Fred
Retired Staff
GSS Mokuren, Yuumi-class Battleship
Eight days after the "Battle of the Blue Rift"
The last of the seven-hundred-and-ninety-two orange dots that had portrayed over the broadly projected volumetric strategic display of Nataria's star system turned gray.
"The last of the enemy spacy forces have been destroyed, Ketsurui-Hime."
Kotori's amber eyes shifted toward Yukari's, whom had a seat not far from her, and she afforded a quick congratulatory smile to her XO before she stood up and started giving the orders which would bring the battle to a conclusion.
Yukari's plan had turned out relatively well. Kotori added a few devious touches to it that made it less deadly on the onset, but things had quickly gone against the Mishhuvurthyar.
Amongst the things Kotori had decided to do was to leave the "anti-NMX" weapon and defense configurations they had on standby, rather than active from the start of the fight. After Nyton (assisted on the bridge by Tom, Miyoko and Hinoto) had done his recon run with Hoshi, Kotori had less than a fifth of the Second Draconian Fleet emerge from stealth beyond the outskirts of the star system and then divided them in numbers in order to make them proportionate to the garrisons defending each of the installations and planetary outposts in the system.
What the NMX saw were outdated second-line ships being thrown at them; an attack of important enough scope to take seriously - there were no such things as feints with 742 attacking warships involved - but not dire enough so that the NMX Fleet Commander would feel in great jeopardy. With the likely high pedigree of the NMX commander left in charge of the world that was the best staging point to an invasion on Yamatai, Kotori wanted to both appeal to his likely skill, present a credible threat, and allow him to feel with justified confidence.
That cost the sacrifice of 89 Yamataian ships, deaths that had Kotori grip her armrests white-knuckled. Yukari had not liked it much either. The NMX had sent out communications to out-system allied forces to apprise them of Nataria's status, but those messages never went beyond the rim of the star system. The Second Draconian Fleet, ships spread out thin along the periphery of the system, ensured silence.
As the eigthy-ninth ship - an Irim-class heavy gunship - fireballed, thousands of other Yamataian warships had folded into the system to reinforce their flagging vanguards.
With the NMX ship formations already embroiled into combat, attack wings already deployed, Mishhuvurthyar confidence cracked as they were suddenly assailed from all sides by 'innumerable' enemies who'se weapons were uncomprehendingly spearing through shields, and who'se shields seemed much more potent against their own attacks. They even had countermeasures that messed up coordination and targeting on the level of IFF, which proved rather ruinous with NMX brainslave-guided ordonnance and battlepods.
With each planet isolated, each spacy force embroiled within the gravitational orbit of each garrison, there was no getting word out from one planet to another. There was no way to move ships around to reinforce the flagging defenses of another garrison. Just brutal and ruthless extermination of NMX warships.
The battle was over before the 15-minute mark.
Kotori had ordered ships damaged by NMX torpedoes to be scuttled to avoid the complication of invading NMX parasites. Some of the smaller ships were doing mop-up operations through the debris field, disposing of straggling battlepods and surviving lifeboats (Yukari had tried arguing about taking NMX nekos prisoners, but pointing that out only made Kotori more determined to consider giving them a clean death as preferable). Afterwards, parts of the fleet moved in to assailt the ground installations on the planet to eliminate the NMX ground military's ability to wage war.
What they had, in the end, was a star system devoid of spacefaring enemy forces, and 112 less ships on their side, making the survivors of the Blue Rift 3602 ships strong. It was not as clean a victory as Yukari had hoped for, but it had one very considerable advantage: as far as the rest of the NMX armada was concerned, Nataria was still theirs. Only the Star Army had any idea, and that was mostly because Kotori had given out the order to restore connection to the PANTHEON network just prior to the most of the fleet folding in to assist the vanguards.
With most of the tasks delegated, Kotori ordered a communication channel be opened to Star Army channels. Once she had the comm officer nod in confirmation, Kotori - clad in a pale kimono with her Taisa pin in evidence over one breast - spoke to a large blank volumetric screen that read "Transmitting".
"I am Acting Taisho Ketsurui Kotori, in command of the surviving warships of the Second Draconian Fleet," Kotori's voice rang out, loud and clear, into the Mokuren's expansive bridge. "My forces have just cleared Nataria's star system of all the NMX warships that have garrisoned it, and are at this moment sieging the NMX ground installations. We have reclaimed Nataria in the name of the Yamatai Star Empire."
