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RP: YSS Miharu Prologue, Day 4

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Yukari felt now was not the time to die.

All of the very obvious emotional cues were exploited by the SMX. It was understandable. But something else told Yukari that they were not supposed to die here.

With that in mind, she coolly loaded the torpedo tubes of the Miharu. Figuring her first shots should count, should she have to take them, she armed AS-7 Type 1 Anti-matter rounds. She left the safeties on, counting on Kotori to call the order to attack. There is no way to know what will come next. But we must be ready.
 
When his panel returned to life Nyton immediately resumed monitoring ship conditions. As the problems in engineering had suddenly worsened he figured it was time to let them know that they had to pull off a miracle soon. "Engineering, this is the bridge. We need those systems back online fast. Enemy ships are approaching. Armor pilots, to your battle stations and prepare to launch." he said. As he alerted the battle crews he began to scan the battlegroup that was approaching to get an accurate read out on the enemy battle strength.

There has to be some sort of angle. If we're all doomed why are they attacking? Or is this just part of the fun to them? Nyton thought as he tried to gather more information on their situation. Even if we called for help and there was a fleet available would their systems also be disabled when they approached?
 
"Nyton, no." Kotori shook her head emphatically from her seat. "We need everyone we can spare in engineering. We obviously can't fight in this condition anyways." Kotori was worried about ghost mishhuvurthyar making their entry inside the ship seeing that they had no shields... but luckily they had Sigurd up and about just for that. What's more, the Miharu didn't have the sort of armor complement which could actually hold a candle to swarms of mishhu attack pods.

"Sensors, go into passive mode and make sure we have those Black Spiral identification codes going. If the Mishhu can skip over us being a good target, it'll be one less problem for us. Navigation, go into silent running and head to the edge of the battlefield: get us a head start on that shockwave. Tactical, hold your fire for now: it'd rather we keep what power we have until the capacitor issue is addressed."
 
Nyton looked over to Kotori and nodded. "Roger that." he replied. "Belay the previous order and carry on assisting in engineering. Armor pilots cancel previous order and do your best to help the technical crew. We need this ship up and running fast."

A thought crossed Nyton's mind as Kotori mentioned the identification codes. "Taii, would the Black Spiral id codes happen to also allow us to listen in on their frequency? Perhaps we could learn something more from them."
 
"I'm not sure. I hope so. Communication seems to be the one thing that's actually working right," Kotori returned. "The Mishhu might accidentally tell us something important too while we masquarade as one of their allies. We'll see."
 
Tom Freeman walked into Engineering, holding his tool kit in his right hand. His environmental suit hid the Yamataian's unkempt appearance, but Tom's matted blonde hair itched uncomfortably.

It was an impossible itch to scratch right now, though, so his attention was naturally drawn to the smoldering piece of machinery that was the CFS.

"NANDEFUCK!?"

Tom took a few moments to access the situation, because, really, that was as much time as he had or needed. He cooly placed his toolbox down, opened it up and took out some cables, throwing them to the prone Leutre.

"Great! Leutre, if you're still alive, and I KNOW you are, go connect these cables while I fish around the storage lockers over there for some extra breakers for this thing. For the LOVE OF RALT, wait until power to the CFS unit is cut OFF!"

He calmly, but quickly walked to the nearby damage control room.

"Masako ma'am, please shut off power to the CFS unit," Tom said as he reached the entrance to the damage control room, "As much a fashion statement vertical-standing hair is, I'm sure none of us would like to sport it right now."

Freeman could still be heard through the opening to the damage control room, because the ship, having sensed the emergency, opened access to the appropriate repair centers. The damage control room was a simple affair, storage lockers lined up in a grid structure and neatly labeled with the parts they contained. Against the walls were multiple slide-out panels that lead to crawlspaces throughout the ship, as well as others labeled with red tags which contained various cables that ran through the ship. There was a ladder at the far side of the room that lead up, through a slide-out panel, to the next floor.

Freeman located the appropriate locker for breakers and picked up as many as he needed to get the job done.
 
Shaken by the pyrotechnics of the surrounding electronics, Masako was thankful enough to have Tom arrive to help focus her mind. "H...hai," Masako replied as she shook the head to remove the cobwebs in her mind. Grabbing her helmet again, she headed towards the power switch for the CFS, flipping it so that they could begin working on it safely. "CFS is safe," she called out before hurriedly moving to Damage Control.

"As soon as CFS is repaired, we need to get the Port side Capacitor operational again." she explained to Tom, just in case he hadn't heard.
 
