.
 
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