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

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Dead in space. Dead in life." A motto Yukari remembered from her days as a freighter pilot, when the worst she had to deal with was perhaps a pirate raid.

"Saito-Juni! Get to the MEGAMI and repair the electronics! All other hands on Miharu, repair the starboard anti-matter containment units and fusion reactor!"

She took a deep breath. "All hands! I am ejecting Hoshi from Miharu! Engaging atmospheric retention fields. Shutters set to close after separation."

A much different shudder went through the ship as Yukari made the emergency separation and got back the maneuverability she had been missing. The moment it was complete, she saw she had only seconds to get the helpless Miharu out of the way.

Recalling how Miyoko used the graviton beams to her advantage in moving ships, Yukari angled Hoshi just enough to fire one large push at the main hull's backside, sending it quickly through and past Takumi's line-of-fire at a speed of about 1,000 m/s.

Yukari put Hoshi on a similar path, but slightly askew, so she would be in a better position to hook Miharu again.

Hoshi was quietly, subtly feeding her a plan. She prayed it would work.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Kai was knocked out of his silent vigil by the ship rocked from a hit, that nearly bowled him over, but his position on his knees was a bit more stable than standing was. Soon after, he was interrupted by Nyton's voice, asking him what he needed to repair his Armor back to fighting shape.

"I need a new thigh plate, one seems to have been damaged, along with some of the synthetic insert behind it, but it will take too long to replace the insert. It appears that a number of the smaller stomach and side plates have fallen off, though how the came off so cleanly is beyond me..." Kai began, musing about some of the very odd damage he found, unbeknownst to him caused by Amaya's psionic attack.

"I obviously need a new helmet, and it appears that my pauldrons could use replacement, though the damage isn't critical on those parts." he summarized, knowing there were a few more parts that he needed, but, like the insert, they would be difficult to replace in the current situation.

"A Tool kit would be helpful as well, if you know where any are." the Yamataian asked, politely, popping a plate off extremely easily, despite its lack of damage- he would probably have to tighten every single armor plate back down at this rate.

Another odd noise and Kai watched as the main hull separated and began to float away from the Hoshi, at a much faster rate than Kai would have expected.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Rin stumbled back and raised her arms to try and, protect herself from the brief discharges from the CFS engine. Luckily that stopped, but the damage to everything hadn't. She was really getting irritated at everything breaking. Couldn't they stop being hit so that everything would stop blowing up? Couldn't they just hurry up and blow the enemy to bits? She was doing her work, could the pilot do her job and avoid being shot? And whoever was shooting the guns hurry up and just blow up those shooting at them?

The sprite let out an aggravated sigh as she brought up a volumetric window listing the damages from the last series of the Miharu getting blasted.

A quick scan down the list, and Rin hurried off to the fusion generator without a word to Yuzuki. Accessing the controls of the generator, in the former escape pod area, she went about shutting the darn thing down to prevent the impending explosion. As she did this, she sent a message to Tom, and Yuzuki, to allow the lead engineering people to keep a tally.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Wass' that...? Seventeen? twenty? I've lost count. thought Asher cheerily, slamming the base of his large shield on the ground. He had just cleared out the entire area and felt pretty good of saving someone else the trouble of managing any prisoners. He looked around tapping the shield on the floor a few more times before deciding that there was indeed no one left a live. With convenient timing, he found himself with new orders.

Code:

Asher, Kyou, I'm sending you to the port and starboard (respectively) power junction manifold at the base of each pylon. You'll appear in a cramped accessway with a junction of tubes and power cables running through: it's the main power feed of the psionic amplifiers and the CFS nacelles. You need to take those out as quickly as possible - we really need their FTL propulsion, shields and psionic systems to be taken out ASAP! When you appear, strike where the network of power cabling seem to intersect, and report immediately once you are done!

Click to expand...

Was his response as he prepped his teleporter and processed the coordinates. In a moment later, he emptied another capacitor and flashed away into the port power junction. The rowdy Malifarian slammed his shield on the ground and crouched, aiming for the nearest intersecting power cables with his fusion cutting unit.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Fred said:

@Miharu's medlab:

Lighting flickered overhead as Miharu's electrical systems floundered under the positive energy whitewash of the latest, ruinous hit.

"What I need you all to do," Miharu's AI - her voice scratchy with static, told them aloud - "is to stop being children and focus on saving lives rather than saving your egos."

