RP: YSS Imperator [YSS Imperator] Mission One: Star by Star

[Sparkee0213]

YSS Imperator
Galley

Senjo Shefu watched as the kitchen assistants carried the meals to the serving tables, where hungry and anxious crew would eat and then report to their stations. There would be food out almost all day now, since Bridge officers, damage control teams, and starfighter pilots had not had time to eat before being deployed. Luckily, Senjo had ordered almost double the supplies needed, allowing them to be generous with portioning. Assuming they didn't get stranded 75 light years away from home by some spacial anomaly.

Senjo began cutting an onion, scraping the julienne-cut pieces onto a waiting plate of rice. He sauteed the remaining pieces with some butter, white wine, and salt. He added finely diced basil leaves to the plate, along with finely chopped carrot pieces. The fish, glazed with a caramel-type sauce was laid around the rice as a sort of faux bowl, encompassing the steaming rice. Once finished, he added the sauteed onions to the dish. It smelled wonderful. This is was the trouble of being a cook on a starship: you can't eat your creations until everyone else has. His stomach growled in protest as he set the warm platter onto a waiting counter, where other dishes such as salad, fruit bowls, and other assorted dishes waited. It was almost time to prepare for dessert. Luckily once people ate, they wouldn't be back until relieved or the battle was over, allowing the kitchen time to clean up after this last meal and prepare for dessert.

"Sous!." Senjo yelled over the noise of the kitchen, getting the attention of his sous chef who wiped a counter with a sanitizing solution. The young Minkan looked up. "I need you to start thawing the dessert in the refrigerator. We don't want to serve blocks of ice for the crew to enjoy after this engagement."
"Yes Chef!" He said, putting the rag back into a bucket with a solution of chemicals that kill any bacteria on a surface. He began to walk to the freezer, and entered with a fine mist billowing out of the freezer through the opening. He came back out with buckets of ice cream, a tray with cake bites, and chocolate squares. He opened the large walk-in refrigerator as the freezer door sealed shut, and exited a moment later as they thawed the dessert for later. He paused to stretch as the other chefs finished their last dishes, the kitchen starting to transfer from cooking to clean-up.

 

[Gunsight1]

Power Armor Bay

"Okay, we're on duty to fend off boarders, if any get on the ship!" Momoya said to her troopers. "Let's get to our assigned defensive points, as per plan three of shipwide intruder defense plans. Everyone break up into your assigned squads and let's go!" she said and everyone went to work.

The plan called for posting of armored soldiers at key stratiegic locations throughout the battleship to protect important places like the bridge, engineering, medical, airlocks and shuttle bay from intruders, but also set up a series of rapid reaction teams, one of which Momoya headed up, who would respond to and reinforce any of the posted guard teams reporting intruders.

 

[HAMnJAM]

Space

The Star Army torpedoes streaked forward in the blackness of space, screaming silently towards their targets. The L'Kor fighters broke off to defend their bombers but were too late to stop electronic triggers and careful planning. Several explosions appeared through the L'Kor bomber formation, the orderly craft soon moving into uncoordinated blobs. The other fighter squadrons began engaging the fighters and bombers with guns and missiles, the entire line of advance of the L'Kor halted.

Anyone looking towards the main hostile fleet soon had a face full of tracking lines, and warning signals flashing bright red. The veterans knew what it was, the newbies knew at the very least that it meant stay away. To the weapons operator aboard the flagship, YSS Ultimatum, it meant target locked.

A bright flash of light emerged from the flagship, a bright beam of light arcing out over the fighter groups and hitting among the L'Kor capital vessels of the extreme top flank. Multiple explosions followed by violent streaks of burning starship flew out of the array's targeting point. This was being used as a show of force, the barrage from the Sharies, Eikans, and four Plumerias showing no sign of slowing down as one carrier near the center of the formation took two entire salvos from Imperator and burst into a ball of fire.

Bridge

Taisa Sutoikku Kaede tapped his fingers against the arm of the chair, "Keep up the fire, they'll falter against our firepower." The captain leaned back as he continued to observe, taking a careful eye full of Avatar Squadron's icons as he judged their performance.

