RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3: The sound of machina

The naked eye would have registered Miharu stretching into a blur to it's destination point, its stern lagging a second behind before becoming a point in the distance. For those in the launch bay, the stars seemed to ever so slightly shift. The more obvious change really was the way the weapon rollbar atop Miharu cast a shadow on the dorsal side of Hoshi, seeing the ship's position in regard to the star system's sun had changed.

As soon as the ship dropped out of its brief distorsion jump, Yukari's thrust indicators climbed to confirm the vessel was now hurtling itself toward the Obakemono at roughly 102 300 kilometers per second. Estimated time to target was 30 seconds.

Miyoko's display of the target reported multiple energy sources coming up to military power on Epsilon 1 and the Nu-Mu ship groups attached to it. It's CFS shielding had held under the damage delivered by the two first torpedoes despite having been raised very hastily. Weapon systems were being primed for combat, including striker arrays raising themselves into position and the front Legacy cannon booms laboriously starting to split apart.

"Saito-Heisho, fire at will the fore particle cannons once under 3 light-seconds; target up to your discretion. On my mark, prepare a five-shot main cannon volley," Kotori ordered.

25 seconds left.

The tactical readings on the Hoshi were reading the latest results of the battle as began. Aoiko would be reading everything just as Miyoko did at the same time along with the weapon deployment. The flight data would also be received by the helm in preparation for their launch. Nyton continued to monitor these as well in anticipation of the launch. If all went well they could be launching any moment.

"Steady everyone. We will be launching very soon now." he informed everyone present.

The young Ketsurui felt her anxiety heighten as she got the updated flight data. She watched and waited, trying to calm her nerves enough to focus on the task at hand but only succeeding in causing her hand to tremble on its position on the chair's armrest. I can do this! Any moment now...

Yukari kept the ship on an even keel, not yet dodging. She was watching the systems of the enemy vessels power up, as well. Her fingers held steady as the volumetric controls moved with them as if they were natural.

There was no telling what would be the first retaliation strike, which meant her options had to be kept open. The Obakemono was the major threat, so she kept her eyes on that.

Yukari saw the ETA count to evaluate the distance from Miharu's to its target, the Obakemono, bogged down around 20 seconds, stall and then slowly start increasing! She understood why too.

The Obakemono's navigator apparently kicked in the Ayame cruiser's sublight engines in reverse in an attempt to do a 'gravity whip' maneuver. Essentially, they were riding the planet's gravity well in a declining orbit, using just enough thruster power to keep away from the atmosphere while both picking up speed and blocking line-of-sight with Miharu with the cover provided by the planet.

It was the sort of maneuver Yukari had kept in her mental bag of tricks back when she was being the navigator for freighters. Seeing the ponderous Ayame cruiser manage it so gracefully spoke highly of the skill of the person whom was at the helm. As things were, Miharu would not catch up before the Obakemono's would manage to reach full charge with its Legacy cannon, deploy its weapon pods and release its escort ships.

It was clear that once the escort ships would be released that the situation would turn very sour for them. Not only would Miharu be staring down 9 ships, but those ships would have sufficient asset to counter the interdiction field and allow the use of the Legacy cannon.

Kotori's lips curled as she glared at the display, not having Yukari's insight in the maneuver, but understanding that her original plan of attack had been upset in one clever maneuver from the person at the Obakemono's helm. It was just delaying maneuver, but stalling so considerably improved the survival chances of the Obakemono's squadron.

I thought they would have tried to be aggressive for the sake of protecting their ground base... Kotori nibbled at her lower lip a moment and then nodded grudgingly at the 'Epsilon 1' icon, like a fencer acknowledging a hit. But I suppose the other commander felt the safety of her ship was more important than the base below.

"Plan to attack Epsilon 1 is aborted," Kotori announced on the intercom while she disconnected power conduits and electronic linkup between Miharu and Hoshi - obvious warning that they would separate imminently. "Hoshi, you shall proceed as planned to the planet. Do your part of the mission; we'll improvise on our side."

As if on cue with her last word, locking clamps disengaged and Hoshi was released, pushed away for good measure with the help of graviton beams. The Fox and Cougar shuttles were still within the confines of its launchbays - it would be up to Nyton to order them around. Miharu's ventral hatches ejected the two fightercraft, with the Uriko and Ryuseii quickly spinning around to follow.

"Hold fire and disarm current torpedo loadout for two front-facing AS-7 Anti-Matter warheads," Kotori ordered Miyoko. "Get me a target lock on Epsilon 1 as soon as you can."