Mara returned to the engineering. "Was this unit the only one that went haywire? I'll go check in one of the wing sections!"

At that the sprite left at a run. Shortly after, Nimura made her entry in engineering and headed off to check on the opposite side.
 
"If it's possible let's see if we can put this theory to use." Nyton replied and he began running searches for the Mishhu group's communications protocol to the ones they currently had.
 
Yukari nodded. They would not help the battle by dying with the rest of the 5th XF, it seemed.

"Hai, Taii-san." Yukari angled the Miharu slowly, the Black Spiral transponder codes activated with a few touches of the screens in front of her as Nyton searched for their communication channels and the appropriate ways to monitor them. The codes, she hoped, were not so out-of-date as to make them more noticeable, not less. Nevermind their position seemed odd compared to the rest of the Mishhu vessels.

No time for doubts. She finished turning the ship and gave the gravimetric engines three bursts, each more powerful than the next, to propel them away at about 0.1 c. They were coasting at this point, as Yukari did not wish to make things anymore difficult for engineering than she had to.
 
Miyoko nodded, switching off the active sensors. She frowned as the windows she'd had opened reduced their displays to fit the scant amount of data still coming in. It made sense to try drawing as little attention as possible under the circumstances, but the knowledge that she wouldn't be able to see the shockwave coming until it hit just sent shivers down her spine.

With the limited tools now available to her, there wasn't much she could do. She kept a window monitoring the interdiction field, so that they'd be aware the moment it dropped. She didn't bother pointing anything at the sun- a near-lightspeed shockwave meant that it would be upon them by time any passive sensors could detect it. And then, everything that could be spared was trained on the giant Mishhu ship as the fighting broke out. She wouldn't get much from this distance, but any recordings she could get of that vessel's abilities could prove invaluable in the days to come.
 
Leutre felt something hit him and heard Tom say something, but couldn't make it out between the ringing of his ears and the buzz of machinery. His vision blurred slightly as he sat up and composed himself. He reached behind his head and felt something wet. He didn't need to look at his hand to realize it was blood. It wasn't his first accident in his years as a technician. 'Hells. Maybe I should have put on my helmet after all. I hope I don't have a concussion...' Glancing about his surroundings, he spotted bundle of cables beside him. Was that what Tom was talking about?

Grabbing the bundle of cables he stood up and leaned against the nearby console. He fought down the urge to vomit and worked through his mental grogginess as he studied the cable. 'Cables?' Cables seemed familiar for some reason. Why? 'Mara said, what was it... Cables... Wrong cables? We were having capacitor trouble and... Replace the cable!'

Taking drunken steps, he made his way through the rows of battery cells in a slight daze. 'Where was the power conduit Mara mentioned?' His head began to throb. The machinery was so loud. 'Maybe I should sit down for a moment... No, I can't. I have to-- Is that the conduit?' His gaze landed on the monitoring device attached to a battery cell. Despite his dizziness, he could recall enough to realize that such a device seemed out of place. Leutre collasped to his hands and knees and ripped out the monitoring device without regard to damage he may have caused to it. Plugging in the first end of the cable, it only took him a moment to spot the second socket on another nearby bank and plug in the other end.

'Finally... Now I'll just close my eyes a bit.'
He lowered himself slowly to the deck until he was lying on his stomach, but was careful to avoid falling on top of the cable. 'I think I'll just rest a bit until someone calls for me again. Just a short break until my head clears. I won't do anyone any good while I'm so dizzy.'
 
It was a fortunate thing for Leutre, due to his rough handling of the power cable, that he was wearing most of the AMES suit - it saved him from sustaining nasty discharges from the static energy still lingering in the capacitor bank.

Of course, now that is was connected, power had to be fed once more into it for it to function properly once again. The console Leutre had used for that had unfortunately blown up in his face.

Mara ran back as quickly as she could to report on the status of the port wing engine CFS, but she was veered off course by the sight of the sprawled down nepleslian tech. Wide-eyed, the sandy-haired neko crouched by him, examined him a moment and then yelled: "Kurohoshi-Juni, Freeman-Heisho! Veressis-Hei collapsed!"

<center>* * *</center>

As anti-ship weaponry gained reasonably good targetting solutions, the Battle of Taiie erupted in earnest. Projected jets of primordial energy, transphasic beams and tunneling positron bolts enjoined both nekovalkyrja and mishhuvurthyar vessels as the fleets clashed.

