RP: YSS Miharu Prologue, Day 4

Mara entered the bridge, not long after, and jumped down next to the sensor station Miyoko had been occupying before. She began looking things over and her eyes went wide.

"Eeeeeeeh? What's going on here?"

"Mara, sensors are in passive mode to avoid detection. Keep a discreet profile until I tell you otherwise." Kotori replied. "How are things going down in engineering?"

"The capacitors should be up shortly. The Combined Field requires maintenance of all four units." The sprite recalled she was still wearing her helmet and took it off, shaking her head to stir her sandy hair a bit. "Freeman-Heisho seemed to have it all under control, though."

"Very well." The Taii nodded, still tense... but it was good to know things might be looking up for them.

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It turned out the virtual reality rooms were rather easy to find. The recreation rooms were just up the stairs leading to the crew cabins. All she had to do was go in the a rec room and make a turn to meet up with an hatch and attached console.

"Nozomi-class bridge simulation ready," Miharu announced to Mizuho as she came close. "Enter when ready."

Turning to the voice once more he could make out the blurred figure of Miyoko smiling over him. "Miyoko..." He whispered quietly as he recognized her face. Though it was very unsettling to wake up tied down to an examination table, having her beside him was enough to calm him down. 'She has the spirit of a fellow wanderer, not that of a soldier. And her expression... I don't think she has any hostile intent. But why am I restrained, and in the medical bay?' The last thing he could remember was an exploding console, but he struggled recall the events surrounding it. Something to do with a capacitor? His head seemed to throb painfully as he tried to recall the hazy memory, so he gave up and turned his attention back to Miyoko.

"S-sorry for... trouble. It's just hard to th-th-think straight. My mind... is a bit foggy. Please forgive... m-me." He spoke slowly, occasionally stuttering as he tried to piece together sentences through the pain and confusion. "I'm in your... hands, Miyoko. Just d-don't let... me go." He managed to give Miyoko a weak smile before he closed his eyes and finally relaxed upon the table.

Leutre's renewed lucidity was a welcome reprieve for the science officer; she hadn't particularly looked forward to the thought of trying to physically restrain him if he managed to slip out of the loose straps on the table. She walked around the table and removed the straps one by one, reassuring him as she did so. "You should be fine. You've got a cut, and you might feel like crap for a while, but it otherwise boils down to a crack on the head. I'm going to have to have a chat with you once you're thinking clearly again, and we'll need to keep an eye on you for a bit, but chances are that you'll be good as new by this time tomorrow."

Miyoko walked over to the line of cabinets on the wall, rummaging through them for a minute or two before returning, a small sterile antiseptic pad in hand. "Now hold still. I'm going to need to look for this cut, and it might hurt a bit."

She suddenly realized that she was speaking very casually, but shrugged it off. This room was a battlefield on which life-or-death battles of an entirely different type from the one outside took place; it only made sense for the rules to be different. And after seeing a grown man reduced to a bloodsoaked child, grasping at the air in confusion, she couldn't help but want to make things as comfortable as possible for him in his recovery.

Hundreds of people being vaporized outside and I don't feel a thing, but one person right here gets a boo-boo on his head and I'm practically offering to rock him to sleep. She sighed- The world, as usual, made far less sense than it ought to. Oh well. If I can't help the hundred, I should help the one as well as I can, right?

Freeman tapped his booted foot on the metal floor. He had finished his check and was now waiting for the others to return and give the go-ahead signal.

Finally, one holographic window opened next to Tom, showing Nimura's face. "Starboard CFS unit has been attended to."

Meanwhile, Ichigo had connected two breaker units and had to backtrack to get more from from the Hoshi's cargo storage: the auxiliary ship's engine room did not include convenient damage control chambers close-by.

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The mottled mishhuvurthyar flagship continued its push through the formation of star army ships - if it could even still be called that. Despite their attempt to rear back a bit and concentrate their firepower on larger, more dangerous ships, the defending yamataian forces had been forced into individual battles for survival against a superior number of enemy vessels and mecha.

The YSS Dainslef lasted a bit longer than the YSS Igen: the Igen had been taken down by a massive amount of charged aetheric beams - however, Melisson did not bother to gather power for the large array of weapons her ship had once the battle had started; she prefered a regular, incessant onslaught instead.