The AS-7 AM were pretty much the strongest type of warhead Miharu carried for purposes of dealing damage to an enemy ship, but asking these to be reloaded was tantamount to Kotori saying she had no better idea for the moment.

She turned to Yukari. "Shosa, disengage the limiter on our gravimetric engines. I need us to reach .9c and catch up with them. Make as sharp a turn as you can around the planet."

Most KFY-made ships could go in overdrive and double their sublight speed. Miharu could handily do so as well, but seeing its engines were experimental equipment, it was possible to remove the limiter and allow, for roughly half-a-minute, to triple the ship's STL speed - more than that would risk the engines overheating. It was risky: pushing the envelope was like begging the engines to malfunction and efven with Miharu's vaunted maneuverability, making a tight turn at nearly the speed of light and around the planet would be difficult even for a veteran nekovalkyrja navigator with a SPINE interface connection.

Yukari kept her cursing inside her mind. The Ayame using the planet's gravity that way made the ship a much more potent threat. The gravity whip would take time, but it allowed the vessel to drain its engines of a majority of their power and utilize that energy elsewhere.

The Miharu would be burning energy by putting its engines into triple-output, and that power had to come from somewhere. Kotori's plan forced her to renegotiate the balance of energy on the ship. And to cut the ship off ...

"Taisa, I am putting fifty percent of the main gun's power in the engines," she announced, putting that energy toward the engines as she ignored Miharu's warnings and put the engines into triple-output mode.

The main ship vaunted away from the Hoshi and toward the Obakemono. A tiny jump would have been better, Yukari thought. It could have saved seconds, but it could have cost seconds, too. How to cut the ship off ...

The atmosphere of Bowhordia was thick, and but its gravitational pull wasn't enormous, being a relatively small planet. If she tried the same maneuver the Ayame tried, she would get behind. She could attempt the triangulation Kotori suggested, but it would stress the vessel and take time.

Or ...

"Nearly at speed," Yukari announced. "Taisa, I want to cut the Epsilon 1 off by flying through Bowhordia's atmosphere. If we fire the remaining main gun shots directly in front of us at this point — " a marker appeared on Kotori's screen, showing the point of aim " — We can 'tunnel' through the atmosphere at speed and meet the ship's port side."

Even as she described the move, Yukari positioned the ship to do that or go for the "J-turn" method Kotori essentially described.

Kotori leaned forward to examine the marker and quickly said: "Save power and just fly through it. If we can fly through a nebula at high FTL speeds, I don't see how storm clouds would slow us down."

With the data from the battle coming at them rapidly Nyton knew it was time to finally begin getting to work. With the Obakemono falling back and the shuttle traffic mostly destroyed they were essentially in the clear. "Ketsurui-Shoi, set course towards Bowhordia, maximum speed at STL. Murasaki-Chui, shields at full and divert power from the weapons to engines. Release the weapon pods once we are in the atmosphere. Hinoto-san, stand by to launch shuttle craft right after we break through the atmosphere. Keep the sensors sharp in case they have something planned."

Nyton was hopeful their descent would be fairly unimpeded but if the enemy ship retreated easily then it may be a sign of a strong defense net below. Hopefully though they could seize the initiative and make a fast sprint for the base. "Miharu, we are going to make our run for the base. Good luck out there."

"Ryokai," Yukari arced the ship and angled toward the planet's general vicinity. Miharu was screaming at Bowhordia; the ship's path would take it through the atmosphere's upper layers, dipping as low as 15,000 meters above the planet's surface before heading back into the upper layers again.

Yukari shaved some energy from the shields to dump into the engines, to make sure they were fully powered for the drive. She followed the Obakemono's path around the planet. She reached out with one hand and enlarged the image of it over her eye, gritting her teeth.

"Entering atmosphere," The ship's view of the outside started to blur into flickering orange-red streaks, the tongues of snakes tasting the vessel as it flew past the planet's lips. Or so Yukari thought. The streaks then turned nearly pure white, the ship surrounded by the atmosphere. It took only a pair of seconds to pass through the atmosphere, and sickly yellowish-red clouds were laid to waste as Miharu hurtled through them. There was no time to examine the ground; they were beyond it within a few seconds. The tongues came back to get one last taste, and then the blackness of space returned.

"Epsilon 1 off starboard bow," Yukari said as the ship turned toward the enemy.

"Black 1 and Black 2 standing by," Hinoto reported crisply, belying a bit her soft, silvery countenance. "Red 1 and Red 2 moving to port and starboard and matching our speed."