The sensors operator spoke to the Taisa without looking away from her station, "Taisa, YSS Ultimatum has fired her array, target was the dorsal section of the L'Kor formation."

The communications operator spoke up just as she finished, "Orders from the Chujo are as follows, 'once the fighters have cleared the bombers, we are to destroy the fleet with extreme prejudice,' Taisa."

Kaede nodded then looked to his XO, and nodded to her as if asking for an opinion silently.

Power Armor Bay

All of the marines in the room answered in perfect sync, "Hai!"

The armored marines, post checking to make sure that their suits were not going to damage the vessel and making a final weapons check began their slight jog towards their stations. The unarmored marines nearby were also leaving their armories and arriving at their stations.

The rapid reaction teams stood ready to go, the Mindys and the lone Sylph soon being the last team in the room. Hopefully, they wouldn't get boarded and this would become another 'boring' day for them.

 

[Talarn]

YSS Imperator
Bridge
Tactical Station

The Imperator was a magnificent upgrade over the Unicorn II, although it would always have a place in her heart as the first ship she had the privilege of serving in, the amount of weapons she could bring to bear tempted the Neko; though she refrained from doing more then the Captain had ordered and maintained the barrage coming from their weapons array. Ayane re-acquired the stricken L'Kor carrier, manually adjusting to make sure the targeting corridor was tightened, the computers automatically fixing any loss in movement and velocity; projecting the accuracy of their shots as 99.9998%.

At the Weapons Operators beck and call, the Imperator's guns spewed out it's pay-load of aether, bright lances of blue streaking towards the target Ayane had previously laid waste to. This time, they all more or less found their mark, penetrating and shearing through what was left of the enemy carrier's armor; laying waste to the interior decks as a series of mini-explosions pock-marked the areas where the beams had hit. Moments later, it appeared to reach critical, as a particularly spectacular explosion split the carrier into a grotesque twin of it's former self; it's two halves drifting apart as what was left of the surviving crew unfortunate enough to have been on those decks were sucked into the cold exterior of space. Ayane could almost see their bodies twitching and writhing in agony.

This was no cause for celebration though, no, there were still other ships that required her attention; her skills. Her focus was second to none as she once again re-orientated the guns and pointed it towards one of the L'Kor battleships. A barrage was sent their way, unrelenting and merciless as the Neko accompanied the fleet's bombardment of the hapless enemy fleet.

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Space

Ayane's torpedos connected with their designated targets, causing explosions within the formations of the L'Kor bombers. Ayane had the urge to finish off the remaining bombers with another salvo, but orders had come directly from the CAG to engage the fighters. Establishing void superiority was just as, if not more important than interdiction. Upon receiving her orders, Ayane switched her target systems from the bombers to the fighter formation and set the sights of her craft's heavy cannons towards the oncoming enemy fighters while awaiting any orders from Venus-Heisho to break or switch formation...

 

[Ametheliana]

Bridge

"We have our orders," Taiyou Hoshi said telepathically in a curt tone after the comms operator had spoken. She sighed briefly and tilted her head and the white ends of her hair moved against the arm rest of her chair before falling off of it. She swept her hair up in both hands, bringing it behind her back, before pushing it all out in front of her. Then her deep blue eyes settled on Kaede's and she went on.

"But if I may, I recommend we let the Imperator do as much damage as she can as a final blow and let the fleet show us their own maneuvers for a few moments, just to gather intelligence on their tactics and composition. If we don't study our enemy's friends, how will we know what they know?"

 

[HAMnJAM]

Space

The L'Kor, evidently a tad bit upset about having some of ships had been disintegrated, began firing back with their own heavy arms. Their battleships engaged themselves in a battle wedge with the carriers behind. A semi-phalanx formation, though as soon as they were in line the plasma lancers stretched out past the fighters and into the Star Army fleet.

Bright flashes of light erupted from escort cruisers as their shields shrugged off the blunt of the blow. One cruiser, showing up on the IFF as YSS Saigō, took a major hit to her shields. The bright gashes on on the Eikan's hull glowing before beginning to cool, with large hull breaches visible to the naked eye as the vessel began to fall out of line. One bright luminescent green lance of superheated plasma smashed again the bow shield barrier, the inertial dampeners compensating, but the force was still felt across the vessel.