Despite the age of the Yuumi-class and the limited weapons they had at their disposal inside the interdiction field, they still proved rather tough to crack considering the Mishhuvurthyar flagship had based its weapons on aether instead of the usual tunneling positron cannons which would have ignored the shields altogether.

Still, the Dainslef proved to be nothing more than a very sturdy coffin. Melisson's ship targeted and destroyed its array of weapon pods instead of the ship itself when it proved to be too much trouble to bother and left it at the tender mercies of the thousands of attack pods and ripper mechas to finish.

The Munin, its attention mostly riveted to a Blrakkrashiverinth battleship, could not intercept the SMX flagship's progress. Most of the Irims and Arashis, clearly pivotal in the continued survival of the defending forces, were still helpless to interfere with its progress as well. Only a single ship managed to intercept the monstrous, spined warship - the only obstacle left before Melisson's ship would reach Akina no Iori.

The Akuro.

Mizuho bit her lip, glancing towards the floor, then drew in a deep breath and entered the bridge simulation, laying a hand to her forehead. Alright, it was time to put on a show pretending to be a captain from an organization that her knowledge of was... limited at best. Pretend, all that, to be someone she neither knew nor understood, from an operation she did not yet understand...

Perfect plan! Not that there was, really, anything better to work with. So, Mizuho would deal. The wholesale massacre of Star Army vessels had proven one thing Mizuho had long contended, at least: one can't rely on pretty toys for everything. If she lived through this, it would go straightaway to Yui with a pretty 'I told you so' letter.

Mizuho steeled herself. "...I'm ready, Miharu. Just need a cue..."

Leutre felt like a burden lift off his heart when he heard Miyoko's diagnosis. "Looks like I still h-have Lady Luck's favor after all. She m-must really adore me if she's this reluctant let me g-go." He stuttered as he smiled to himself. "Now p-patch me up, so I can back... to..." He trailed off as he tried to recall what it was he was doing before this. Something to do with cables on the sub deck. The capacitor! Yes, that was it. He recalled that he was in a rush to fix it because of...

"The battle!" He yelled and sat up, looking at Miyoko in a state of panic. "Why didn't y-you remind me?! We both h-have to get back to our posts! I have to... have to..." He trailed off as his mind drew a blank. The fog passed over his mind for a moment, but it left just as quickly as it arrived and he was soon able to remember once again. "What was I talking abo-- The battle! Quick, we d-don't have t-time to spare. Inject me with some stimulants and p-painkiller." He pulled back the collar of his environmental suit and barred his neck to Miyoko. "I need to g-get back down to... to... what was it? Oh y-yes, the capacitor!"

"No." Miyoko pulled his head back, gently parting the sticky hair around the cut and lightly cleaning it with the antiseptic pad. "Look at yourself. You're soaked in blood, confused, and you can barely say a coherent sentence. It's an emergency, but do you really think you're going to do more harm than good if you go back to work now? I wouldn't even be willing to bet on your ability to walk down there without falling over."

Again, an holowindow opened to Tom's right at eye level, showing the dark-haired sprite Ichigo. "Freeman-Hei, the Hoshi's Combined Field System is now operational."

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Mara huffed in exasperation. "I can barely see a thing with sensors in passive mode. Can't I-"

"No. I want us to stand out as little as possible," Kotori quickly interrupted.

Mara let out a dull "Hai," and went silent.

"Just be patient Mara. This is a delicate situation. We cannot afford any mistakes." Nyton said to the sprite as he crossed his arms. He had quit his in depth scans after they were told to draw go passive but he continued to monitor the situation and gather as much as he could.

Tom nodded happily.

"Great job! Ok, let's get these babies fired up!"

He enthusiastically motioned to Masako.

"Ma'am, begin procedures to restart our systems. Work with one at a time so that we can gently get ourselves back to optimal status."

He crossed his arms, holding his creeping excitement in his gut.

"Ok everyone, let's keep our fingers crossed..."

"Affirmative, Freeman-Heisho," Masako replied as she began to boot up each system one at a time. "Booting Central CFS," Masako said as she brought it up to speed slowly, trying not to damage the already repaired system. Watching the power systems like a hawk, the young neko continued to bring it up slowly. "Central CFS....green," she replied with a nod.

