RP: YSS Miharu Mission 5, Part 1: Amaya's Gate

[Doshii Jun]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

After giving the go-ahead to launch Kotori in her Ryusei II, Yukari's mind soaked the information from Miyoko and Nyton, wrung it out into Miharu, then added the few bits she knew. The ship helpfully added it to the volumetric projection hanging before the bridge trio.

The model showed how Sakuras were similar to giant starfighters with their weapons, but the older Type 28 models flew much like bombers. They maneuvered inefficiently when CFS failed, having only engine thrust vector capability without it.

How to translate that into an advantage ...

Yukari had Miharu expand from the model of the Sakura to the current starfield, complete with debris. She leaned back into her chair, the dim blue projection making for a rather cold campfire.

"If we stay out of their immediate range, we reduce our risk at the expense of the armor teams," she started. "Our immediate primary objective is to protect them, and we cannot do that if even one of the Sakuras comes within range of the Gate." The map traced a yellow Sakura getting close to the Gate, then releasing its armor wing. "While we could fire a torpedo on the enemy as they close in, we risk missing or damaging the Gate itself. After all, even the older Sakuras have WARMS."

The map reset. "Setting a proximity mine has the same issue. Their sensors could detect it first, and we would be foiled." A debris pile sitting in the starfield was approached by a yellow Sakura, who seemed to sniff it from a distance before turning away. "I am also worried about trying to recreate a crew of 'live' Nekovalkyrja an Eve clone and her crew would bother saving, let alone believe is real."

Instead of trying to catch a whiff of the debris pile, the Sakura vaporized it from a safe distance.

Yukari folded her arms in front of her and thought. Being contrarian was not going to kill five Sakura gunships. If I were at the helm of one of their vessels, I would trust nothing. All events would be traps and all subjects an enemy, especially after I see the ruins of the Dominion and her fellow vessels.

"Staying out of the line of fire of one vessel, even two, can be done, but all five provides too many to avoid ... " She was speaking to herself, now, bowing her head and holding it with one gloved hand. Her fingers broke the projected image of her visor before it faded back into her headset.

 

[Abwehran Commander]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Understood," Masako replied to Hinoto as she twisted from her position to glance over at the battle behind her. A grimace crossed her face as she viewed the chaos.

"Nakamura-heisho, have your team concentrate fire on one at a time," she ordered as she brought her Plasma Rifle around to the second one and added her suppressive fire to the mix.

 

[Nyton]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"We can make use of our own bombers to give the Sakura's more targets to pursue, even reload them with another payload to make them enough of a threat to be taken seriously. Perhaps we could just use them as remote bombs and let them detonate in the proximity of the enemy ship. If one was kept stealthed then maybe it could get close enough to them and set off before they realize it." Nyton suggested as he looked at the maneuverability of the battle group.

"The debris gambit does have a good chance of failing, however we could still use it differently. Perhaps instead of hoping the enemy will inspect it we could simply use the debris to hide our own explosives at a safe distance from the gate. We need but to move it over with our graviton beams to a predetermined point. When we fly by with the enemy in pursuit we can detonate it and catch them in the blast."

"Provided we can escape the proximity ourselves that is. We would have to use such on the ones not leading the pack if at all. Also take into account that all of their weapons mainly fire forward. We however have turrets capable of shooting behind us along with torpedoes capable of being fired to the rear. If the enemy is giving us chase then we can take advantage of that easily."

Nyton observed the speed of the enemy ships and could tell they could be outrun from the schematics. "You make a good point about preventing the enemy from unloading their Armor into the Gate but we can also use it as a shield. The enemy cannot risk damaging the Gate and will likely not fire upon it if we use it for cover. However if there is a section in the structure that can be damaged without compromising the Gate they would know it and possibly eliminate us as an acceptable risk."

 

[Kai]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Right." Kai grunted, as he raised his arms, forearm weapons blazing at the nearest NODAL drone, his own drones adding fire into the mix in an attempt to distract the other bits. "Asher, destroy the NIWS, maybe it will stop the bits!" the Heisho ordered, distracted by the small annoying enemies.

 

[Tom]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Tom smirked at Rin's reply.