Bridge

With the shudders the Taisa barked out orders almost as soon as the vessel ceased it's vibration, "Damage report!"

Without taking a single breath, Kaede looked over to the communications officer and gave her orders as well, "Tell the fighters to hit those lances! Mark targets that are falling into the cracks in our offense!"

Space

Sure enough, a communications burst came from the Imperator to the fighter wings from the communications operator, "We have launched Delta flight, your primary targets are the plasma arrays on the battleships marked." As soon as she finished, a group of battleships became marked with markers illuminating them as the desired targets.

The closest battleship, damaged somewhat heavily, was firing against one of the closer Super Eikans in the Star Army fleet. The battleship's surrounding the damaged vessel were somewhat less damaged, but would be targets nonetheless.

Streaking from the Imperator's flight deck, the entirely Nodachi Delta flight came to relieve Avatar and support their attack on the battleships. They needed to move now before the L'Kor could launch more fighters.

 

[Talarn]

YSS Imperator
Bridge
Tactical Station

Ayane braced herself as the Imperator took the first hit of the day, her hands gripping the sides of the console as she felt the violent shudder of an L'Kor plasma lance hitting the proud Sharie-class head-on. You're still okay .. good. Let's hit them back. The Neko stared down at the console in front of her, hands and fingers re-adjusting now seconds old targeting data; resetting the parameters as they enemy fleet closed in on their formation.

Resolute and steady, the Imperator's battery was brought to bear upon the previously targeted battleship, the one responsible for scoring a direct hit on the Sharie-class's bow. The super-heavy turrets rotated in their ball sockets, the computer making minor adjustments as per the Weapons Operator's delicate ministrations, the gun barrels elevating and lowering themselves based on new points of contact tasked by Ayane's discerned eye.

She double-checked the trajectory, making a few minute changes before she sent the command off. Volley-fire.

In sync, mere milliseconds after Ayane sent off the confirmation, the Imperator's gun batteries began firing off in volleys; the first four turrets located above and below around the bow of the Sharie firing off first, followed by another four two seconds later. This would continue until all twenty-two guns currently capable of acquiring the target she designated shot their pay-load.

 

[Arbitrated]

YSS Imperator
Main Engineering

Araena was silently brooding over a console overviewing the battleship's overall status. At her own insistence, and a mild comment about the bridge being "way too easy to find", the Shosa was constantly rearranging data coming from... virtually everywhere. The aether-laden heart of the battleship hummed and pulsed as it sent bursts of energy across the mobile city, keeping the weapons on-line and primed as soon as possible. The decolored cardinal thought to herself how far the ship could truly be pushed-safety recommendations are not only a blanket statement, but significantly below what could truly be achieved by those who knew what they were doing. Of course, the whole system would take the strain, and to learn the system, one needs to engage in its operation.

Although it had seemed the chief engineer was busy throwing information across her screens, Serphine was in fact organizing what she needed to know-the hitches were slowly becoming apparent, the kinks and workarounds and extra unneeded stress. She counted herself lucky she wasn't simultaneously managing the damage control at the time-at least until the Sharie rocked around.

"Mostly superficial damage, a few small breaches. Crews have been dispatched already, but our shields are almost nonexistent! We'll need to cover that exposed segment before they hit it again!" As she spoke, the busty tower of an elysian realized they were moving slower than normal-a little side effect of holding a formation. Turning back to her data waterfall, Araena pushed the recordings aside and began to pull the excess reserves into the combined field system, leaving a marginal amount of the excess pool alone should it be needed elsewhere. The bridge was again filled with the elysian's voice, "Aside from the shields being almost gone and the breach we're fine. Weapons and engines are operating nominally. Obviously you have working sensors." The gery birb turned around, shooing an open-mouthed Santo Hei neko who must have never seen an Elysian before somehow, directing them to a rapidly-forming repair squad.