"Booting Portside CFS," Masako again said as her concentration seemed to be totally on her job. It was again a slower process than it normally could have been...but caution was the better part of valor when it came to critical systems. "Port CFS is operational."

"Booting Starboard CFS," Masako continued on her checklist and her methods, not even glancing from her monitor once. "Starboard CFS ready, Booting Hoshi CFS.......Hoshi CFS done." she finally said as she finished the CFS units.

"Booting up Capacitor," she then said as she paid extra close attention to it. "Capacitor is charging well and will be fully charged in....30 minutes." she replied. "I don't want to strain the new cabling just yet," she explained.

"Miharu-san, repairs to the Capacitor and CFS units are complete, capacitor recharging will be complete in a little under thirty minutes." she reported before looking back at Tom and smiling with a slight bow. "Thank you Heisho, your expertise was greatly appreciated," she said with gratitude. Then turning to the sprites, she also slightly bowing. "You two also did well."

Tom blinked incredulously.

"Thirty minutes? That's way too long, ma'am. Our ship needs the capacitor fully charged to handle the shields and weapons. Without it, we have no room for error."

Tom walked up to the console.

"Lemme see that..."

After examining the console for a moment, Tom's helmet bobbed once.

"Here's the problem, ma'am," Tom said, pointing to a blinking square on the console. "You've got the ship set to passive charge mode. That means that we're only using excess bits of energy not being currently used by the ship to power it up. We've got a bit of a vicious cycle right now, because this setup usually drains the excess energy from the weapon or shield systems, which are usually fully charged. It's a pretty efficient system that eliminates waste..."

He started opening menus on the console.

"...but right now the shields and weapons are down. There ISN'T any excess to draw from. The capacitor and these systems are actually pulling at each other for energy when the well's dry."

A slight shudder went through the ship after Tom hit a large flashing red button on the console. A whirring noise echoed through engineering and the lights flickered for a bit before returning to normal.

"We need energy NOW, though, so I've switched to active charge mode. We're drawing energy from ALL systems on the ship, as well as drawing nearly all the energy the Miharu produces to get these capacitors at 100%. Normally, this would be a tremendous risk, but since we don't have shields or weapons now anyway, which would normally be hampered by this procedure, the only risk to the ship is the increased strain placed on the equipment on the subdeck..."

Tom smiled, raising a finger to the air.

"...which is exactly why we did a rolling bootup of our systems in the first place! We should be at full capacity in about a minute!"

Then came the goofy grin with the trademark thumbs up.

"ROCK OUT!"

Masako blinked at Tom in surprise before allowing a giggle to surface, surprising herself again in a way. "You're right Freeman-Heisho...forgive me, I've spent too much time in an armor and not enough time repairing systems during my time in Star Army," she spoke to the much taller Yamataian with a polite, yet friendly tone.

"Correction Miharu-san, capacitor nearly charged," she spoke as she smiled at Tom. "Well then," she spoke calmly. "It would seem the kitchen isn't your only domain," she replied before frowning out of worry. "Hopefully, Saito-Hei is taking very good care of Veressis-Hei." she said. I was useless again, she thought. Not when it came to repairing the Miharu...but this time in protecting a precious friend, she continued to think negatively before sighing quietly. That will be something I'll have to change soon.

"You're so f-frustrating, you know that?" Leutre scowled for a moment, but it quickly turned into a grin. "I want to knock you over the head for your insolence, but kiss you for your c-compassion. I just haven't decided which yet." Knowing how accident prone he was, he imaged this would be the first of many visits to Miyoko before the trip was through. He found himself irritated to be under the care of someone who so easily put crew over the ship, yet at the same time felt deeply relieved. He was always taught that the good of the ship was the good of the whole crew, and therefore was by far the most important. Yet at the same time it was nice to know there would be someone who would care for him when he needed it.

He mentally sighed at the contradiction and pushed it out of his thoughts for now. Such things would only make his headache worse. Instead he began speaking to fill the silence as Miyoko tended to his wound. "Still, I suppose you know best. It's just back home whenever I was wounded, Da would always just inject me with stims and p-painkiller and say, 'Now suck it up and get back into those maintainence shafts!' Of course, it's not as if we had a choice b-being on a ship with only two people during a pirate raid. I guess out here it's d-different with the sprites and extra crew and all."