No, no, that simple repair wasn't an issue. I meant if you needed to tear out a block of hardware or something... inform me then. You're doing a fine job. 

Good luck with Eiko, Rin.

Freeman-Juni

Tom reached the fabrication bay, where Nao and the two caretaker sprites were awaiting him.

"Ok everyone," he said with a quick look between the three. "The Taii has ordered us to build more armors to compensate for losses during the mission. I'm uploading the files on how to construct Daisy armors to your digitized brains."

He pointed to the far wall.

"We'll take each armor piece as it's assembled and construct it over there. With a 4 man team, we should make some good progress."

He pointed to the cartetaker sprites.

"You two will input the Daisy specifics into the fabrication consoles and carry the pieces to Nao and I for assembly. Any questions?"

Then, a message from Yukari came.

"Juni-san," she said, speaking with her headset to Tom inside of his armor. Her face came with the transmission. "The Taisa is leaving Miharu to assist the armor teams. Are there any status updates I should know about that pertain to critical systems?"

Tom let out a frustrated huff at the news. The armor team as failing... what other reason was there for the Taisa to go? He shoved his personal feelings aside--the weight of them would probably make him really depressed--and focused on his reply.

"The time available to us for repairs has proven invaluable for internal repairs. Apart from a few minor issues, it seems that internal systems, CFS units, capacitors, etcetera, are operating at combat efficiency. YARD drones are working hard on the hull, which is being restored. I believe most of the major damage, especially over areas covering critical ship systems, has been repaired, but, again, we took a real beating the last round. I can expect our outer hull to be somewhere between 80 and 90 percent depending on how much time we have left..."

He was speaking too fast, and the creeping feeling of his anger was tinging his words. He took a few deep breaths.

"...coolant systems replaced, sprites in position, armors being built right now, awaiting orders... the Taisa better come back, and we better have a ship ready for her."

-----

@Rin

As Rin arrived at Eiko's location, where the connectors to the Hoshi joined with the Miharu, she noticed a small panel beneath one of the clamps joining the power cords from the two ships. It was opened. She could hear Eiko's voice echoing from within.

"Rin! Thank you so much for coming! I'm jammed over here!"

There was a faint clanging of metal, traced to the space slightly above where the clamps were joined.

"I think... maybe I'm snagged against something. It's kind of tight and... OW! It hurts!."

 

[Fred]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@Miharu:

WARMS alarms sounded off shortly after Kotori had left in the Ryusei II. Five Sakura-class gunship in a pentagon formation darted out of the small subspace pockets provided by the CFS stealth system, murderous arcs of energy dancing inbetween the two prongs of their Aether Shock Arrays.

They were all bearing down on Miharu from above, and at 300 000 kilometer mark while speeding ahead at 100 000 kilometers per seconds, they were practically breathing down their necks as all five discharged their fully powered main guns in wide-sweeping cones of destruction.

* * *

@Amaya's Gate:

Kyou beneficiated from some much valued breathing room: Asher's sweeping swaths of plasma fire proved extremely effective upon the swarm of drones and he soon had disposed not only of the two harassing him, but the two that had been meant for her.

Meanwhile, her AIES answered: "NIWS #1 defensive profile analysis underway. Cataloging information from triangulated targeting data of all nearby friendly AIES units. Optimizing fire control data."

While Kai and Masako disposed of the two drones harassing Kai, Kyou risked a peek around her cover - Nimura was making a great diversion for her, allowing Kyou some precious time to line up a good shot.

There! The NIWS briefly touched down on the floor inbetween some of Nimura's plasma rifle attack, bracing herself only for an heartbeat so she could improve the accuracy of her next shot some. She squeezed the trigger and within an eyeblink her discharged plasma bolt consumed the NIWS' head.

The impact tossed the NH-28 down to the floor like a ragged doll and she was still. What was left of her neck was a heap of fused material that - for the moment - did not seem to do a very successful job at self-repairing itself.

 

[Abwehran Commander]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Great shot, Gunshin-hei," Masako stated as she watched the NIWS fall. "Nakamura-heisho, push on forward to the Control Room after melting that NH-28 down a bit more," the Warrant Officer ordered. "Nimura-hei, keep an eye out for that Black Mindy. Her teleportation module should be recharged soon enough."