"My crew and I have been silent, on a long mission in which we chose to become silent due to the line between friend and foe blurring. Our paranoia was fueled by the discovered knowledge that Saint and Ketsurui Samurai double-agents were under the control of an enemy that was after us, an enemy we had proof had in fact been the true cause of former-Empress Ayame's baffling suicide."
"Faced with these assassins that was under the employ of our enemy, the notorious criminal Eve, my crew and I instead rushed her den where she had plans to unlock the dimensional prison where the Second Draconian Fleet survivors were trapped and take them under her control. We went in, braved odds that appeared near-insurmountable, and emerged victorious with Eve and her organization destroyed, as well as her associate Melisson defeated and under our custody for interrogation."
"We managed to free warships from the Second Draconian Fleet... and they are here today, helping liberate one of our coreworlds. It is my desire to hand control of the world to the Empire, as well as return the fleet within the ranks of the Yamatai's defenders... but as I have belief that double-agents still lurk about, this is how I ask events progress."
"I invite Ketsurui Yui-Taisho, my mission commander, to come to Nataria herself. Once identified at the boundaries of the star system, she can come in with an escort of the size she chooses - and I heartily recommend that includes a planetary ground division to to properly complete the ground conquest of Nataria and the proper reclaiming of its depot. That done, my crew and I will meet her, be debriefed, and hand over control of the system and the Second Draconian Fleet to her."
"If someone else decides to be contrary... well, let's just say that the people we rescued are very grateful to be rescued and will eagerly put to use their ships - numbering about half the ships Yamatai has in the Star Army - to carry the point to anyone whom chooses to piss me off; from an over-ambitious SAINT spook ship captain to an irate Taisho thinking I forget my place."
Kotori let out a breath, as if in silent acknowledgement that what she had just said had crossed a line, and then seemed to regain some composure as she gave a slight bow toward the volumetric screen. "I look forward to your cooperation, the smooth reclaiming of Nataria, and the homecoming of soldiers whom are long-overdue to be back home."
...and with a telepathic signal to the comm officer, the transmission was terminated.
Kotori then twisted around to eye toward Yukari. "I was a bit too flippant at the end, wasn't I? Maybe I should've rehearsed..."
Eight days after the "Battle of the Blue Rift"
The last of the seven-hundred-and-ninety-two orange dots that had portrayed over the broadly projected volumetric strategic display of Nataria's star system turned gray.
"The last of the enemy spacy forces have been destroyed, Ketsurui-Hime."
Kotori's amber eyes shifted toward Yukari's, whom had a seat not far from her, and she afforded a quick congratulatory smile to her XO before she stood up and started giving the orders which would bring the battle to a conclusion.
Yukari's plan had turned out relatively well. Kotori added a few devious touches to it that made it less deadly on the onset, but things had quickly gone against the Mishhuvurthyar.
Amongst the things Kotori had decided to do was to leave the "anti-NMX" weapon and defense configurations they had on standby, rather than active from the start of the fight. After Nyton (assisted on the bridge by Tom, Miyoko and Hinoto) had done his recon run with Hoshi, Kotori had less than a fifth of the Second Draconian Fleet emerge from stealth beyond the outskirts of the star system and then divided them in numbers in order to make them proportionate to the garrisons defending each of the installations and planetary outposts in the system.
What the NMX saw were outdated second-line ships being thrown at them; an attack of important enough scope to take seriously - there were no such things as feints with 742 attacking warships involved - but not dire enough so that the NMX Fleet Commander would feel in great jeopardy. With the likely high pedigree of the NMX commander left in charge of the world that was the best staging point to an invasion on Yamatai, Kotori wanted to both appeal to his likely skill, present a credible threat, and allow him to feel with justified confidence.
That cost the sacrifice of 89 Yamataian ships, deaths that had Kotori grip her armrests white-knuckled. Yukari had not liked it much either. The NMX had sent out communications to out-system allied forces to apprise them of Nataria's status, but those messages never went beyond the rim of the star system. The Second Draconian Fleet, ships spread out thin along the periphery of the system, ensured silence.
As the eigthy-ninth ship - an Irim-class heavy gunship - fireballed, thousands of other Yamataian warships had folded into the system to reinforce their flagging vanguards.
