Fred said:
"They have to be defeated." Amber eyes were not letting Yukari's green ones go. "They have to be beaten so quickly, their numbers culled with such swift brutality that they cannot muster a reprisal. This must be entirely one-sided... or else even stray torpedoes or an errant cloud of battlepods that survives to reach the planet can rob us of what we hold dear, what we would die to protect."
" ... "
What we would die to protect. What ... what I would die to protect.
Yukari knew she would sacrifice herself. She did not want to die, but if it meant someone else lived, she would. That was not because she was Neko.
It was because it was the right thing to do.
Doing the right thing now ... it means we must be ready to die so others might live.
She remembered Taiie more than the whirlwind of Lor. How they were helpless to stop the onslaught of Melisson's flagship, how it so easily laid waste to an entire planet, along with its protecting fleet. How millions of innocent lives, lives who deserved nothing less than peace, were murdered.
They had a chance to stop that. They had to take it. No matter the cost.
The warmth of Kotori's hands fuzzed her vision. She wanted to see the ships getting into position, reach out to the commanders of the
Yui scouts who were about to send their crews out to their likely deaths. Instead, all she saw were Kotori's eyes staring back at her. They understood her pain and were sad for the impending losses, but they accepted what had to be.
The losses were for
Miharu's crew to absorb. Their destroying of Nataria's protective fleet, and calling Yui away, led to the moment of reckoning; they had to be the ones to make it as right as possible.
Yukari forced herself to draw a steady breath, then slowly let it out. "I want to do more," she said. "I do not want to be left with nothing."
Kotori was about to speak before Kasami-Chujo shouted from the front of the bridge. "The enemy already has arrived at Yamatai. Comm signals showing it has at least 4,000 vessels approaching the planet."
The Taisa lowered her hands. Yukari took Kotori's annoyance to mean that the plan was falling apart before it even was put into practice.
"What are they doing," she calmly asked Erika while looking at Yukari.
"Streaming straight for Yamatai ... a large structure, Hoshi no Iori, has been destroyed already. Mistress-Taisho's fleet has arrived. The CDF is active and traveling at full throttle to meet the enemy, but has only 2,500 ships."
The Taisa turned back to Erika, striding down the bridge toward its tip, the large volumetric projection of the coming battlefield before her. "Our ruse is meaningless now; we shouldn't have wasted time," she said. Her eyes narrowed as she tilted her head to the side.
"We won't need Melisson then," she said as Yukari joined her at her side, looking at the huge volumetric image of Yamatai, her moons, and the fleets starting to collide. "Tell Nyton he should have his team ready in the next two minutes.
"We are going in hot."
* * *
Nyton received the message, along with everyone else, over
Hoshi's loudspeaker.
"Black Knights, three minutes to scramble! Repeat, three minutes to scramble!" Yukari's voice called out. "The enemy is already upon Yamatai; we must immediately make way for the flagship!
" ... This is to save Yamatai," she added. "Hold nothing in reserve."