There was no reply from Miharu. Yukari had by then plunged the ship through the planet's atmosphere and out of sight, thus cutting off direct-beam tachyon communication.

* * *

With Miharu emerging from Bowhordia's atmosphere, they found the Obakemono in the process of escaping the planet's gravity well, with the ship little more than 1 light second distant. The enemy cruiser was still going in reverse, arcing discharges of power dancing in between the booms of its Legacy cannon. It's Yui and Ketsueki escorts were still secured on its docking ring.

With Miharu recovering line-of-sight on its target, Kotori ordered: "Plot a course to intercept Epsilon 1 and match its speed." She gave Miyoko a glance to the side. "As soon as we line up with them, launch torpedoes and fire-at-will with our particle cannons."

Yukari put Miharu's bow toward Epsilon 1 and jammed the engines forward, letting them down to double output while the shields were brought fully to the front. She kept the ship 'drifting,' making its path change slightly without eliminating Miyoko's line-of-sight.

Miyoko quickly had the Miharu swap out the forward- and rear-facing torpedoes for two forward-facing antimatter ones, letting the ship begin trying to acquire a target lock on the unfortunate Ayame while she herself began trying to figure out just what sort of firing pattern to use.

The moment they'd acquired a lock, the antimatter torpedoes streaked out of the rollbar toward the Obakemono. "Torpedoes away." Almost simultaneously, Miyoko found a pattern that she approved of and engaged the particle cannons. Two began firing steadily forward at the Obakemono, hopefully softening its shields extra for the Miharu's ramming attack. The other two started a random firing pattern, each cannon targeting a different escort with each shot, hopefully forcing them all to divert power to their shields. If any of their shields flickered for even a moment, the four cannons would coordinate their attacks on the vessel in an attempt to breach its hull.

Despite being slowed down by the interdiction field, the torpedoes scored a near-instantaneous hit on the Obakemono. The anti-matter warheads exploded against the shield, overwhelmed it and touched upon the command carrier's hull armor to eat away at the zesuaium-xiulurium plating. Despite the torpedoes having briefly overpowered it, the Obakemono's shields still held at 66%.

Man-made cobalt lightning flashed out next from Miharu's four particle cannons, two crackling over the ventral side of the Ayame cruiser's hull while one other struck at the docking ring and the last caught a Yui destroyer head-on over the sensor arrays at the tip of its inverted teardrop shape. The four shots had gone past the command carrier's shielding almost effortlessly, smelting hull armor to a warped silvery sheen where the attacks struck.

In response the Obakemono fired a spray of small positron pellets from its striker arrays Miharu's way while it started deploying M-1 LAMIA power armors (shown on sensors as Beta 001 to Beta 200). The Yuis and Ketsuekis all detached save Mu 3 - the destroyer Miyoko had previously caught head on (it was likely experiencing sensor troubles and had delayed).

The seven detached escorts emerged beyond the Ayame cruiser's shield bubble and the 3 Yui destroyers sent projected beams raking toward Miharu. The Nu-group Ketsuekis flew away, splitting up and each gaining a two-light second distance on Miharu.

All 8 ships started countering Miharu's interdiction field too. It wouldn't be long before it collapsed.

There wasn't a lot of time for Kotori to give orders. "Load a subspace detonator torpedo, set blast radius to five light seconds - don't fire it yet! Shosa, stand ready for a system shutdown-restart," she said while she computed teleport coordinates and sent those markers to Masako's Black Knights.

Yukari prepared the shutdown-restart as asked, trying to dodge several forms of attack at once. The projected beams were unavoidable.

Nyton said:

With the data from the battle coming at them rapidly Nyton knew it was time to finally begin getting to work. With the Obakemono falling back and the shuttle traffic mostly destroyed they were essentially in the clear. "Ketsurui-Shoi, set course towards Bowhordia, maximum speed at STL. Murasaki-Chui, shields at full and divert power from the weapons to engines. Release the weapon pods once we are in the atmosphere. Hinoto-san, stand by to launch shuttle craft right after we break through the atmosphere. Keep the sensors sharp in case they have something planned."

Click to expand...

"Aye, aye!" Sora responded as she quickly took control of the Hoshi and redirected its course towards Bowhordia. She was nervous about taking it to its maximum STL speed but she had to keep it together as she gripped the armrest for a moment and ungracefully surged the Hoshi forward into its max speed.