"Nao, get up. You're going back to work - not into an hemosynthetic tank. Get yourself a new AMES suit," Miharu then ordered the ailing tech.

Click to expand...

"Right away." she coolly replied. Nao gingerly swung her feet around with a pained grunt. She was sitting again, this time with her back facing the doctor. With the sleeves, back and most of the shoulder of her ruined AMES suit removed, the front fell forward for a moment. Its own stiffness stopped it from completely coming off, preserving her modesty. Nao looked at Ayumu and Miyoko, and then Sanjuro over her back.

Nyton said:

"Both patients suffered similar symptoms barring minor differences regarding location and scope. Now that both hemosynthetic chambers are no longer occupied we can admit one of them along with Nao-chan to speed along their recovery."

Click to expand...

"No. You all heard Miharu. I need to get moving." Nao reached up and grasped at her chest in an attempt to tear off the remainder of her top. "I need a new AMES su--" a sudden shock ran through the ship. One of Nao's hands was still grasping a bar, but with only one hand on a grip and the other on the suit, she kept from being tossed like a rag doll, but still ended up swinging onto her back. The sprite fell back and slammed into the table, completely winding her with a loud and violent cough.

As Nao was lying on the table again, this time face up, she stared up into the ceiling and coughed a few more times, trying to catch her breath. However, when she attempted to sit back up, something stopped her; Nao's wet, sticky, bleeding and exposed back had stuck to the table. And it was far more painful than say, getting her ear stuck in a door. Don't ask.

"I need a new AMES suit." she continued on coldly. "And a pre-measured applicator of painkillers...I think I'll need that a little later."

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Kyou popped off a quick shot with her pistol at the fleeing technicians, satisfied that they wouldn't be fixing this particular array anytime soon. she cut the power to her blade,saving it as much as she could, and came back down to the ground in time to receive new orders. As she put the new coordinates into the system, she sent a quick response back, just a simple acknowledgment of her orders. Upon her arrival, she just started cutting power lines, figuring that until she found a junction to wreak havoc on, cutting power to anything had to help a bit at least, so why not?

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Miyoko had been on the verge of expressing roughly what Miharu did for her--while she'd been happy to let Sanjuro keep criticizing people if it meant getting some work done in the medlab, the infighting was proving to be too much of a distraction now. Before she could say anything, another shudder and power disruptions made her need to brace herself again, silently praying for the ship to hold together.

Doshii Jun said:

"Saito-Juni! Get to the MEGAMI and repair the electronics!

Click to expand...

It would seem that the scratchy sound of the MEGAMI wasn't just from damage to external systems, then. Ryoukai, she responded to Yukari, then turned to the other medical staff. "I need to repair the MEGAMI. Please, try to get everybody in the lab ready for service again as soon as you can." Between the repeated blows to the ship and now ejecting the Hoshi, Miyoko assumed that they were now on the brink of needing to evacuate... in which case, anybody who was too injured to even walk was going to be a liability.

It had been long enough since she saw signs of intruders that Miyoko didn't draw her pistol this time around... though if she'd thought about it, she probably would have. The Yamataian practically dashed toward the MEGAMI access, using her gravity control to fly, which would hopefully keep her from falling if the ship gave another shudder like that.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Nyton took a deep breath. Things were getting harder to focus on after dying. He didn't understand how Masako and Kai and any of the others could do it. Then again they weren't Nepleslian. Popping out of a new vat grown body wasn't something he was accustomed to. He would have probably been less unsettled by seeing his reflection replaced by a complete cyborg even. It was not natural to return to life like this and he had no time to process it. Yet right now he had to concentrate on rebuilding his Armor forces in time for another likely assault.

The data feed told him that the M10s were aboard the Miharu hull which was now divided in two. They were now on the Hoshi which he was not even sure had any suits left. While Kai began scrounging for parts to repair his suit they needed to find one for Masako. "Masako, there has to be some suits left aboard the Hoshi. Can you start looking for one while I pick up a couple LASRs? We're running low on ammunition so you two may have to work a little bit lighter than previous." he announced over Armor team comm to the others.


"However?"


"Then how can you be violating your coding to tell me this?"


"So maybe Hoshi can find a means to break in."