With the NMX ship formations already embroiled into combat, attack wings already deployed, Mishhuvurthyar confidence cracked as they were suddenly assailed from all sides by 'innumerable' enemies who'se weapons were uncomprehendingly spearing through shields, and who'se shields seemed much more potent against their own attacks. They even had countermeasures that messed up coordination and targeting on the level of IFF, which proved rather ruinous with NMX brainslave-guided ordonnance and battlepods.
With each planet isolated, each spacy force embroiled within the gravitational orbit of each garrison, there was no getting word out from one planet to another. There was no way to move ships around to reinforce the flagging defenses of another garrison. Just brutal and ruthless extermination of NMX warships.
The battle was over before the 15-minute mark.
Kotori had ordered ships damaged by NMX torpedoes to be scuttled to avoid the complication of invading NMX parasites. Some of the smaller ships were doing mop-up operations through the debris field, disposing of straggling battlepods and surviving lifeboats (Yukari had tried arguing about taking NMX nekos prisoners, but pointing that out only made Kotori more determined to consider giving them a clean death as preferable). Afterwards, parts of the fleet moved in to assailt the ground installations on the planet to eliminate the NMX ground military's ability to wage war.
What they had, in the end, was a star system devoid of spacefaring enemy forces, and 112 less ships on their side, making the survivors of the Blue Rift 3602 ships strong. It was not as clean a victory as Yukari had hoped for, but it had one very considerable advantage: as far as the rest of the NMX armada was concerned, Nataria was still theirs. Only the Star Army had any idea, and that was mostly because Kotori had given out the order to restore connection to the PANTHEON network just prior to the most of the fleet folding in to assist the vanguards.
With most of the tasks delegated, Kotori ordered a communication channel be opened to Star Army channels. Once she had the comm officer nod in confirmation, Kotori - clad in a pale kimono with her Taisa pin in evidence over one breast - spoke to a large blank volumetric screen that read "Transmitting".
"I am Acting Taisho Ketsurui Kotori, in command of the surviving warships of the Second Draconian Fleet," Kotori's voice rang out, loud and clear, into the Mokuren's expansive bridge. "My forces have just cleared Nataria's star system of all the NMX warships that have garrisoned it, and are at this moment sieging the NMX ground installations. We have reclaimed Nataria in the name of the Yamatai Star Empire."
"My crew and I have been silent, on a long mission in which we chose to become silent due to the line between friend and foe blurring. Our paranoia was fueled by the discovered knowledge that Saint and Ketsurui Samurai double-agents were under the control of an enemy that was after us, an enemy we had proof had in fact been the true cause of former-Empress Ayame's baffling suicide."
"Faced with these assassins that was under the employ of our enemy, the notorious criminal Eve, my crew and I instead rushed her den where she had plans to unlock the dimensional prison where the Second Draconian Fleet survivors were trapped and take them under her control. We went in, braved odds that appeared near-insurmountable, and emerged victorious with Eve and her organization destroyed, as well as her associate Melisson defeated and under our custody for interrogation."
"We managed to free warships from the Second Draconian Fleet... and they are here today, helping liberate one of our coreworlds. It is my desire to hand control of the world to the Empire, as well as return the fleet within the ranks of the Yamatai's defenders... but as I have belief that double-agents still lurk about, this is how I ask events progress."
"I invite Ketsurui Yui-Taisho, my mission commander, to come to Nataria herself. Once identified at the boundaries of the star system, she can come in with an escort of the size she chooses - and I heartily recommend that includes a planetary ground division to to properly complete the ground conquest of Nataria and the proper reclaiming of its depot. That done, my crew and I will meet her, be debriefed, and hand over control of the system and the Second Draconian Fleet to her."
"If someone else decides to be contrary... well, let's just say that the people we rescued are very grateful to be rescued and will eagerly put to use their ships - numbering about half the ships Yamatai has in the Star Army - to carry the point to anyone whom chooses to piss me off; from an over-ambitious SAINT spook ship captain to an irate Taisho thinking I forget my place."
Kotori let out a breath, as if in silent acknowledgement that what she had just said had crossed a line, and then seemed to regain some composure as she gave a slight bow toward the volumetric screen. "I look forward to your cooperation, the smooth reclaiming of Nataria, and the homecoming of soldiers whom are long-overdue to be back home."
...and with a telepathic signal to the comm officer, the transmission was terminated.
Kotori then twisted around to eye toward Yukari. "I was a bit too flippant at the end, wasn't I? Maybe I should've rehearsed..."