Like a pointed arrow riveted toward the black-spiked monster heading toward the Iori, the sleek Akuro II, a Chiharu-class flagship which was the proud reborn figurehead of the Fifth Expeditionary Fleet, surged toward the Mishhuvurthyar flagship with deadly intent. Positron railguns flared angrily as they fired, breached through the Black vessel's CFS-based shielding with the same ease as the mishhu tunneling cannons had (their design had been reverse engineered after all) and smashed a few of the deadly spine weapons loose.

That wasn't all. After unleashing a flurry of projected energy beams, the roaring might of its front arc anti-matter cannons to weaken the part of the Mishhuvurthyar dreadnought's shield that faced it, the Akuro continued its course unerringly.

It was intent on spiking it.

Melisson was not just going to sit there and let her ship be run through. Her vessel's power was colossal, but such terrible damage would force it back to spacedock for repairs for a long time. Killing spines riveted themselves toward the 5th XF's flagship and sent forth several thousand gouts of white fire down at Akuro.

The sheer power of the assault blasted through the flagship's powerful shields and made long, deep furrows into the angular hull of the Star Army flagship.

Appertures opened over the ventral side of the Mishhu flagship as the huge vessel moved to dodge the ramming attack and several dozen quintessent torpedoes were launched. The projectiles, bereft of fold capabilities, still could reach light speed, though.

WARMS likely warned the Akuro II's naigator of the impending assault (which would have been enough to wither half the ship away before it could collide with its enemy) and veered away. Several quintessent torpedoes blurred harmlessly by, though a handful did smash and explode brilliantly against the Chiharu-class' shields - two pierced through and exploded against the Akuro II's bridge tower... forcibly shattering the entire structure of the hull and leaving only a wake of debris and a large, ugly rent in the back of the Chiharu flagship as sign that it had been there in the first place.

The hideous damage caused to the flagship and the loss of its main center of operation was the opening Melisson needed to sweep past the Akuro II and toward the Akina no Iori. The mottled black ships kept firing its rear weapons for good measure as it went past. Aetheric beams punched through weakening shields and scythed through the hull in the back, destroying anti-matter turrets. Quintessent torpedoes hammered past the shield and against the hull, causing armor to abundantly flake away and reveal the twisted supports of a large part of the Chiharu flagship's starboard wing-like section.

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"Combined field system functions have been restored!" Mara, whom had been keeping track of the progress in engineering thanks to the power management and system logistic section of her console, whooped before adding: "Capacitors are at 41% and charging too!"

Kotori allowed herself a small sigh in relief. "Good! What about the hyperspace fold drive?"

"Well, it's functional, but it isn't going to work in this anti-FTL field," Mara answered.

Kotori looked over to Yukari. "Yukari, can you quickly run me a simulation based on the data Nyton collected about this anti-FTL field and see if we can use our own to defeat the interdiction effect around the Miharu?"

"Last time there was a conflict between our own gravitic field and theirs. Since our system was active too, it was like the effect on us was double than normal, which made our CFS system - whom normally can function even under those conditions - completely collapse. We should be able to avoid that now."

"Miharu, give me an ETA." Kotori ordered.

"Four minutes and thirty-seven seconds until the shockwave reaches Taiie," the ship's computer replied.

"Well, whatever you do, make sure it works," Kotori told her bridge crew.

"Exactly. And besides- if things were going so badly down there that you hit your head this hard, you definitely shouldn't be there in this condition. Another good blow to your head at this point could be fatal." Miyoko walked over to a waste bin, dropping the now-bloody pad in, and returned to Leutre with a tube of tissue adhesive and a pair of forceps, "I'd have no choice but to get angry if I put all this work into patching your head up and you went and broke it for good. Now hold still- this will just hurt worse if you squirm."

Pulling the hair away from the wound with one hand, she brought the forceps up with the other and gently- at least, as gently as one can move broken flesh with a toothed instrument- pulled the edges of the cut together. A thin line of adhesive was applied to the surface, and she began fanning it, still holding the wound together with the forceps. After a few dozen seconds of fanning, she withdrew the tool and laid it on one of the cabinets. "That takes care of the physical parts, but there's still the matter of that chat.

