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RP [Operation Sovereign Commitment] Battle Drive

Ametheliana

Head in the Stars
Staff Member
🌟 Site Supporter
🌸 FM of Yamatai
🎖️ Game Master
RP Date
YE 41
RP Location
Kikyō Sector
Nataria Fleet Depot
YSS Amagi
War Room

35 日 3月 YE 41

The Ninth Fleet's command center abord its glorious flagship, the YSS Amagi had been alive with with the quiet chaos of war planning for the better part of a month. Yui's directive launching the Ninth and the Third Fleets to take back the spacelanes over Essia from Kuvexian occupation had come swiftly and was expected to be carried out with just as much expediency. The Seventh Fleet alone had been unable to break the blockade in the months since the enemy had come, mired down and overwhelmed by this new foe's tactics and sudden appearance in the heart of the Kikyo Sector. Dozens upon dozens of flag aides, SAINT analysts, fleet tacticians, and strategists from Star Army operations buzzed around the expansive two-deck chamber, coordinating and planning the invasion with exacting measure. Over on the Third Fleet's flagship, the YSS Musashi, the scene was occurring in duplicate and feeding off of the work being done here in perfect symbiosis. Such was the neverending pace of how war was made.

Today, Taisho Hokusai Akiyo of the Third Fleet was aboard the Amagi. It had been her old flagship, christened under her command back when the Ninth was founded just before the Second Mishhuvurthyar War. Not much had changed here except for the faces, though even some of the soldiers were the same — those Hokusai-taisho didn't take with her when she was reassigned to command the Third. She stood up on the command platform beside the fleet admiral's chair and console reserved for Suigetsu — Taisho Suigetsu Kyōku, her successor two times over — and gazed down at the officers murmuring and darting around with purpose in the pit below. The hem of her Type 35 duty uniform's blue skirt sat a little high, Hokusai having long since given up on making sure it stopped riding up her thighs, much less ensuring her outfit remained pristine during the long hours she'd been here away from her own ship.

"The last of those new crews Yui-sama promised me seem to be manning their ships now," Hokusai said to her Ninth Fleet counterpart as updates streamed into her mind and onto the volumetric display projected from the console in front of them. The thought of the Ninth being commanded by a nine-tailed trickster still amused her to no end, and, combined with the respect she'd gained from working with Kyōku, now believed there was no better taisho fit to lead the fleet she'd built a decade ago. "We're lucky she made such a genius cover story for us with the refugees here on Nataria and all of that," the little orange-eyed pixie of an admiral added with a cheeky sound in her voice. "Without the extra blood and steel for my fleet, I'd have been worried about how my old ships would fare in the coming battle. How goes the Ninth's preparations?"

The silvery haired counterpart sitting beside Hokusai nodded tersely as her pale, open hand raised toward the volumetric panel, "As you can see," Suigetsu Kyōku said, "well enough for what we have. We lack new blood and spotless steel, but an old ship is still a manned ship." Her hand and voice lowered as one of her silvery brows raised, "I will note that the veterans of the Ninth are some of the best, if not the best, Taisho Hokusai. I can thank you for that, no doubt."

"Is that so?!" Hokusai-taisho chuckled in feigned disbelief. A big grin grew across her face with just one of her Nekovalkyrja canines poking through and pressing against her lower lip. "Ora ora!" she exclaimed in rough sounding Yamataigo, "I thought I'd taken all of the good ones with me! But really, the credit's for the Ninth's veterans of today is all yours, Suigetsu-san! Plus, your ships aren't that old at all — at least not compared to my flying museum. My Ayame and Irim should do the trick just fine, though, combined with your ships and the new ones Yui-sama gave me!"

Just then, a yeoman in grey panels with a Star Army Command patched approached where the two taisho were standing. They were a Neko taii named Akane with blazing, neon purple hair and eyes to match, and carried with her a small data pad containing information deemed sensitive enough to be delivered in person rather than over a network. After she bowed, she waited for one of the two admirals to address her, silently holding her salute until prompted.

