RP: YSS Miharu Prologue, Day 4

Melisson was about to make another scathing rejoinder, but her ship shuddered another time, enough so that the interpreter - whom had been standing - had to break off and concentrate on keeping her balance.

When the mishhu woman straightened up, she spitted a glared at one of her underlings with something that was obviously a silent, but furious, telepathic message before she looked back to Mizuho. "You're useless, so scurry off! Go make yourself useful by helping to find Amaya's gate or something - I don't care!" The interpreter made an impatient dismissive wave and the communication came to a close.

Yukari blinked. "The Mishhu flagship has ended the transmission," she said, already searching for any reference to Amaya's Gate and coming up with nothing conclusive. A gate ... what kind of gate?

The Mishhuvurthyar flagship had been exchanging back and forth deadly curtains of white fires with Akina no Iori, finishing off the Lamia power armors flying about as well as destroying the majority of the star fortress' weapon pods. While the Akina no Iori had given a significant pounding on the SMX flagship's shields, breaching through here and there to slice through the forest of sharp quill-like weapons... Melisson seemed to have the upper hand.

The communication with Mizuho over, the black flagship began rolling over itself, cycling through its full weapon arcs as it used its massive array of weapons to surgically fire at specific spots on the Iori, digging much deeper to strike at specific systems through the station's failing shields. The Iori in turn tried to turn to expose less vulnerable parts of its armor as well as fire other weapons at Melisson's ship... but the smaller SMX flagship kept doggedly orbiting the less agile Star Fortress, limiting the amount of fire Akina no Iori could muster while pouring all its firepower into the tender spots of the fortress.

<center>* * *</center>

"This is Chujo Matokai Rieko, commanding the Akina no Iori. All Star Army ships in Taiie are instructed to break off combat and leave the system. I repeat, break off combat and leave the system. Prioritize the safety of those rescue ships and regroup further back in our holdings!"

The message came to Yukari's ear, courtesy of being sent over a priority Star Army communication channel. Almost immediately, most of the remaining 5th XF warships went into full reverse, not disengaging but starting to pull away as the ships the other fleets had sent stopped evacuating and made a break for it.

Two Sakura gunships from the 1st XF went out to meet the incoming shockwave and tried to pulverize a hole through it to save Taiie, but while the first gunship made a sufficiently large hole through the roiling shockwave, the second fired too early, not managing to strike at the aftershock before it had to disengage and pull away to grab the first gunship - which was experiencing engine trouble - with a graviton beam and escape.

And thank you for that wonderful bit of insight Melisson. Nyton thought to himself. A slight grin had crossed his lips at their successful deception. Looks like they aren't expecting anything like possible infiltration to their ranks otherwise she would've been a lot more suspicious.

"That was excellent work there. While I'm not sure whether Amaya's Gate holds any significance or not, there was still much that could be learned from what was said and not said. Plus if animosity such as this is commonplace among their ranks it could be used in our favor to sew discord and mistrust." Nyton said with confidence.

The Nepleslian then turned to face Kotori. "I suggest we do as we said we were going to do and leave the system. Perhaps find a place to finish repairing and allow our crew to recuperate."

Kotori nodded in agreement. Mizuho had performed splendidly and they obtained knowledge they wouldn't have known previously. The nekovalkyrja commander looked at her displays which showed the mishhuvurthyar flagship picking at pieces of the Iori.

Nothing that can be done there. Kotori sighed. She hoped the Chujo in charge of Akina no Iori had a plan when she had requested for all forces in-system to retreat while it was being pummeled to pieces by the giant mishhu warship.

"Suzuka-Chui, execute the fold to Tsuyosa."

"Hai, Taii-san." She didn't look at the timer, her sensors, anything -- she could do nothing to save the people behind her; she could only hope to achieve some sort of balance with their deaths by ending those of the Mishhu.

The fold was engaged, and the Miharu was gone from the Taiie system.

<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>