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Space

Ayane turned her head in awe as the plasma lances from the L'Kor battleships stretched out past the fighter groups. It made for a brilliant, if not distracting spectacle. However, within her volumetric display, she saw that one of the cruisers, the YSS Saigō had taken major damage from the deadly display and was falling out of formation. She had the power to stop that.

She had fired multiple bursts of her heavy cannons towards the incoming fighters before seeing the plasma lances. The fighters were distractions from their main targets however: the L'Kor battleships. Ayane and Avatar Squadron pushed through the incoming fighters, firing at incoming fighters as they pursued the L'Kor Battleships.

Upon reaching the end of the gauntlet, once again, Ayane switched to her aether anti-starship torpedoes and fired at the bow of one of the L'Kor battleships, seeking to silence the devastation of the plasma lances...

 

[Ametheliana]

Bridge

After the Elysian's report, Taiyou Hoshi cocked her head and looked to Kaede, reiterating for him the damage and her own opinion on it.

"Forward part of the hull has been struck, sir. We have lost some of our shields, but I do not believe the Shosa's estimate that they're nearly down. This ship is too well shielded to suffer such a loss so soon. For now, though, it is apparent we need to shift some of the CDD propulsion to the CFS shielding and switch over to turbo aether plasma drives for sublight speeds."

 

[HAMnJAM]

Bridge

Kaede weighed his own opinions as he watched the Saigō lean down from the battle line through his SPINE, "Switch to drives, compensate for the loss in CFS propulsion." He looked to the First Officer with a slight air of observance, seeming to look through her before looking to the Ghost Sprite,

"ATIKA, mark the change in the L'Kor fleet's positioning as a tactical change. Please continue on attempting to decipher communications."

Kaede wanted to gain the sudden upper hand, he felt that would inspire the fleet. He may not be the Chujo, and may not have the power of inspiring the entire fleet, but something he did have was enough experience to know that there was one thing that the Star Army had running in their favor: Aether.

"Hei-san, prime our dual array for firing, targets are the L'Kor ships directly in front of us," Kaede looked towards the communications officer, "Heisho-san, send our intentions to the Chujo on the flagship and broadcast for our fighters to stay out of the firing arcs."

Space

The damaged L'Kor vessel had no barrier up to defend it, Ayane's torpedoes connected brutally with the prow of the massive vessel. Almost like a celebration event, the entire bow section lit up with a mix of the torpedoes detonation with the sudden bright and violent explosion of the battleship's plasma array. A weakness appeared to the pilots now, the battleship's arrays, should you hit the respective points while the barriers were down, would detonate conduits and mainstays alike, ending the battleship's fearful arm.

With the detonating battleship listing aftwards, down, and rolling over her port side, it was evident that ship was no more of a threat. A communication to the Imperator's fighters came over the channel and the communications operator's face appeared where the CAG's had earlier, "All fighters, recall back towards Imperator, main aether arrays are coming online." Once the image of the operator disappeared, the lines on their HUDs showed Imperator's aether array arc, just like the one from earlier when the Ultimatum fired their array.

Bridge

The communication officer blinked, cocked her head to the side, the righted it once she turned to the face Kaede, "Taisa, the Chujo just sent something across the channels, the entire fleet is going to open up with their arrays."

Kaede looked to the XO and sent over telepathically, "And we didn't do that to begin with?" He simply grinned before turning his head to the weapon's operator again, "You heard the Chujo, we're ending this fight."

 

[Talarn]

YSS Imperator
Bridge
Tactical Station

Ayane nodded as the orders came through, the tinge of battle casting a shade over her eyes as the distant L'Kor ship flashed in front of those red irises; giving it the look of bloody rubies. Retracting the main super-heavies back into their original positions, the Neko Weapons Operator locked them in place and began preparing the main weapons array for firing.

The bow of the Sharie began glowing a distinct blue as hundreds of panels opened up, Aetheric energy coursing between the conductive plating as the Imperator's Super-Heavy Aether arrays began charging up.

On the bridge, Ayane monitored the energy spikes as their Aether reactor processed her keyed commands into physical action. Any mishap on her part and the ship could suffer a spike and overload in their power systems after, possibly even during, the firing process. Thankfully she had a super-intelligent virtual intelligence assisting her with the calculations and management of energy distribution, so any chances of the previous scenario happening was reduced to .001%.