Attaching her LASR to a hardpoint, the young Neko raised her Plasma Rifle and watched the room as she moved towards the corridor to the control center.

 

[Fred]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@Amaya's Gate:

Nimura walked clear from the downed NIWS and colors bled away from her armor until it was near-to-invisible as her thermoptic stealth became active.

In the meantime Hinoto cautioned: "Stay clear of the NIWS when finishing her off, in case her aether generator dies in an explosion."

 

[Doshii Jun]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

The warning cut through the conversation, but Yukari felt it through SPINE.

No time for plans or traps or further analysis. The Shosa simply reacted, guiding the ship with SPINE until her controls could be brought to her hands.

The ship slammed backward at the maximum speed the CFS could give her. She aimed to be at least 100,000 kilometers from her previous position.

She sent her commands through SPINE to all crew: "Battle stations. We are under attack."

 

[Fred]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@Miharu:

The light cruiser's motorized gravimetric fins widened at the points while the shorter thruster flaps over them flared out wide to provide the Shosa with the best handling possible while going at reverse speed.

The rapid SPINE-assisted reactions saved the ship's dorsal shields from enduring the full brunt of the squadron's five main gun combined attack, but Miharu did linger a tad too long in the wake of two destructive cones. The aether attacks bled through and destroyed the majority of the YARD mobile pods that had tended to their mothership's dorsal armor.

The damage inflicted to Miharu's dorsal armor was substantial: tons of yamataium armor had been scraped off the ship's starboard-dorsal side, turning those sections around the sensor dome and atop the starboard capacitors and shield generator systems in the oranges. Yukari was also immediately aware that the main communication array had been damaged - a lot of external lines went dead.

The silver-lining was that the ship's shields still held and that the damage would've been much worse if all five Sakuras had hit, especially outside of the Blue Rift Expanse.

Like black lighting the five enemy gunships broke past Miharu, but did not let up on the offense as they spun their bladed prows toward the light cruiser and fired their positron railguns at about the same time as interdiction systems kicked in (severely limiting how much Yukari could rely on the Combined Field System) and their Psionic Signal Controller activity climbed and threatened to spike.

One thing did get through, and it was addressed to Yukari personally in the brief moment the gunships swept past Miharu's front: "Care to fiddle the strings of your koto now, Suzuka?"

@Amaya's Gate:

Kai and Masako suddenly noticed that their communication channels with Miharu abruptly went dead. They could speculate about the ship's condition and whereabouts... but one thing was for sure: for the time being, they were on their own.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

A lot of things had to happen at once. Yukari tried to do them; the others had no time, and she was already deep in the ship.

The dodge first. Yukari jammed on the gravimetric engines and shoved the ship back toward the Gate, on a curve. The railguns were being prepped, Miharu told her, so the curve would make a shot harder.

She ordered the energized armor to start turning itself on.

Communication systems were kicked back to Hoshi, with a shot of viciously noisy static hurled back toward the lead gunship in the form of subspace comm.

She could do nothing about the PSC except pray. She sent a pair off to her goddesses and angled Miharu toward one of the ships while it was on the curve she'd put it on.

"Taii, fire the main gun!"

 

[Aendri]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"More due to Nimura-san's distraction then anything else." Kyou shook her head. "She gave me a break to get a clean shot off." Following suit, she too activated her suit's thermoptic camouflage. Might not make a huge difference, but might make that damn Mindy's life a bit harder at least.

 

[Nyton]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

The attack had taken Nyton by surprise while Yukari reacted as quickly as she could to avoid the first attack. The results had left them with heavy damage to the dorsal side and although they had damage to some of their systems they were still with their weapons. There was no anger at the enemy taking the first strike, rather an eager resolve to see them dead. It was automatic and filled his mind with the receptivity to the massive amounts of data being flung at him.