The return barrage from the enemy group finally started putting Miyoko into her traditional battle unease, her motions becoming more and more frantic as she struggled to keep her calm. Despite how busy her duties were keeping her, she couldn't help but glance over at the readout of the ship's shield levels every now and then. One hand kept directing the Miharu's firing patterns, the other ordering the ship to load a new subspace detonator torpedo. "The torpedo is ready, Taisa."

Hoshi, under Sora's guidance, raced to Bowhordia largely unimpeded. At best speed, 89 937 kilometers per second, it took the auxiliary vessel 20 seconds to reach orbit around the planet, where thruster control and anti-gravity systems would normally be used to make atmospheric entry.

"Taii," Hinoto turned to look at Nyton as they closed in on the planet, worry in her eyes. "The debrief of the Mikomi's executive officer, Taii Daduar Cometblade, made mention of anti-ship weaponry - likely a planet-to-orbit directed energy cannon - having been used against them. A Kansashi-class auxiliary ship is nowhere nearly as tough as a Nozomi-class scout destroyer, though. Are there any other precautions you'd like us to take for the descent?"

* * *

Positron pellets washed away harmlessly off Miharu's shielding, though the projected energy beams had them ripple - mitigating most of the power behind each attacks - each beam bled through and scarred Miharu's hull, burning paint, disintegrating zesuaium plates but doing little to the yamataium armor beneath.

Two of the Ketsueki corvettes - Nu 3 and 4 - disengaged combat to head toward Bowhordia. As if in unison, the three Yuis and the two Ketsuekis left opened fire each with a spray of AS-5 torpedoes from thier twin launchers which nearly instantly hit. A total of 18 compressed anti-matter warheads contributed to wreathing Miharu's shield bubble with violent energy bursts.

Those, Miharu could not just shrug away. Tongues of energy overwhelmed shielding at the flanks, licking across the armor and eating away at the protection until much of the ships dorsal side retained a silvery partly-charred coloring with bits of grays and blue intermittently showing - sad remnant of the warship's former paintjob.

Miyoko's return hits didn't quite make up for it. Two did smash against in the front of Mu 3 and pierced through it on the second shot - effectively destroying the Yui-5 destroyer before it could ever undock - but the rocking of the torpedo impacts had the other two lances of blue lightning miss low. They were almost on top of Epsilon 1 now.

The damage display did not tell a pretty story. The projected energy beams had turned light green bits of the armor before the ensuing torpedo attacks changed the armor display to a nightmarish mix of yellows, with oranges where the projected beams had already scrapped of the zesuaium plating. The dorsal, port and starboard flanks seemed the most affected, with the reinforced frontal shielding having saved the worst from the prow. Luckily not much had come to take advantage of the weakened rear shielding... but that was really just a matter of time until the enemy ships capitalized on that weakness.

Armor at the struck places still held - there were no breaches. However, hull temperature was quite high and subsequent hits might not just content themselves with striking the surface of the ship. Shields were also holding - constancy was the tradeoff the Himiko-class' shields had at the cost of a lower protective threshold.

"Shosa, thrusters only - try presenting our ventral side to most of the enemies," Kotori said while sending instructions to flush coolant under the red-hot yamataium armor through the hemosynth conduit system. She then cut off power to the Combined Field System, shields and the gravimetric Drives - something that was at the least borderline suicidal in their situation - before snapping: "Fire and detonate the torpedo right in our face," the shield collapsed. "Now!"

Yukari tipped the ship along its axis and presented the underbelly of the vessel to their opponents, angling what shields remained to that side, too. When the shields — and practically all other relevant power — went to zero, she was left gazing at their enemy and waiting.

As Nyton listened to Hinoto's update he thought about their current situation. We won't get anywhere if we just stay up here and worry about guns that might hit us. Plus we cannot afford to waste any of the time Miharu is buying us. Nyton thought.

"Shoi, proceed ahead at full speed but stay sharp. Scan ahead for the planetary topography and atmospheric conditions. Maybe we can use a mountain range or storm front for cover. Chui, keep those shields steady and prepare to deploy all weapon pods. Hinoto, tell Reds 1 and 2 to fall behind us for cover. We'd be more likely to survive a hit then they would." he then ordered.

"Roger that, Taii," Sora nodded her confirmation to Nyton, keeping her focus on the flight controls. This is not the best time to be wondering about whether or not how big of an explosion it'd be if I hit something. She thought grimly as she began her scans, "Scanning topography and atmospheric conditions..."

The young Ketsurui felt the thrill of actually flying the Hoshi but also terrified of flying a real ship. Mother, help me to not screw this up. She kept her eyes moving over her volumeric displays as she kept a look out for anything that might end up as a speed bump.