"Then do your worst. Hoshi, I know you have a lot on your mind right now, but do you think you can give us access into Telemachus's system to allow an upgrade?" Nyton asked, hopeful.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Very well then, Nao-chan. I hate sending out a patient like this but I fear the ship needs you more." Ayumu said while running over to a stash of pain medication. "Here, these should allow you to still function while dulling some of the pain. It's the best we can do without making you unable to concentrate. And look in one of the lockers. I believe there may be a spare AMES suit inside from one of the earlier casualties."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That was close!" Azumi looked back and saw nothing but open vacuum staring at them. Coolant fluid was spraying about freely and she felt it better to avoid touching any of it even if she was in an AMES suit. "Good thing you suggested we wear these just in case." she said to Miko. The other sprite simply nodded and tried to stop shivering. "Alright, we didn't just barely survive getting obliterated and sucked out into vacuum for nothing. Lets get to engineering and help out however we can. Azumi started to get up and began moving along with Miko over to Yuzuki's station, trying to stay out of the way of activity but looking for anyone injured that they may be able to save. "This is mobile medical team one. Come in Yuzuki-san. We are enroute to your location to perform triage on any casualties at your location. Do you read me?" she then radio'd to Yuzuki.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Masako grimaced at the announcement of separation. Were things really that desperate? "There maybe some in the other Armor Bay," the Warrant Officer replied as she moved to the Decontamination Room. A quick jog through and into the other Powered Armor Bay across the corridor. There were very few Powered Armor left and even fewer Daisies, but that didn't matter at the moment. In a life and death situation like this, they needed to utilize all the resources they had.

Moving to the Armory, Masako began to stack the appropriate weaponry and supplies she needed onto a cart and rolled it back out into the Bay to begin equipping the Daisy for combat.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

In the subdeck, the hit rocked Tom, jarring him into the console nearby.

"Damn it!" Tom yelled to himself as the positive energy discharge sent all his systems in the subdeck into manual mode. Being left with a bunch of levers, dials and buttons instead of computer-driven menus felt primitive, even for the spartan metal environment of the subdeck.

But these inconveniences were nothing in the face of the new problems before him.


Rin was already on that. One less thing for him to manage.

"Roger. You and Yuzuki-Heisho are the closest ones to the Starboard CFS unit, Aether Generator and Sublight Engine. I need you two to start making a route to restoring operation to those systems. Flip those breaker switches. Split up if you have to!"

Click to expand...

He checked the sprite roster... everyone was doing something. Well, almost everyone. Tom hadn't even realized Nao was injured up to this point. In fact, wasn't it just moments ago that Junko was cleaved in half? Was the sorrow he felt for his coworkers so fleeting?

No. He shook his head as he focused on balancing the magnetism of the anti-matter containers through a careful process of flushing out positrons. This is about survival.

A volumetric window opened next to Nao.

"Nao! I need your help on starboard repairs! I'm inputting some commands to the starboard anti-matter containers, but I need a physical presence there to make sure that the magnetism ratios are being balanced properly... with my console the way it is, I need a manual override in case my commands don't get through. After that, assist Rin and Yukuki-Heisho as needed!"

Click to expand...

Tom hoped there was enough time. With another shudder from the ship--Hoshi was separating--he wasn't so sure there was.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

When Ayumu neared with the pain medications, Nao sat up, peeling herself off the table with a sticky sound the likes if which she never heard. She shivered and gave out a faint cry of pain from the ghostlike sensation. Nao took the pain medications with both hands as though they were the rarest of rare jewels. The sprite knew they were going to be far more valuable than that to her in the oncoming moments. "Thank you Ayumu. I'll put these to the best use I can."

As Nao plucked the IV from her arm, she turned back to Sanjuro after coming up with something to say to him. She spoke quietly enough so only he would hear, "Please, Doctor. Girls don't like to be kept waiting." and squeezed his arm once. Would the guilt card do any good? She wasn't particularly fond of him, but he did help her. Then again, Sanjuro did make her wait. Yet, he was here, wasn't he? Regardless of what she was going to think, a volumetric window appeared.

Tom said:

"Nao! I need your help on starboard repairs! I'm inputting some commands to the starboard anti-matter containers, but I need a physical presence there to make sure that the magnetism ratios are being balanced properly...with my console the way it is, I need a manual override in case my commands don't get through. After that, assist Rin and Yukuki-Heisho as needed!"

Click to expand...

Nao sent a message to him first thing.

I'll move to the starboard anti-matter containers immediately. Are Rin and Yukuki-Heisho there as well?

