RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 8.3] Escape From Veritas / Battle of Elysia Novus

When the ship had gone into hyperspace, Nika laid back on the seat in a daze. Never before she had to fire one of their friendlies in battle and to kill them directly was a first. Her hands were still shivering even when the ship arrived at a even bigger battlefield. It was only when the Eucharis shuddered as its shield took some fire and Hanako's orders brought her back to reality.

"Valencia-Heisho. Let me take the weapons, just concentrate avoiding those shots!" Nika sat up and psyched herself, the weaponry interface came up on her screen as she took control. "Pineapple... Chusa... I won't let you die in vain..."

The Anti-Air and Anti-Starship turrents blazed even faster, firing at the three other NMX ships to keep them moving around. Thanks to Ramiro, the Main Cannon was almost charged and was aimed at the bridge area of the NMX squardron leader's ship. Nika made final calculations on the aim...

"Eat this!"

She gripped the trigger tightly and fired the Main Cannon, along with the Positron Accelerator Cannons at the main ship...

While Sune maneuvered his way back to the bridge, he could feel the Eucharis shake from the impact of enemy fire. Once on the bridge he paused briefly and surveyed the stations. There was no one at the Systems and Safety Monitoring station, the last time he was on the bridge Shizu manned that station. The Eucharis currently had no XO to monitor the ship status and keep the damage control teams coordinated.

After a brief moment of thought, Sune took the chair in front of SSM station. Other than the Taisa he was the ranking person on the bridge, and someone needed to channel communications to allow Hanako to focus on command. Charisma, please transfer sensor control to this station. Also lock all blast shutters per ship operating procedures. he requested of the MEGAMI. He then pulled up the ship schematic and system status displays. At present all critical systems were green, with the shields showing the results of the NMX attacks.

Sune picked up the handset and punched in the ship wide channel. “Jalen-Heisho to all sections; route your status reports to the Systems and Safety Monitoring Station.” While waiting for status reports to come through; he entered pulled up the ECM system controls. From the keyboard he activated the system, and programmed it to disrupt the targeting sensors of the NMX squadron attacking.

Kumiko glanced away from her screen when Sune's announcement came through. "Bridge, this is Engineering. We are ready to go when you are." She looked over to Takeyu. "Here we go."

"Time to get kick some can," said Takeyu as he brought up the status of weapons and life-support along-side that of the reactor. He wanted to make certain that nothing missed his eyes.

"Let's just hope we don't have a breach," he added and kept his eyes on the status's.

The Eucharis' main cannon shot slammed into the NMX ship, bathing it in light for a moment...but the enemy's shields held out. The ship that Nika just hit then moved behind another one of the ships of its squadron so it couldn't be hit again. Meanwhile, the three untouched destroyers began firings their whole arsenals at Eucharis. The shields took hit after hit, jerking everyone around in their seats...and some of the damage made it through.

The Eucharis began taking hits along the front. Several hits slammed into the main weapon array, tearing off panels and pieces and leaving blackened craters. A main cannon hit slammed into the engineering area. Another two shots hit the bridge area. Finally, one penetrated the main sensor dish and melted everything inside.

Inside the bridge, the overhead lights exploded and chunks of environmental systems fell from the damaged ceiling. They could hear air hissing out and sparks were showering down on them from a damaged electrical conduit. The bridge controls were alright, but on them Nika could see the main cannon was not operational.

"We will not do much good on our own," Hanako said, "Get us away from the those destroyers and find some nearby friendly ships to support," she ordered Ramiro. She grabbed an AMES suit out of one of the bridge's storage compartments and put it on.

Down in engineering, a bit of the enemy beam managed to breach the hull and set everything in the room on fire, also hitting one of the Lorath fusion generators and instantly taking it out. Hot plasma and hydrogen began to fill the compartment.

Takeyu had been thrown from his seat, hitting the ground with a thud. He laid there slightly dazed for several seconds before shaking his head and getting up, the room was a mess, fires from various terminals and black smoke rising from the floor panels.

"Kumiko?!" he spun toward the area Kumiko was, "You ok?!" he shoulded, while also looking for an extinguisher.

With the chance wasted, Nika switched her focus to the AA and AS guns... Only to feel the Eucharis jerked rather violently as it shield's being hammered by the other NMX destroyers. Fortunately the seatbelt was in place, keeping her tied down.

"Status Report Charisma!" The neko called, only to see the status of the weapons. She turned to look back, noting Sune had taken the Systems and Safety Monitoring seat.

"Taisa, the Main Cannon is offline, probably from the enemy's barrage. I'll see to the AA and AS guns..." Nika retook control of the guns from Charisma, and continued firing at their harassers.

Sune picked himself up from where he had landed after being knocked out of his chair. He picked up the intercom and called out, "Damage control teams, Engineering has taken significant damage sensors show Fire in Engineering, Main Cannon is down, and bridge has taken minor damage. Priority is Engineering and then the Main Cannon. All hands report any casualties. Engineering report..."