"Main Weapons Array charging now, Aether reactor feed .. active. Aether-conductive panels active and shunting. Energy levels are within acceptable range. Charge is at twenty-five percent and increasing. One minute until array is ready to fire. Target is the center of enemy fleet composition; adjusting to emit a long-range, focused narrow beam."

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Space

"Yes!", exclaimed Ayane in celebration as she watched the brutal results of her torpedo on the battleship. The dopamine inducing explosions produced many celebratory cheers over comms as the L'Kor battleship listed aftwards.

However, Ayane was confused after receiving the signal to recall back to the Imperator when there were still active enemy fighters. All she had to do to avoid the arc was to fly away from it, but perhaps the captain wanted to minimize the risk of friendly fire as much as possible. The beginnings of an idea came into her head when she saw the large arc and thought of the decoy launcher attached to her Hayabusa's fourth hardpoint. She could launch the decoy towards the arc of the aether array and trick the remaining L'Kor fighters into pursuing it into the arc, thereby catching more enemy fighters in the firing arc of the aether array.

Ayane quickly switched to the bridge channel to relay her intentions to the weapons stations.

"This is Avatar 4. Requesting permission to send a marked decoy into the arc of the aetheric array. Over."

Spoiler: OOC

@Talarn @HAMnJAM

 

[Zekec]

Adelphress was on the bottom bunk in her cabin, curled up in circles, with a few feet of her tail hanging out over the side and onto the floor. She was dressed for work, with her hair done and clothes on, but she was currently unneeded, so she decided she would just stay in her room and try not to see or hear the battle taking place outside(although she could clearly hear the explosions and battle, including the damage to the ship).

After a few minutes, she couldn't take the silence anymore so she decided to grab something quick to eat at the galley. She slithered out of her cabin and went down the hall, seeing the rushing crewmembers. By the time she reached the galley, they were closing up, despite there being somewhat of a line. When she got through the line, she sat down as the first empty seat she saw, curling around it so he tail would not be in the way of anybody. She just quietly ate, trying not to make eye contact with anyone, barely talking to anyone but her senior officers so far on her new assignment.

 

[Ametheliana]

Bridge

Taiyou looked to the weapons operator and the white ends of her hair swung in the air as the blue of it framed her face as she looked, open-mouthed, at Ayane after the weapons operator had said it would be another minute for the aether array to be charged. She turned her head to Kaede, looking to him with concern written all over her face, but she pursed her full lips and used her SPINE interface to speak with the ship and then upon confirmation, righted Ayane's error.

While she did this, she spoke out to the pilot. "There is little to no reason to do so, Yamasaki Ayane-hei. Focus on coming back as quickly as possible!"

"We were at 25% and would have been ready in 45 seconds because rate of fire is one full minute. Now, we will be ready in 30 and are at 50%. Though weapons should have all been online within the time it takes to charge them upon sounding of the red alert."

She looked to Ayane again, her deep blue eyes set in her pink face and her eyebrows pushed together as she felt a bit of remorse for pointing out the mistake. Perhaps the mistake was Taiyou Hoshi's for even shedding light on the minor discrepancy.

She looked to Kaede and continued on, "The Chujo is right, though, it's time to end this battle before it swings out of our favor."

She thought to add, "I hope I was right in my orders to the Santo Hei Yamasaki and my correction of Jôtô Hei Ayane!" But, she didn't. Instead she bit her tongue as she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, thinking on the words she had not said for a moment before looking up to Kaede with curious, sparkling eyes.

 

[Talarn]

YSS Imperator
Bridge
Tactical Station

"We were at 25% and would have been ready in 45 seconds because rate of fire is one full minute. Now, we will be ready in 30 and are at 50%. Though weapons should have all been online within the time it takes to charge them upon sounding of the red alert."