"You're going to need to avoid anything that might give you another blow to the head for a week or so. You might have a headache for a few days; if that happens, I can give you some painkillers. Since the scans didn't show any damage to your brain, I shouldn't need to keep you under observation, but I would like you to stop by tomorrow so that I can check for any more subtle cognitive problems. Other than that, all you need to do is get some rest. The more relaxation you get, the quicker you'll heal. I'll have a talk with the XO after this all blows over to see if you can at least get the rest of the day off." Remembering his earlier insistence on returning to work, she crossed her arms adamantly, a slight grin crossing her face. "You're going to relax for a while, whether you like it or not."

Mara said:

"Combined field system functions have been restored! Capacitors are at 41% and charging too!"

Click to expand...

Yukari suddenly found herself jarred into reality again. She blinked, her brain having seemingly turned ... off?

Had she ... spaced out?

She shook her head. With the capacitors online, we have little excuse to simply run now.

Kotori said:

"Yukari, can you quickly run me a simulation based on the data Nyton collected about this anti-FTL field and see if we can use our own to defeat the interdiction effect around the Miharu?"

"Last time there was a conflict between our own gravitic field and theirs. Since our system was active too, it was like the effect on us was double than normal, which made our CFS system - whom normally can function even under those conditions - completely collapse. We should be able to avoid that now."

Click to expand...

"Hai," she said, the timer reappearing on her monitors with a new time. 4:35, she thought as the simulation took up her main monitor. Leaving the piloting to the Miharu, her hands began to fly over the called-upon holographic control panel in her lap. Nyton's data was proving invaluable indeed; she shortly had the "type" of interdiction field the Mishhu were using narrowed down to only a few possible variables -- all of which Miharu could theoretically compensate for.

The range. The smaller the Miharu's field was, the less likely it would be detected, and the more concentrated they could make it. It would not matter in terms of speed -- turning the interdiction field on was more like turning on a lamp, with a fixed output -- but the smaller field required less power for the same effect, which the Miharu could benefit from.

4:02. Our speed has put us outside a 0.5 AU range with the 5th. "Taii, it will work. But we are out of range for other ships to benefit. Should I turn back?"

Kotori shook her head. "No, I want it to affect just us anyhow. If the Fifth Expeditionary Fleet wanted to counter them, the Iori would probably have done so by now. While this makes our transposition weaponry nonfunctional and limit their FTL capabilities... they probably don't want the giant misshuvurthyar ship to be able to fire its superheavy weapon again."

The Taii closed her eyes a moment and took a deep breath before ordering: "Once our field counter is properly in place, warm up our hyperspace fold drive and set a course for Tsuyosa. Fold on my mark." Kotori eyed Mara. "You can switch back to active sensors now. I don't mind if they see us anymore."

The sprite nodded and returned sensors to their optimal settings, providing a detailed view of what was going on with the battling ships...

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As soon as the quilled Mishhuvurthyar flagship passed the 5th expeditionary fleet's defensive line of ships, Akina no Iori opened fire. The Iori could not risk firing its quantum detonator with the nearby vessels still fighting and with the rescue ships still swarming about... but that didn't imply a lack of weaponry.

Projected energy beams and weapon pods raked the SMX flagship, the thousand of pods and hundred of projected beams giving such a pounding that a smattering of shots did get through; regularly smashing to pieces some patches of long bladed quill weapons. Hundred of thousands of M1 Lamia mecha also rushed out to pour smaller white fire and positron bolts on the thirty thousand or so attack pods that were escorting the flagship.

At first, it seemed a mismatch - as if the mishhuvurthyar flagship would not be able to stand against the power Akina no Iori arrayed against it. But then, the dark monstrosity's unleashed its array of weapons against the Lamia. Space filled with scalar emissions and aetheric beams which quickly sundered through a whole quarter of the Star Army M1 power armors. More than a dozen torpedoes left their launch apertures and crashed against the Iori, breaching shields and marring even the tough zesuaium armor of the Fortress.

The sensor data came onto Yukari's screen ... but she turned it away from her. She did not want to see it all; knowing what little the passive sensors told her was enough. Kotori, we could assist the others! We could help them escape before they are destroyed just as bloodily as the 5th was ...

Yukari kept her emotions and thoughts in check, for the moment, and nodded. "Hai, Taii-san. Preparing fold system. Interdiction countering field's range reduced to one square kilometer. ... "