Hanging up the intercom Sune pulled out an AMES and donned it as quickly as he could. He then took a chemical extinguisher and discharged it into the power conduit, while trying to find the breaker switch for it.

Taking control of the ship, Hanako spun the ship "downward" just in time to avoid the second volley of shots from hitting engineering.

The damage to the main cannon was far more severe this time; as several heavy weapons (which had been aimed at engineering) hit it, the dagger-like gun was blown off the bridge of the ship.

The bridge was hit again, too. The interior was suddenly turned into an inferno filled with flames and radiation.

Finally, the wardroom was set ablaze as well...a fire which, if left unattended, would quickly spread to the crew cabin.

"Sune, get Nika!" Hanako got off the floor and grabbed Ramiro, opened the bridge's blast shutter, and dragged him away from the outside to the main zero-gravity passageway. "Since the backup bridge site, the lounge, is in danger I am moving to the recreational room. We should be able to control the ship from there," Hanako said over both radio and encrypted telepathy. First, she dropped off Ramiro in the medical bay, then went to the rec room and took a seat in one of the VR stations, quickly interfacing it with the ship's controls as a third barrage of enemy fire started to slam into the ship's underbelly and engine pylons.

- - -

Blueberry burst into forward engineering, coming in from one of the side maintenance access tunnels. She immediately vented out all the atmosphere (along with the plasma and fire) from the compartment, then reactivated the room's environmental systems before starting on repairing the small hull breach. While she worked, she pulled up a live damage monitoring chart in her mind.

"Takeyu, I need you to put out the fires in...

The ship rocked violently as the enemy's hailstorm of fire scored another hit on the Eucharis.

"...correction, I need you to repair the port side aether plasma engine. It looks like that last hit screwed up the internals. You can probably jerry-rig it by welding the containment modules emitter panels back in place. We need full speed if we're going to get out of this. Can you do it?"

Where the hell is Mikael? Blueberry wondered. She wanted him to fight some fires but since he wasn't a telepath she had no way of contacting him.

Takeyu nodded. "Got it ma'am," and headed toward the port side. He noted fires along the way, and put several of them out with the extinguisher that he had.

When it ran dry he cursed and tossed it, but was glad to find another. The condition of the engine area when he got there wasn't that great. He attempted to put out a few of the fires and smiled with success.

Locating a damage control station nearby he instantly opened it up and retreived the tools he needed. He then looked for the panels that Blueberry told him about and started to get to work, welding them into place and double checking, and sometimes triple checking, his work.

"Damage control..." Mikael thought to himself as he looked at the computer response to his inquiry. He went to the nearest damage control station to get the needed equipment he would need for the highly likely event of fires and anything else he was trained to do in "Damage Control" back in Basic Training. He went back to the terminal he had used earlier when he felt the ship shake from weapons fire.

Checking the ship status, he saw Engineering was getting the brunt of the attacks and rushed off for Engineering. Deciding to take all of Deck 3 to get to Engineering, he moved as fast as possible when the ship rocked again. He went to the nearest terminal to get a fresh readout on the status of the ship. Now it seemed several locations were set a blaze. Seeming to be the closest person to the wardroom and three people in Engineering, he decided to make the command decision to head the wardroom before the fire there does some very potential damage to the ship. He sent a message down to Engineering and Command updating them of his position and intended designation. Once that was sent he sprint down the corridor towards the main passageway.

Reaching the main passageway, he climbed upwards towards the wardroom and upon reaching Deck 2 he readied himself before he rushed head on to combat the fires alone. But he then he heard the announcement over the intercom and made best speed back down in the opposite direction cursing to himself since he couldn't survive disobeying that order. "Damage Control teams???" He thought to himself climbing down. Once he reached Engineering, he rushed towards the first fire to extinguish it.

Having been dazed from all of the blasts, Ramiro regained a normal thought process just as he was being dragged into the med bay. He looked around, then stood up, dusting himself off. He ignored the minor injuries all over his body and followed Hanako to the rec room. "Taisa, I'll be alright to control, the crew needs you for leadership and it'll be harder for you if you also have to worry about controlling the ship."

Sune was grateful for his AMES as the bridge became an inferno. He grabbed Nika and pulled her off the bridge locking the shutter behind him. While moving to the medbay his medical training kicked in, Sune could easily see the myriad burns on Nika’s skin, mostly first and second degree burns. Only an indept scan could tell if her lungs were injured. Sune realized beyond delivering Nika to the medbay he could not afford to treat her. How much more of this can the Eucharis take, this is worse than Nataria, he thought moving downward to the med bay. He placed Nika on the medical bed, and quickly gave Konoka a stimulant shot. He was needed with the Taisa, and Konoka was needed in medbay on her feet.

He left the medbay and crossed over to the recreation room. He entered one of the VR stations, and pulled up the sensors and systems monitors. He programmed the sensors to pin-point key items on the NMX ships, energy sources were the simplest to locate, and high energy sources would be vital systems. “Taisa, I have identified primary targets on the NMX ships by their energy signature, a concentrated attack at those points should compromise their systems long enough for us to maneuver.”