Click to expand...

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@Miharu and Hoshi vs Takumi

The ship split in two parts, and with Hoshi darting away and shoving Miharu hard out from in front of the Takumi, Eve's vessel found itself with no target to fire upon with its recharged main positron gun battery.

Laboriously, the command cruiser began using its maneuvering thrusters to turn toward the 'larger' and more potentially threatening main hull of Miharu.

"I am going to make you regret that choice," Hinoto promised, her lips curling into a snarl. Hoshi's particle cannons lashed out at Takumi, blasting over the armor just under Takumi's nose, while she started charging Hoshi's CFS bubble - likely preparing to send out as powerful a projected energy beam as the small auxiliary ship could muster.

* * *

@Kyou and Asher, inside Takumi:

The power lines Kyou and Asher were looking for were in fact the bigger ones running through that junction, so hitting things at random from the start pretty likely already did the job they were supposed to do until they wasted the power manifold itself.

The sparks of severed power cables promptly died at the death of their intended targets, signifying success.

* * *

@Miharu's main hull, main passageway:

Surtur just barely fit into the main passageway that allowed passage between decks. The Akuma was hovering at the very top of the zero-G vertical accessway to try and keep out of the way as much as possible.

Inside, Kotori's eyes flicked an incredulous look at her sensor readings, which showed Hoshi's mass separating from the rest of the ship, leaving the main hull unmanned.

The Taisa opened the beak-shaped chestplate of her newly-acquired mecha and dived out into the fore-end of the upper deck. She struggled with every step she made to the main corridor room until the massive mental 'load' of fending away Eve's ship amplified psionic attacks became so much more bearable with the Takumi's power cut off at the base of its pylons courtesy of Kyou and Asher.

With a lighter step, Kotori rushed into the monitor room a vaulted over the central seat to land dead-center into it, making SPINE connection to the ship and quickly reconnoitering herself with her ship's dire predicament.

"This is Kotori. I'm manning the main hull's monitor room," Kotori telepathically tossed to Hoshi's bridge operators.

* * *

@Hoshi, bridge:

"That did it!" Maia exclaimed as Takumi's CFS shielding gave out. "They've lost FTL and amplifiers!"

The sandy-haired sprite avatar then quickly provided Kyou and Asher with new teleport coordinates which would have them pop back inside Hoshi's starboard bay. "Get out of there, you two! Things are about to get very uncomfortable on Takumi!"

Hinoto, for her part, gave Yukari a sidelong look with the broadcasted thought: "Now or never, Shosa."

* * *

@Miharu's main hull, outside the main computer room:

Miyoko ran into sight of the armored door leading to the main hull's MEGAMI integrated electronic suite, jumping over the leaky shell of a headless Mindy only to come face to face with another power armor.

The Heisho's heart almost skipped a beat at the sight, but to her relief she realized that it was a friendly Daisy power armor.

Suzume was almost as startled to see Miyoko as the Yamataian was to see her, even though the sprite was the one in power armor. After a moment to regain her wits, Suzume's voice sounded over her helmet's loudspeakers. "I'll open the armored hatch for you, Heisho."

The Daisy armor turned, inputed a security code and delivered on her offer, the hatch sliding open. Miyoko's nostrils were immediately assaulted with the smell of burnt circuitry, with smoke wafting out of the heavily shielded chamber.

* * *

@Miharu's main hull, outside the medlab:

"Nao, take this path to reach the starboard wingpod; it is the safest," Miharu telepathically told Nao, while giving her a layout image of the ship, with arrows that tarced their way to the main passageway, then to the starboard multifunction bay, then to access the elevator lift which would lead her down into the starboard damage control room, past the newly installed fusion reactor to then reach the starboard wingpod.

* * *

@Hoshi's port bay:

Nimura was by Kai's side with a power armor maintenance toolkit by the time the armored shutters had come to a close.

"I will proceed to hack the construction platform for appropriate modifications," Hoshi's computer informed Nyton. "You will be able to continue operating Telemachus without risk of copy-protections being activated until I complete my attempt."

* * *

@Hoshi's starboard bay:

"Masako, we have incoming teleporting friendlies bound for this room. Please make haste in getting clear," Hoshi warned the Juni.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Miyoko screeched to a halt when she saw the power armor, blanching in fear for just a moment... until she realized it was friendly. After recovering enough to think straight again, she nodded to the offer. "Thank you."