After she moved her eyes away from other Admiral, Suigetsu Kyōku nodded tersely to the grey panel, saying tersely, "Taii?" She stood from her chair and put a hand out for the pad as she spoke again, "Arigatou gozaimasu."

"New intelligence report, fresh from SAINT, Taisho," Akane-taii said in a manner friendly enough to not be considered too chummy for someone addressing a taisho, before taking one step forward to hand the pad off to Suigetsu. "Also, Hokusai-taisho, your request for military police to assist with repatriation operations planetside has at last been finalized. A battallion has loaded onto the YSS Chīsana ne, one of the new Super Eikan-class cruisers assigned to the Third."

"And they're completely ready to deploy alongside the Rikugun as soon as we've secured system space?" Hokusai asked, every detail of Yui's orders at the front of her consciousness. "Shuttles, ground transport, supplies, prefab facilities? And we've got Separa'shan soldiers among them, yes? I told the last yeoman who was sent to coordinate on this something like 'every snake we've got in the service,' I think! Yui-sama was very particular about how the Empress wanted the locals handled with the utmost care and respect."

"Yes, Taisho!" Akane-taii said, nodding hurriedly with every one of Hokusai's points. "All preparations have been made. Rules of engagement, too!" she added, preempting the little admiral's next question.

"Perfect," Hokusai smiled, not so much replying as expressing what sounded like immense satisfaction. "You've done a good job, Akane-san!"

The yeoman Akane seemed a little overwhelmed, now, because she'd done nothing but deliver intelligence and the new report, but kept nodding along and accepted Hokusai's praise. "T-thank you, Taisho!"

Suigetsu, too, was pleased during the exchange, even while she shot a glance toward Hokusai and when she spoke next, "You are excused, Taii." She bowed as best she could with the pad still in hand, and sat as she looked back to Akiyo. "Taisho, if you please?" She read, then pushed the data pad the short distance along the console, toward where Hokusai Akiyo was standing.

Akane-taii stepped back to give the two taisho some discretion as Hokusai picked up the data pad she'd delivered. The young purple Neko wouldn't leave just yet, as it was her duty to secure the information and dispose of it once the Hokusai and Suigetsu had both received it. It didn't take Hokusai long at all, however, taking in all of the text given to her quickly and efficiently with her computerized Neko brain. Not two seconds after Hokusai had picked it up, she tossed the data pad back over to Akane-taii and went back to examining the volumetric strategic feeds displayed at the command console.

"You heard Suigetsu-taisho, did you, Taii?" Hokusai grumbled without looking back from her place at the console, hands firmly planted and leaning in close to the display. She had a big smile on her face, of course, but the yeoman couldn't see it. "You're 'excused.'"

"Y-yes, Taisho!" Akane shot back as she caught the data pad out of the air and then bowed before scurrying off over the transparent walkway and over to the deck's exit.

Hokusai waited until she'd left before glancing over to Suigetsu with a little grin. "Gotta keep 'em on their toes, ya know?" she said, sounding quite amused with Akane-taii. "That's how they become 'the best' veterans!" she teased, recalling Kyōku's praise from a few minutes before. "Well, other than fighting Mishhuvurthyar with a Mindy."

"Our newest enemy will be on their toes soon enough, Taisho," Suigetsu said as she looked pointedly at the gilded eyes of the woman beside her.

"Everything seems to be coming together nicely indeed," Hokusai agreed, having just read the same intelligence as Suigetsu. It was time to commence operations. "We're lucky the Kuvies saw fewer supply ships sent through to Essia this week, and that even fewer still made it through Star Army pickets." The diminutive taisho pushed up off of the command console with both hands and leaned back on her heels, patting her flat tummy while she pushed out what little guts she had for effect. "Meanwhile we're over here fat on freshly-minted Natarian conscripts!" she chuckled, still slapping her unimpressive attempt at having a big belly.