Without looking away from the console, Ayane nodded at the XO's keen observation, but otherwise said nothing; it wasn't her job to correct anyone of the delicacies handling a weapon capable of tearing a rift into space and time. There were procedures she had to follow, and there was also the fact the concentration of Aether particles being condensed and charged would eventually coalesce into one single, long-range, narrow beam. The damage to the surrounding space itself would be lessened but if the calculations she plotted were off by even a .1% margin, the Neko risked creating a new expanse of "null" space. Though in her head she deemed it a noteworthy cause to inform the Executive Officer, the console and her connection through SPINE network informed her that the charge had completed. Her voice was sharp, cutting through the bridge's noise like a hot Aether Saber.

"Firing."

The Imperator, the two prows on it's bow having gradually charged the Aether Shock Array, glowed with the effort it took to hold a full scale blast of concentrated aether. When the fire command came through, the pilot would have hopefully maneuvered and pointed themselves like an armed weapon towards the enemy fleet composition, as the two energies cycled together and formed up into one single beam, it fired. Minute changes to power allocation allowed the Weapons Operator to very vaguely influence how it formed, though it was only noticeable to a trained eye as the lethal ball of dimension breaking energy headed towards a very exposed L'Kor Battleship; and subsequently the L'Kor Carrier behind it should the beam have enough left over to penetrate the hull.

 

[Navian]

Bridge

"Hai," ATIKA answered, off-handedly, setting the computer to analyze the L'Kor fleet's change in tactics. She knew she wasn't about to break through, but all that meant was winning battles wasn't part of her role in this war... yet. She could always study what the L'Kor were trying to do, in the meantime, and keep an eye out for tricks they might have up their sleeps on the infowar front... just in case.

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Space

"Copy. Returning to Imperator. Avatar 4 Out.", Ayane spoke over the comms, as she set the engines to full power and accelerated towards the landing bay of the Imperator. It probably would not have tricked that many fighters to begin with, she thought as she activated her landing gear and slowed down on the approach vector.

 

[HAMnJAM]

Space

With a thunderous bright streak arcing out into the L'Kor fleet, the Imperator drew blood. The exposed battleship simply was hit, and looked to cease to exist. It was already damaged enough from the exchanging of fire, but now it was being torn piece by piece into aetherial energy. The beam did in fact travel to the carrier as well, though only significantly damaged it. There was only a few seconds of silence.

As if the many safeties had just now been turned off, the Star Army fleet unleashed their primary weapons. The L'Kor fleet stood no chance against aetherial shock weapons en masse. The gunships fired off every few seconds, the cruisers about every half minute, and the battleships about every minute.

Simply put, shock and awe.

Hanger

Ayane and Avatar Two touched down at relatively the same time. The ground crews quickly moving the fighter off the landing deck and allowing the pilots to exit their fighters. Almost as soon as they were cleared, the next two would land. This set in motion the recovery of all of Imperator's fighters, and by the CAG's check, not a single friendly lost.

One of the flight officers was generally ushering the pilots back towards the ready room, with another speaking to the CAG and pointing off at one of the vessels visible from the hanger bay's exit. By the way he was pointing, the CAG might not be Imperator's CAG for much longer. If one would squint, the flight officer's uniform patch was labeled 'Ultimatum,' meaning that Venus and the Avatars would still be present in the division, albeit aboard the flagship compared to Imperator. It was only what seemed, never mind what was and what wasn't true.

Bridge

Kaede was observing the landings through his SPINE as he spoke off to the weapons operator, "Keep up the fire at open targets. Don't snatch anyone that is on our side. Once the flagship stops firing, we'll stop firing."

In the rundown of a fleet action, this was always the part that if someone slipped up, someone could easily die. Thankfully, Kaede knew that Soul Transfers were a welcome thing in war, especially for those who found themselves bonded to someone on the crew. The Taisa was more so being careful, he wanted to make sure that everything went smoothly so that when they reached their next hurdle, they would be ready.

Galley

The battle rush was slowing down, the crew eating fast began to eat slightly slower. With the kitchen closing down, it was becoming the last call for main entrees and the dessert call. A few of the crew formed an orderly line to receive dessert while others deposited their trays in the recovery line and walked off either to their quarters or their stations.

Even in battle, food was what kept the gears turning throughout the fight and flight.