Shields were holding which was good since it allowed him track their weapons status. Turrets were online and tracking while the main gun had become fully charged during the lull in combat. The torpedo launcher was still loaded with two transphasic torpedoes from the previous skirmish before Miyoko had finished off the Dominion. Their count still read at about four transphasic and anti-matter and seven subspace detonator torpedoes.

The orange status near the sensor dome though managed to catch Nyton's attention a little more strongly than it should have and a strange mixture of concern and disgust roused in him. The feelings induced upon him by Melisson were still in his memory and too fresh to fully suppress.

"Taii, fire the main gun!"

The order was given before Nyton could do anything else so he tracked the squad of enemy ships and fired the main cannon in pulse mode at the lead ship. If they were to win though they had to do more. He set the Particle Canons to track and fire at the enemy as soon as they entered range to try and spray them with enough flak to throw off the enemy fire.

"Heisho I need data! The enemy is tight but I can't risk an anti-matter torpedo. I must have safe distance trajectories to catch the enemy group in a subspace detonator torpedo to try and even up the odds. Shosa what is our best angle for speed so we can reduce the risk of being caught in the blast. I can use our current payload to try and slow them down if need be." Nyton reported while preparing the torpedo arms to either swap or reload the tubes with an anti-matter and subspace detonator.

 

[Kokuten]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Asher grinned at the effectiveness of his flamethrower against the drones. He was having a great day so far. First, he felt pretty key in taking care of their gooey enemies at their first objective. Then, he managed to avoid any damage while snuffing a Mindy out of hiding in the Shuttle Bay. Finally, this successful firefight with two, count them, two NIWS. The best part? He got shot, he took a bullet or six and was still standing, no death, no having to return to the ship. With the intensifying pain, he could keep fighting, and that made his blood pump.

"Nakamura-heisho, push on forward to the Control Room after melting that NH-28 down a bit more,"

"Oh? By melt, d'ya mean, wit' plasma fire?" Asher said in a giddy tone, as he heaved up the flamethrower in one arm. He looked up at Kyou, who activated her thermoptic camouflage. "Hey, Killa' Kyou 'ere's gotta good idea." said the Malifarian in an admiring tone.

 

[Kai]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Shoot it from a distance, Asher." Kai cautioned, not wanting to see one of his men blow up from a rookie mistake like shooting an aether generator at close range. Kai Shrugged, following along with Kyou's and Nimura's lead. he supposed they could at least try to be stealthy.

The Heisho followed his orders and made his way to the control room, but was concerned when Miharu's line to them cut out. "Juni, I think we're on our own." he announced, not wanting to think about what could have cut off the communications. maybe it was just the distortion. Hopefully.

 

[Kokuten]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Feh, you guys ain't no fun." Asher said playfully to them, whipping out his Plasma Rifle and stepping back from the NIWS. At a safe range he brought the weapon up to aim, and put enough shots into the downed opponent to cause her aether generator to rupture and explode.

"One cooked Noose, served extra-crispy."

 

[Rabbit Eclair]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

The sudden alarms heralding the arrival of the gunships cut off Miyoko's analysis abruptly, and unlike Yukari, she was stuck reacting to it in human terms. She cursed under her breath as she turned back to her console, then hurriedly started establishing distortion sensor feeds to track the enemy group's movements. If they got within range, she'd tag them with graviton beams to try keeping their railguns pointed away.

"Heisho I need data! The enemy is tight but I can't risk an anti-matter torpedo. I must have safe distance trajectories to catch the enemy group in a subspace detonator torpedo to try and even up the odds."

"Soon..." Miyoko replied distractedly. Unlike the relatively stationary groups of enemies the Miyoko had had to pull similar stunts against before, the gunships weren't making themselves easy targets. Calculating exactly where they'd be when the torpedo hit hinged on predicting their pilots' movements... fortunately, as fast as the torpedoes were, it didn't have to be by much.

She had the MEGAMI find the point where the torpedoes and the Sakuras would intersect if the torpedoes were fired at the current moment and the gunships kept moving in their trajectory at that moment, displaying the point on the sensor feed and constantly updating it. Fortunately, finding the intersection of two velocities was child's play for a computer of its magnitude. The model would fall apart for a few seconds any time they took evasive maneuvers, but as long as they stayed on the hunt, flying in directly to attack, it should suffice. She'd just have to hope that they didn't break formation. "It's up, Taii. Try to hit them when they're traveling straight if possible."