Suigetsu had to close her eyes, though a wide smile was plastered on her face as the imagery of Akiyo's gesture imprinted itself into her digital memory. The purpley grey masses of Kyōku's hair were bundled together by her two hands as she brought the mass in front of her body. Both of her hands laid on top of one another, separated from her heart by the parcel of her hair. Her expression tightened before the fox-like whiskers bounced up on her face and her eyes opened, along with a smile.

"We have all of our pieces aligned, now, while our opponents are spread and struggling," Suigetsu said.

"How does 0900 Yamataian Standard tomorrow sound to you?" Hokusai stated more than asked. "All that's left to do is inform our captains that it's go-time so they can make sure their crews get one last night of peace before being sent off to battle. Every crew should already be good to launch at a moment's notice, if only barely."

"I will see to telling them," Suigetsu said before she stood. "It has brought me immense enjoyment working with you, Taisho Hokusai. I look forward to more of the same, when the time calls." She gave a deep bow to the black haired woman opposite her. "Including that which comes tomorrow."

For the first time in hours, Hokusai took a moment to straighten up her uniform, tugging her skirt back down to where regulation demanded it be kept and centering the gold buckle on the belt that secured her NSP at her hip. As a last touch, she picked up her Type 36 officer's cap from where she'd left it atop Suigetsu's command console and placed it on her head, pushing it from side-to-side by its immodestly decorated visor until it was aligned just where she wanted it.

"Happy hunting, Suigetsu-taisho," Hokusai said with a truly outstanding salute as if to offer thanks, return Kyōku's compliments back to her, and say "good luck" all at once.
 
Essia System
1日 4月 YE 41


The Yamataian star systems that stretched out east beyond Yamatai and Anisa and up past the Ketsurui Nebula, reaching northward toward independent backwater worlds populated by Abwehrans and human colonists, had long been sleepy visions of Yamataian prosperity. First explored for the Yamataian Star Empire by the likes of Henry Chen's old Third Expeditionary Fleet and Ketsurui Hanako's YSS Nozomi, the civilizations that lay there had for a decade known relative peace. Refugees and scoundrels alike came to these places for refuge and relaxation and to enjoy the myriad cultures that had sprouted there among the wildly diverse species that called them home. Even during the Second Mishhuvurthayar War, only the uninhabited Xylar system had been wrested away from the last remnants of a forgotten space-faring confederation before being taken by the Star Army's mighty Seventh Fleet. The might of the Interstellar Kingdom of Kuvexia and the conquest its forces waged against Yamatai had ripped all of that idyllic monotony away, though, and had forced the Seventh to fight a frantic and harrowing war to maintain some semblance of imperial authority in the void between those worlds that lay triangled by the Chen, Rosenthal, and Ketsurui Nebulas. While the Seventh's fight had rarely ended in tactical failure, it had been unable to keep the Kuvexians from gaining political influence upon Essia — homeworld of the venerable Separa'Shan snake-men — and stationing one of their magnificent golden fleets in orbit there.

And so, in her brilliant strategic wisdom, the Taisho Yui ordered the Third and Ninth Standard Fleets from her grand Star Army to retake the system and remind the sector that Yamataian might had yet to fade from the galaxy.

Black-hulled Plumeria gunships and Yui 7s from Star Army Intelligence hung silently in the dark magnetic shadows at the Essia system's periphery, and a few smaller Midori-class scout ships drifted among its dense asteroid belts, all tumbling cold and lifeless as they watched and sent encrypted feeds reporting on the Kuvexian fleet presence — just over 960 ships by their best estimate — back to command. Their breathless weeks watching on these lonely, near-doomed missions would soon end, however, as the inky void began to twinkle with points of white.