The burnt electronic smell made Miyoko cringe--both because it was unpleasant and because it didn't bode well for her repairs. With any luck, she thought grimly as she stepped into the chamber, it's just another flash-fried invader...

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari stared at the laboring, struggling Takumi trying to find a target, a solution, an extra life. She gripped Miharu with the graviton beam and angled her into a position where she could use her main gun to damage the weakened belly armor of the long enemy cruiser.

She prayed Eve felt nothing but terror.

"Ships in position," she sent to Kotori and Hinoto. "Fire at will."

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Asher, his job now completed, nodded his head as he looked at the damage he had caused. If they blew up this ship, this damage would count as an assist, which meant he would count everyone on the ship, and the ship itself, as a one-half kill. Oh, he hoped it would be able to live to rub such a number in someone's face!

"Get out of there, you two! Things are about to get very uncomfortable on Takumi!"

Click to expand...

"Gotcha', extractin' now." responded Asher, punching in the coordinates, and then teleporting into the Hoshi's starboard bay.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Nao's hands opened up the locker and found an intact AMES suit from one of the other sprites.

She would quickly remove the tattered remains of her own, and donn the new one. As the helmet slid across her head, nao's neko nose would catch the brief scent of another person. A memory would flash across her eyes, but she would callously blink it away. Nao was in work mode now; there was a job in need of being done, and it would take something along the lines of a hallway collapsing on her to keep the sprite from it.

Feet would move across the main hallway, propelling the sprite along the path Miharu had specified. As she would hurriedly run through decontamination, and down the stairs of the mulit-purpose bay, she would feel the rub-rub of the AMEs against her bare wound. Nao would then briefly glance down at her suit. She would think, 'Why does it have to be skintight? Why not loose? Gonna complain about this later...' The sprite would move quickly through the bays like some other sprites were; in a hurry to fix something or help someone.

In the elevator, Nao would try and lean against the wall, but then cringe from the resulting pain. She'd then wonder if her ears were hearing ever so faint elevator music, or if it was just the background noise of a groaning ship being misinterpreted by a tired brain. Nao would also wonder if it was the painkillers, but would cut her thoughts short when the doors open; she had to step out, go through damage control, and into the starboard wingpod. There, she would quickly look the situation over, and get to work.

Or, to be more honest, this was what was supposed to happen to Nao as soon as she got dressed. A lot could happen on the way there.

She donned her suit and made her way to the starboard wingpod with Miharu's directions.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Kyou, still slightly wary, jumped slightly when the orders to get out came through. She shook her head, surprised that she still hadn't met with any sort of organized resistance. For all that this was the more fearsome opponent, Amaya had put up a much rougher fight on the infantry side of things. She punched in the new coordinates, ready to go back for new orders. "On my way now," She sent, shortly before jumping to the provided location.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Ah, th- Thank you Nimura." Kai said, accepting the toolkit and getting to work removing and dismantling parts of the armor, then moving to one of the M10's, which had Daisy Armor, and prying off a few pieces that he needed. It might seem like a bad idea to dismantle a perfectly good suit to fix a damaged one, but Kai's Daisy was a bit modified, and the Daisy had better performance than the M10 anyway, if it lacked a couple of the gizmos the other had.

Within minutes, the determined Yamataian had mostly reassembled the M6, aside from a few pieces which he couldn't exactly find on the M10, which shared only the outer armor with the Daisy. "Nimura, could you find me a micro-actuator for this joint right here?" Kai asked, pointing towards the piece, and knowing it would probably be a difficult part to replace, it was one of the ones needed for the conversion between the Flesh and the Synthetic inserts.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Excellent. You're a life saver Hoshi." Nyton quickly replied as he finished readying a LASR for use. He then pulled up a menu to give him the exact ammunition count for missiles left in their stores. Another screen pinged his attention, alerting him to the imminent return of the teleportation strikers. A quick estimation of impact zone around the return coordinates was made and he sent it out as a warning to those still in the main bay.