Legati-Chalybsel was on the Cassotis’ bridge when the fleet arrived at Elysia Novus. What he saw disheartened him. Instead of arriving at a safe port to put in for repairs the system was caught up in a massive battle. “All ships to Battle Stations. Take up Phalanx Formation.”

Chalybsel was pleased when the fleet smoothly and swiftly took up the formation and responded battle ready. He looked at the volumetric display taking stock of the situation. A short distance from the Alithia fleet a lone Plumeria-class gunship danced a desperate death dance with a squadron of NMX destroyers.

“All Crataeis, Thantros, Nariel Assault class ships engage those NMX bastards, all other ships provide cover from their drones.” Chalybsel ordered to the fleet.

The survivors of the Alithia fleet were eager for a chance to pay the NMX back for the devastation they caused in Veritas. The Command Ships, Destroyers, and Battlecruisers caught the NMX destroyers broadside with their main guns, and followed up with their secondary weapons. The NMX destroyers took heavy damage from the first assault and the Elysian forces continued to close on the enemy preparing to launch a second volley.

Nika, connected to SPINE, was pounding away with the AA and AS guns at their attackers. In spite of hitting them with precision, the enemies were doing the same as well, depleting the ship's shield and striking against the chassis. It was then the sudden increase of temperature within the area brought her back to see a blinding flash of light, followed by an tense burning sensation over her body as well as her lungs. Her survival instinct took over; held her breath, and closed her eyes, unbuckling her seatbelt, just as Sune grabbed her and got her out of the burning bridge into the cooler passageway. Still not taking her chance, she continued to hold her breath until she felt something soft under her...

Nika coughed painfully as the cool air flowed into her injured lungs, eyes hurt as it had not recovered from the temperory blindness. Several areas of her arms and legs felt like someone had prodded her with a red hot cast iron...

Despite the fires; the welder still gave off a small bluish light that Takeyu could see. With the welds now done he looked around and quickly checked on other parts.

"Consoles destroyed..." he said as he noticed three consoles up against the wall that were destroyed. His expression wrinkled to a slight anger as he tried to find anything else that needed repair - it was then that his eyes fell upon the power cables feeding into the engine.

When he inspected them, he found that two had been sliced cleanly off, while the other three had been wrenched out of their housings.

He sighed and quickly thought of how to fix the wires. Three of them couldn't be fixed, he had inspected their insides and found that much of the wires internal were melted or fused together.

Takeyu went back to the damage control station and retrieved five pieces of a power cable, though they were just a bit longer than he intended, it would work.

"Gotta work fast here," he said and brought the repair kit closer to him and started to splice and reconnect the cables.

Ramiro watched the station over the Taisa's shoulder. His eyes flicked to the radar as he saw a few blips appear and head towards the NMX fleet. "Taisa look," Ramiro turned the to the side and coughed several times, beating against his chest to try and knock some of the gunk loose. He the pointed to the incoming ships on the radar. "It looks like we've got some friends on the way, now to just survive until they get here."

Due to the Elysian interference, the NMX escorts ceased their attacks on Eucharis fled back to their main force.

"We should probably head home for repairs," Hanako told Ramiro, "In this condition we cannot do much but run around. Take us back to Yamatai. It is better to save the ship than to remain here to die pointlessly."

"Thank you can good luck," Hanako sent to their Elysian saviors.

"...unless you think you can find their leader," Hanako said to Sune. "then we might be able to disrupt the invasion enough for the Elysians to overcome it. Any ideas?"

"Stand by for the jump to Yamatai," she told Ramiro.

Meanwhile, in the cargo bay, a group of NMX invaders crawled out of a torpedo sticking through the ship's side...

Sune pondered Hanako’s challenge it was a puzzle, and puzzles were something that he could not resist trying to solve. He thought about what distinguish the fleet commander from other ships in the task force. The commander of the fleet has to direct the forces under then, that meant…. communications. The command ship would have a higher level of EM emissions in the communications bands. he thought.

Sune accessed the Eucharis sensors and programmed them perform a series of EM scans of the fleets. Each pass searched for a particular signature. The program was set to eliminate vessels that did not match the parameters; in theory the final objects would be the ones he was looking for. Finally his search revealed several targets; he cross referenced them with the sensor data to eliminate ones that belonged to the Elysian fleets.

“Taisa Hanako,” Sune said, “I believe may have identified the command ship for the NMX attack group. I am transferring the coordinates for it to you. Given the Eucharis’s current status it might be best to pass the information to the Elysian group that saved us. From their position behind the enemy they would have the best chance to launch an attack against it.”

He grunted loudly as he shoved the repaired power cable back into it's socket; it didn't take him as long as he had thought it would. He double checked his welds on the engine and smiled satisfactory then made certain all the splicing was done.

Takeyu exited the engine room and brought up a terminal, which was relatively intact. He punched in a series of commands to the engine and awaited for the engine to come fully online. As he waited, he took a gander of the small room that was adjacent the engine and checked to see if anything else needed repairs before heading back to engineering to report.