At first it seemed like new starlight shining in between the countless suns fading thousands of light years away. But shimmering auroras of teal soon grew among the new sparks of white, first in patches and then almost all at once in thick bands across empty space as the combined multitude that made up the Third and Ninth Fleets' starship squadrons folded in from various tactical vectors and ready to engage with the waiting Kuvexian occupiers. Over 1,316 Star Army ships, all told, had arrived in the blink of an eye and commenced their attack without hesitation or mercy.

Pink Yamataian aether and teal plasma bolts scorched through space and burrowed into the gleaming gold hull plating of a ten-ship Kuvexian cruiser flotilla unlucky enough to have been amidst a fold point that heralded the arrival of two Sharie-class Battleships and their escorts from the Third Fleet. Three of the Kuvexian vessels erupted immediately, unable to raise shields to prevent their armor from crumpling under the onslaught, while two other among their number were rendered combat ineffective but still afloat — massive tendrils of fire stretching out from within — while their crews formed damage control teams to keep their starships from adding to the early dead. Thousands of Mindy 4s were already swarming from each Sharie's launch bays with dozens of starfighters coming out to screen their motherships as the Kuvexian fleet began to mount its resistance. Super Eikan-class cruisers and older Ayame-class launched their compliments, too, as they exchanged blows with their golden foes and Yamataian aether splashed against the orangey glow of Kuvexian shielding. All over the system, ships from the two great space nations came together in vicious, frenetic combat; larger capital ships of the line unleashed their broadsides at one another and spewed streams of saturating anti-craft fire while escorts and gunships tangled and chased each other in the hopes of gaining a position of advantage.

"'The consequence of resistance,'" Taisho Hokusai said gravely, recalling the motto of Suigetsu-taisho's Ninth Fleet while she watched the battle unfold on the YSS Musashi's fleet command bridge, standing at the head of its massive volumetric tactical table. "Tell the SOFTs aboard the Shirogane Maru their mission is all green. I want that Kuvexian flag taken before they have the chance to rally," she announced while her eyes remained locked calmly upon the battle map, knowing the right communications officer would relay her order without delay.

Intelligent false radio traffic and white noise had increased in crescendo from the Ninth Fleet until they were outright jamming the Kuvexian enemy's communications. The initial expectations from false warhead signatures and aether spreads pushed gilded ships of the Kuvexian war-business into the Ninth's predatory gunship and cruiser groupings. Confusion on the part of the Kuvexians had led to an initial carnage that shifted their tactics to wariness and regrouping, as to be expected by the forces of the Star Army, whose scout ships' subspace mass detectors were watching their crowds and letting the larger Super Eikan hunters move on the assemblages of prey.

In unison, the pale tails of Taisho Suigetsu flicked one way and another as she stood before the railing of the bridge on the YSS Amagi, watching the flurry of activity through her mind's HUD. The need for orders from her to her fleet was nonessential, now. Her sweeping trust in her captains would halt only when necessitated. For now, there strategies and movement were pre-determined, calculated to a degree that left little choices for the enemy. Such was the essence of an opening move such as this. She waited to see what the middle and, inevitably, endgame required of her and her pieces.

As the battle raged on, the combined Star Army fleet closed in around the planet Essia itself while the Kuvexians repeatedly tried to withdraw and regroup within the system itself. The fight's tempo remained quick and bitter throughout as the Yamataian force pushed forward, relentlessly keeping their enemies engaged. The Kuvexians were known to bug out of a battle when the going got tough, but Suigetsu and Hokusai had planned for that and drilled their captains well on the art of pursuit and constant engagement. Even with the Ninth Fleet flooding all known communications channels, the Star Army ships performed their duty with ruthless precision. Still, the pace of victory was not without cost, and the Third Fleet's older Ayame-class cruisers and Irim-class gunships suffered the brunt of their enemy's retaliation. Though they tried to keep up, many were simply outmaneuvered by the faster and newer Kuvexian scouts and gunships.

