<center>The great ring of fire expanded away from what had been Taiie's star, the hypernova-released solar mass devouring in its wake the three planets closest to the sun.
As the shockwave continued racing toward Taiie IV, Akina no Iori continued to struggle against the Mishhuvurthyar's newly created behemoth. Aetheric beams flared out of the Shlarvasseroth's sides to rake a path of destruction through the Star Fortress' heart again and again.
Unlike the Chujo commanding the Iori, Melisson knew her enemy. Black Spiral had given her detailed plans of the Iori-class stations. Unlike the Chujo, Melisson did not have to completely obliterate her opponent to attain victory: all that sufficed was to deprive it of its fold capabilities, of its Temporal-Spatial Distortion System and of its primary power systems. All her opponent could do was spread out damage over her ship's armored hull.
Less than two minutes before the shockwave would reach them, the Shlarvasseroth flagship broke off its attack, disengaged its interdiction system and began distancing itself from the planet. Other mishhuvurthyar vessels also turned tail and folded out of the system. It was then that the Iori's commander played out her desperate gambit.
With power hoarded through the conflict, power that the station had been unable to bring to bear against the twin enmeshed fleets and unable to unleash it early against the shockwave for fear that the mishhuvurthyar flagship would unleash something even worse over the planet Akina no Iori was the guardian of... the Star Fortress disdained escape in favor of using its remaining directed fold cannons.
All quickly firing in succession, the transposition weapons gobbled large parts of the shockwave the twin Sakura gunships had missed, widening the hole which would allow for the survival of Taiie and super-imposed the seized content over the location of Melisson's retreating flagship.
Even when warned by the the Wave-Front Affinity Resonance Monitor of its computer systems, Melisson's vessel still had to wobble crazily as solar matter materialized by it, scrapping against its damaged shields. A glancing hit on its rear quarter ruined a large part of the quill weapons there and ate through a unhealthy amount of armor, exposing molten supports there.
Matokai Rieko had no intention of letting the ugly black ship leave with the carnage it had threatened to do. She had been intent on destroying the eyesore - the Quantum Detonator would have seen to that. There were no friendlies she had to worry about getting in the weapon's path. The black ship would be hers.
She had been about to order it to fire, only to notice the black vessel use its now unimpeded CFS system to move next to Taiie IV. Too close to fire the Quantum Detonator.
Matokai hesitated.
Melisson did not.
In a crackle from the triple-clawed transposition array, Taiie left its slowly decaying orbit around its star turned collapsar to reappear so close to Akina no Iori that they almost touched.
Before the repercussions of the Star Fortress being so close to the planet's gravity well could be felt; before the Quantum Detonator could be aimed to fire at the wall of bright orange solar mass that was still heading towards it... the shockwave overtook them, sweeping over both planet and star fortress while Melisson's vessel sat snuggly through the hole which had been punched through.
The Battle of Taiie was over.
END OF PROLOGUE</center>