As the warning was sent out via text Nyton tried to keep his mind focused so as not to give out any further warning to the protection programming of their intent. If the effects of the Rift was disrupting the PHALANX power source then it was likely the platform along with it's signal was feeling it as well. Now that the Gate was open there was a good chance the system was currently isolated from the mainframe that Phoenix Corp used to regulate the platforms. With the platform not receiving full support it was left to the internal programming to regulate itself which made it more vulnerable. Military protocols would typically allow the platform to continue to function without signal for roughly five more days in case of emergencies but after that it would shut itself down. Hopefully they wouldn't need to keep fighting that long.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@Miharu's main hull, main computer room:

With the Bowhordia core still in the room with the analysis gear they used to service it right by, it was easy for Miyoko to get the tools she needed to get on the job.

She followed her nose to one of the places where she scented burnt circuitry and pulled the covers from over it. After giving the electronics a brief once-over, she made the educated guess that the latest hull breach had probably been done by a positron blast and that the sweep of positive energy particles had been closer to the main electronic circuitry lines than for comfort.

Luckily, MEGAMI Integrated Electronic Suites were powerful quantum computers, made by necessity to reliably function even during harsh combat conditions. Some of the peripheral systems had shorted out, but the MEGAMI had compartmentalized itself to minimize the damage done to it.

Miyoko could fix it. Provided she had the adequate spare circuitry boards and other replacement parts on hand she'd only need to shut down the computer, repolarize it with a degauss, switch out damaged parts for newer ones and then restart it - five to ten minutes, depending on how much she had to run around for new parts.

@Hoshi's starboard bay:

Masako moved out of the way with her pallet just in time.

Asher appeared first from his teleport with Kyou close behind, the shockwave of the latter's appearance giving a unexpected shove on the Malifarian's M10 that he managed to compensate for with some footwork.

@Miharu's main hull, starboard wingpod:

Nao successfully made her way to the starboard wing pod, finding both Rin and Yuzuki already hard at work dealing with reviving the crippled systems within.

Tom's task to Nao was a visual inspection of the anti-matter magnetic-containment storage units for the turreted particle cannons. That would require Nao to open a maintenance hatch, crawl into it and climb either up or down to view the storage units analog dials and gauges.

@Hoshi's port bay:

Nimura gave a look at the missing part in the knee actuator pair which would allow it to properly swivel while conveying more strength to the user's leg (hence the term 'power armor').

"It is a non-standard part and we do not have access to the fabrication chambers," the sprite turned away, hurrying for the nearby cargo bay. "I will find you an alternative."

@Miharu and Hoshi vs Takumi:

Argent fire pulsed out from under Miharu's nose to strike hard at Takumi's underbelly, the clash between aether and vulnerable coming out favoring the former as each pulse caused enough damage to impale through the command cruiser.

That in itself - even though the damage to Takumi was grievous - was not enough to destroy the enemy vessel. Hoshi, however, continued to pour positron fire over the nose of the command cruiser, finally lashing out with one long sustained projected energy beam.

The beam bore through the now vulnerable armor and struck into the guts of one of the positron cannons in the Takumi's main forward battery. Hinoto's insistent application of firepower there finally bore fruit as she struck the magnetic-containment storage unit of the port nose mounted cannon.

The ensuing explosion was brutal.

Not because the loss of containment on one storage unit provoked sympathetic explosions on the other neighboring anti-matter reserves for the other nearby cannons in the main battery. No, striking at the anti-matter reserves was just the means to an end.

With Takumi's nose exploding into anti-matter fire, the deflagration shook up the rest of Eve's flagship as it spread, roaring through where it had been structurally weakened by the loss of its fusion reactors and after that Miharu's impaling main gun shots.

The ensuing explosion caused Takumi to tear itself in half on its length.

With one gigantic chunk of hull forcefully separated from the rest of the ship - a catastrophic 30% of the ship's total mass - there was simply no way emergency bulkheads and forcefields could keep Takumi together and save her from the threat of decompression. The vessel lazily twisted in its death throes as parts of its hull here and there erupted in additional - if more local - explosions.

Inside Hoshi, Mara turned to Yukari and warned: "We should pull the main hull away before Takumi's main power plant explodes."

@Miharu, main engineering:

"Coolant levels critical, 50% and dropping," Miharu warned Tom.

That in itself was alarming, but what underscore the urgency of the statement lay in plain view of Tom: the main gun's radiator and heat sinks where glowing red from the heat, with the coolant lines going through it springing pressure leaks.

Left alone, the saturated heatsinks would melt and the main gun would effectively be destroyed; with the coolant lines, their usually liquid content forcibly expanding into gasses, rupturing open in explosions which could kill his sprite technicians and damage nearby (important) systems.