"Enemy fleet down to 41 percent effectiveness, Taisho," reported an olive-skinned Neko grey panel with golden hair standing a few feet from Hokusai aboard the YSS Musashi. "SOFT 363 was lost during deployment, but the other seven teams are preparing to breach and engage with what we believe to be the enemy flagship. Ten armor wings are supporting their assault."

"Behind schedule," Hokusai huffed as she watched one of her new Sharie battleships, the YSS Azuki spew teal fire from its launch bays as it careened into an Ayame flying escort to it, destroying both in a spectacular aether explosion and sending both Star Army and Kuvexian ships in the vicinity scattering away from the blast. Her fleet was performing admirably, but old ships and green crews were bound to bring some trouble with them in a fight. "Send up some of our ships being held in reserve," the little pumpkin-eyed admiral ordered, tapping a finger on the volumetric battle table while she leaned in examining the fight. "The spearhead could use some relief."

Suigetsu-taisho closed her hands around the railing of the bridge on her own flagship as she watched the movement of battle and ships with her eyes closed. The Ninth was focusing its power in several areas after the coagulated masses of enemy ships thinned and dispersed. The scattering of targets made synergy between multiple Star Army captains strenuous. The Admiral drummed her fingers in quick succession against the railing.

"WARMS has picked something up on the wavefront," said the sensors operator behind Suigetsu.

The sharp, pink eyes of the Admiral had opened as she turned her head slightly. "Report," the Taisho said tersely.

"The location of rally points are apparent, I have sent the data to you," said the sensor operator.

The Taisho nodded, looking forward once more as several new orders were made and went out in her digital mind. Moments later, a number of the Ninth Fleet assets in hot pursuit of Kuvexian ships moved with an almost unnoticeable, yet forced, delay. Their bridled restraint made it possible for the Kuvexian ships to find their points for regroup, though the positions were hardly fortified due to the lurking Super Eikan and Plumeria gunships, which had not applied the same inhibition as many of their sister ships had used. Spread arcs of aether shock arrays from the heavy cruisers and cones of pale pink aether from the gunships decimated the large congregations of the once-fighting enemy ships. The whisker-like markings on the cheeks of the Taisho bounced upwards as she thought of the end moves needed, now.

Losing more and more ships with each passing moment, Kuvexian captains began to run as the Star Army's advantage mounted with every felled warship. First a few flashed out of the battlescape and into fold space — the purple glow of their FTL propulsion systems blending in with the light from hundreds of burning hulks now littering the void here — before all of the rest of them did at once. The Kuvexian flagship's exit took with it 500 Mindy 4s that were unable to clear the area in time. Historians would later remark that Star Army planners hadn't expected the Kuvexian fleet at Essia to remain engaged for so long given their tendency for self preservation displayed earlier in the war. Perhaps they hadn't estimated the strength of Yamatai's remaining forces that'd remained unengaged as the Ketsurui Military Sector fell months before. More likely, though, the strategy employed by the Third and Ninth Fleets had taken them by surprise. The Interstellar Kingdom's commitment to cementing the Separa'Shan as their new corporate serfs was not enough to withstand the might of two Star Army fleets, however.

"Signal command that the Third Fleet is beginning search and rescue operations," Hokusai ordered as she turned away from her flagship's volumetric battle monitor and stretched before making her way over to her admiral's chair. "Send preliminary loss reports along, too."

The diminutive taisho fell down in her throne and slid her butt down toward the seat's edge, using the moment to rest and take stock of the engagement that had just occurred. There was no part of her that didn't wish she could have been out there in a power armor, side-by-side with her soldiers like she had way back when she was a freshly-cloned santô hei. This had been a battle that any Neko from her generation would not want to miss. But she only used a moment, and soon sat back upright and returned to her work reviewing data from the passed fight.

"Send my congratulations to Suigetsu-taisho, too," she added, flipping through casualty logs on a little volumetric window that projected from her chair's armrest. "Tell her the Ninth is more formidable than it has ever been, and see if there's anything they need of us."

END

 
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