Spearing the assault on the Mishhuvurthyar side was Melissons monstrous flagship: a long, dark sinister vessel with a bow split into three talon-like claw - two above and one opposing them below It's central body was elliptical and flowing organically to split at the stern into two large fins. Unlike the other SMX ships, the hull wasn't smooth and greenish-pink; It was covered with thousands of long, sharp looking quills that where a mottled black/dark brown.

A full salvo of six AS-7 torpedoes hurtled toward Melisson's ship, courtesy of one of the Arashi-escorts tailing a Yuumi battleship; the YSS Igen. Aetheric explosions erupted over the spined menace, but the massive ship rode them out without bearing any significant damage for the Arashi's efforts.

The Igen swerved, narrowly avoiding an impact with the black vessel and using its weapon pods to strafe at the behemoth's side, but the Mishhu flagship swiftly reciprocated. The quills were more than decoration; they were each a emitter unit for projected energy beams and thousands of them opened fire in a fan-like matter, rows upon rows of spines riveting themselves.

After only a few seconds of weathering such an assault, the nenerable battleship was reduced to piteous image of it's former self, most of the hull on that side open to space and distorsed. A Ooghlrashithagg-carrier followed up on the assault and finished off the ailing battleship.

The radiance of the ensuing explosion was muted by the next salvo coming from the black flagship, which spread its massive arsenal amongst the nearby Arashi escorts, also withering them down in dazzling displays of firepower. Instead of stopping to actually concentrate on finishing each one of these, Melisson's ship disdainfully swept past them and toward the Dainslef and its escorts as the other mishhu ships tailing it broke off to finish off the Igen's escorts. Combined weapon pod fire from the Star Army escorts only served to have the SMX flagship's shield bubble ripple and shimmer... but the protective layer of the colossal ship held.

Between the battling giants, clouds of yamataian power armors engaged the massive hordes of mishhuvurthyar battlepods that were released as the mishhuvurthyar ships plowed though the 5th XF's formation. Melisson was obviously trying to squeeze the most advantage out from the Mishhuvurthyar massive array of positron cannons covering their hulls. While most yamataian ships were designed to fire their anti-ship weaponry mostly on the front, individual Mishhu vessels would be able to make the most out of their firing arcs and fire all the weapons at their disposal, but at many different targets instead of focusing on the sort of single engagements the Star Army prefered.
 
As Nyton tried to find the comm line to listen in on the Mishhu he also began to run another scan. "Miharu, record all activity made by the new Mishhu ship. I want to have the combat abilities of that ship analyzed and recorded for future reference. Maybe we can find a way to counter that damned field weapon of theirs." he said. "And bring back that star map and fleet movement screen I had earlier. There might be a visible pattern in this maneuver that we can see develop with a bigger picture."

All the while Nyton's memory recorder was busily keeping every event fully catalogued.
 
Yukari kept the comms routed away from her, unless certain events occurred. She also did not look at the scanners, leaving those to Miyoko.

She did not want to see slaughter for a third time.
 
No command were coming from Kotori. The Taii remained silent in her seat, her head bent and her eyes stared at the four fingered hands fisted against her lap. All she could do was wait for whatever was wrong with her ship to be fixed - she was helpless.

Kotori hated feeling helpless. She hated running away. Her gut told her it was the right decision, but she was having trouble coming to terms with it.

Finally, she spoke: "I want options. Does anyone have a good idea of what else we could do?"
 
"Pray," Yukari said quietly.

She then raised her voice, seeing no one else. "We are one vessel, with reduced capability, and we have no means to protect ourselves nor damage the enemy. We must survive."

Yukari did not see how else to avoid it. Speeding away as they were at the speed they were at, they would be less than half a light-year away when the star of Taiie destroyed itself. Fighting was not possible; they would be destroyed easily in their current state, and the weapons at their disposal were either too severely hampered by the interdiction field or simply not strong enough to do any damage. There was not even a guarantee they would survive, unless the Mishhu fleet were to jump away and leave enough time for the Miharu to skip the system on its CDD.

How likely that was, Yukari did not know. The Mishhu battleship seemed to wade through the veteran 5th XF as if it were easy. Perhaps it could withstand the destruction of a sun as well.
 
Tom Freeman had returned to the damaged CFS and was replacing the breakers, working as quickly as he could given all the safety precautions he needed to follow, as well as having to work around bits of twisted metal, when he heard Mara's yell from across the end of the bay.

"Mara! If you can, drag Leutre out of harm's way, heck, take him to the Medlab if you have the strength! Keep calm and contact our medical staff! We're going to be fine! Is everything ok on port side?"

He was intensely focused on the task at hand, driven. He heard the rumblings of battle outside the ship, and he knew that they probably did not have much time.