 

[Nyton]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"It's up, Taii. Try to hit them when they're traveling straight if possible."

"Got it!" Nyton replied as he added the data from Miyoko's sensors to the tactical station. Now it was just a matter of changing out one of the transphasic torpedoes for a subspace detonator and having Yukari give him the best trajectory.

 

[Fred]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@Amaya's Gate:

Once the only remaining indication that Asher's NIWS target had existed was a almost-perfectly circular melted depression in the floor, the Malifarian got a move on to catch up with the rest of the Black Knights.

The five Daisy power armors briefly flew up the vertical shaft with the ladder they had glimpsed earlier, and finally broke into a larger chamber where stairs and catwalks lead to a platform upon which rested a large set of monitoring and operating consoles for the Gate.

After they touched down on the platform, Nimura became visible again and walked forward to operate the hardware. After a couple of seconds, the sprite was rewarded with flashing red volumetric windows.

She turned to them and reported: "The enemy has evacuated this section of the Gate and locked out operations here, rerouting control to one of the other two chambers."

One the other side of the control chamber was another vertical shaft similar to the one they had just crossed through, likely dropping down to an utility corridor that would allow them to keep moving counter-clockwise into lead to this segment's second power supply room.

Static registered over their comm channels: Miharu seemed to be attempting to reconnect with them, though there was too much communication interference for any message to get through.

@Miharu:

Yukari, concentrating so that she barely dared to breath, weaved around the flurry of positron attacks the enemy gunships had loosed her way. Out of ten shots, only two managed to connect with Miharu and those were glancing hits on the port side, mostly blunted by the shields and further mitigated by the energized armor.

The two areas struck, the lower fin housing damage control gear as well as the new fusion reactor and the gravimetric fin, seemed like they could endure that much with no significant loss of performance Yukari couldn't compensate for.

The single pulse of Miharu's main cannon managed a direct hit on a light gunship's stern, though the rear shields - seemingly reinforced just with that sort of counterattack in mind - absorbed most of the attack. The other cobalt bolts of man-made lightning he fired proved wanting before the swiftness of the target and only one hit on the tailend of the black-hulled Sakura, blasting its cargo hold open by mauling its rear hatch.

They had exchanged 'flesh wounds', nothing more.

Like the blooming five-petaled flower, the Sakura gunships parted ways, their pentagon formation suddenly widening. Miyoko and Nyton found themselves thwarted as the enemy split up, not making themselves convenient, clustered targets for the wider ordonnance Miharu's torpedo launchers had at their disposal.

Four of the Sakura-class gunships made wide U-turns, releasing mobile weapon pods as they went, until their twin-bladed prows came back to point Miharu's way once they got within 50 000 kilometers... Miyoko's graviton beams sadly did not seem to be of much use against their shields. Positron railguns again flared as they fired.

The fifth Sakura gunship had veered off to speed toward the Gate... and incidentally toward Kotori's Ryusei fighter-bomber.

Though their fancy maneuvering had spoiled Miyoko's work, she did manage to gain successful IFF readings on the enemy: Sakura-class gunships Koyryu, Tamamo, Otoroshi, Dokueki, Oiwa. All old friends from Bowhordia. Oiwa was the one Nyton had just scored a hit on, and Dokueki was the one that was heading towards the Gate.

 

[Kokuten]

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Eh, sounds like we got'm on tha' run! Heh heh heh--ow!" Asher grunted as he poked at the opening in his shoulder. He kept his Plasma rifle in his right hand, as used it's thumb to prod the damaged muscle and skin. It hurt already, but giving it another poke only made the it chill then burn his whole body. Though, each time he did it, it fell like getting a shot of stimulants. So, he didn't stop, poking with the wound until some sort of enemy reared it's head, or one of the superior officers threw a fit at him.

With the two stuffy officers on his mind now, he gave both Masako and Kai bored glances. Though, it was very telling through his optically camouflaged helmet.

"So, uh, who's got point inta' tha' next room?"