Never forget the Mikomi...

"Ichigo! Nimura! Where are you? Help Mara if you can!"

A couple more flicks of the wrist and...

"There! Breakers installed! Masako, ma'am, when we get the ok, boot this baby up!"

He backed away from the CFS, his throat dry and itchy from all the yelling.

"Everyone! I need final checkups on our capacitors! Are we good to go?"

Tom ran over to his toolbox and picked it up, ready to move at a moment's notice. He hardly had time to notice the sweat running down the front of his helmet.

But he did have time to notice the small rivulet of blood running along the floor from Leutre's head injury.
 
"If we were not so severely crippled I would suggest playing our stolen identification code card to get close enough to the enemy flagship and fire a few torpedoes into a suspected engine port. Unfortunately, with all fire and maneuvering it is currently engaged in that makes it difficult enough even without being hampered." Nyton said. "Otherwise we should retreat just to salvage anything. The information we were able to procure from this battle alone is invaluable and may lead us to finding a better means to counter the new battleship's field weapon."

As Nyton spoke he paused a moment and rechecked some of the comm lines he had already reviewed. He then tried to see if the enemy fleet had made any attempts to 'verify' their codes, as well as hail them for any possible intel they might have on the 5th fleet. "Taii, what if we could misdirect them? Instead of trying to break in and listen in, we could pretend to be Black Spiral ourselves and tell them that we have discovered a more valuable target and make them break off to attack somewhere else."
 
Mara bent and strained as she picked up Leutre's limp body. "Heisho, the Combined Field System in the port wing section is in the same state! It needs to be attended to as well."

Nimura returned to the engine room at about the same time Ichigo made her own entry from the main passageway. Both shared a look until Ichigo finally added: "The starboard wing CFS and the unit in the Hoshi were also compromised in the same manner."

"Uhn." Mara looked worried: that was a lot of important malfunctioning systems. Good thing there had been safety systems to prevent the whole thing from being fried. "I think Leutre-san replaced the cables needed for the capacitors... you can probably switch those back on. I'll bring him up now... Good luck!"

On that note, Mara left for the main passageway.

<center>* * *</center>

Kotori felt a bit relieved that her two senior officers seemed to agree on the chosen course of action. She was about to say something, but the Miharu cut her off with a: "Taii, Veressis-Hei has been wounded. Mara is brining him up to the medlab."

Kotori frowned and looked to Miyoko. "Saito-Hei, please report to the medlab and have Mara come here and replace you on the bridge."

The ship was already in bad enough straits... Kotori couldn't afford to lose her technicians.

<center>* * *</center>

The massive flagship was not the only surprise Melisson had brought with her. The new scoutships also left their mark.

In the beginning of the battle, they went largely unnoticed... but then suddenly, they appeared in the midst of their enemies. A mottled green and shaped like a twin-tailed manta ray, three of those vessels swooped down an Odori-class transport which was making a break for it. Even though the small mishhu ships were dwarfed by the freighter, they followed it, waving in erratic evasive patterns as they fired down with their ventral positron cannons.

Those shots ripped past the Odori's shields, quickly marring the freighter's hull with deep gashes. The Odori fired back as it could with its turrets, but the small ships proved very hard to hit: not only were they maneuverable, but some hits that should have connected they just blurred through.

But the phasing device couldn't always be in functionwhile the small ships were on an offensive, as an Irim gunship pointed out by firing a spray of projected beams around the Odori. One of the scouts was rent in two while the two others quickly disengaged.

The two scouts retreated back... behind four bigger destroyers whom fired their main cannons at the Odori and the Irim. The freighter blossomed into a fireball on the first shot - which landed smack on its engine elements - while the Irim was forced to withstood the assault despite its strong shields, which proved to be useless against the Mishhu tunneling cannons. Its tough zesuaium plated hull saved it, but the main cannons and ensuing shots dug in deeply.

The 5th XF Irim reciprocated with a volley of torpedoes which sundered through one of the destroyers and badly mangled another. Positron cannons and missile swarms reduced the second one to nothingness.

The return fire wreathed the Irim in explosions and drifting armor shards... one collapsed engine section had the ship reel badly on one side - it couldn't take much more of a beating. Fortunately, an Arashi escort came to support it, announcing its entry with a volley of AS-7 torpedoes which. The two destroyers, overwhelmed by the massive barrage of anti-ship torpedoes, died brilliantly.

The Irim recovered just in time to see an enemy carrier and two gunships bear in on its position. the scouts were nowhere to be see, having gone off to pick at more tender targets...
 
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