Sean_ODuibher
Inactive Member
Shimatani Takeo was bored. This, he reflected, was a good thing.
To be sure, he had hoped upon taking command of the YSS Relief that there would be little for his ship and his crew to do. After all, the Relief was a Kyaa-class Search and Rescue Vessel and its business was picking up the pieces after a battle, retrieving stranded, injured, and dead crewmen. Frankly, Takeo wasn't a fan of any of those categories. However, the sudden and unwelcome outbreak of the Second Mishhuvurthyar War had rapidly dashed any hopes of a quiet stint as commander of the SAR ship, let alone hopes of completing pre-deployment work-ups before going operational. But when a priority scramble SAR code was passed down from Medical and Rescue Group Command in the KMS, it was only natural to drop everything and get the ship into action. At least, conceded Takeo, they had managed to physically check over the ship before deployment. His main lingering concern was that, aside from a few officers, the only things he knew about the crew were their names and summaries of their service records. He looked up suddenly, distracted from his internal grousing by a flashing status bar on the main view screen.
The Relief had dropped out of hyper hours ago to begin the creeping approach to the wreck. Takeo understood all too well that time could be of the essence in SAR operations, but he had no interest in adding his unescorted Kyaa-class vessel to the slowly expanding debris field detected before them. That the debris was in deep interstellar space, light-years from the closest system made him even more cautious, and suspicious. Only boosting briefly with STL engines after arrival, the Relief continued its run silent and black, the stealth field generated by the Xiulurium-S armor dampening any stray emission that might escape.
Takeo glanced around the Bridge, trying to distract himself from excessive worry. Though fully manned, the compartment was quite conspicuously silent – aside from the occasional clack of input keys or warning tone from the computer; the tension in the air quelled any thought of conversation. A warning beep interrupted the quiet with near simultaneity from both the sensor station and the sensor repeater pulled up in front of Takeo. A trickle of electromagnetic activity had been picked up by the straining passive sensors.
“Just a slagged capacitor among the debris, Taii,” murmured Santo Juni Mifuno Ami from the sensor station. Takeo nodded his silent understanding and returned to contemplating the situation. The tense boredom they all felt was infinitely preferable to finding an NMX cruiser lurking over its kill. Realistically speaking whatever had destroyed the Odori freighter, name and IRN unknown, had done so long before the Relief had arrived. The mayday signal detected fourteen hours before had been abruptly cut short and hideously scrambled, to the point that the ship specific identifying carrier wave couldn't be made out, but the comm techs had managed to work out a location, ship class, and that the freighter was not going to last long. But Takeo hadn't been able to help feeling he was bringing his new command into a trap. At least, he supposed, he got to sit and worry in the comfort of his plush command chair. The wait had to be far more excruciating for the armor team, who had pre-flighted and been sealed up in their PAs on the Launch Deck since the moment they dropped out of hyper.
“We will reach turnover in fifteen minutes, captain,” said Joto Heisho Kauri. Really, Sukui Kauri-Heisho, he thought as he contemplated the calm and collected ex-sprite sitting at the pilot station. Though terribly bad manners in other conditions, Takeo, and the rest of the non-sprite crew, had taken to referring to the “Sukui sisters” by their given names; it would have been entirely too confusing to sort out which of the twenty-two emancipated Neko was being referred to if the adopted given name was used alone.
Shaking his head minutely to clear the cobwebs of idle thought, Takeo straightened up. “Very well. Bring us about, Helm, and standby to thrust. Ex, we will launch Teams One and Two at the designated points as planned.”
Kauri's faint, “Aye, sir,” was drowned out by Chui Misago Aoko's much louder, “Understood, sir.” The first officer set about confirming the launch times with the armor teams as Takeo reconfigured his display to show a volumetric representation of local space, centered on the Relief. The display showed that they were about to pass, as he had arbitrarily defined it, “above” the outer edges of the drifting debris field. These scraps of ablated armor plating were of far less interest to him than the more massive chunks of hull in the middle of the field. So far, there had been no distress transmissions or locater beacons active in the area, but Takeo wasn't going to give up hope until the armor teams checked out every speck of the shattered freighter.
“We've reached Launch Point One.” His focus broken, Takeo looked up at Misago. He hesitated for a second and then nodded at the executive officer.
“Okay then. Launch Team One.”
“Very good, sir.” Misago snatched up her handset as she turned away from the command chair. “Relief-1, you are clear to launch.” A faint clicking echoed through the hull as nine power armors lifted out of the bay and spread out around the Relief. Takeo watched in satisfaction as the light-codes on his display showed the armor team fanning out flawlessly to provide perimeter security. It was ironic, Takeo thought, that his ship was more lightly armed than the freighter now scattered through space “beneath” him; the Mindy armors on station represented far more firepower than what the SAR vessel could project, and they would be counted on to cover the Relief's withdrawal should anything untoward happen.
“With your permission, launching Team Two now,” said Misago quietly. Takeo nodded his approval and watched the light-codes of nine more armors appear on the display. With the same purposeful choreography as the first team, the new armors proceeded directly to the chunks of hull and began checking them one by one for signs of life.
“We are at turnover,” said Kauri.
“Begin thrusting,” replied Takeo, almost dismissively. The brief activation of the STL engines was unnoticeable thanks to the ship's quite capable inertial dampening. The cessation of the maneuver passed equally discreetly as the Relief came to a halt relative to the debris just on the far side from where they had hypered in.
”Relief, this is Relief-2-Actual. Standby for traffic, over.” The transmission played over the intercom in the Bridge was slightly marred by faint static. The voice, though, was obviously identical to Kauri's; the armor teams were entirely composed of and lead by ex-sprites, in this case Houn-Hei, the Team Two leader.
“Relief-2-Actual, Relief Comms. Send traffic, over.” Shoi Kohosei William Tildon's deeply masculine voice at Communications sharply contrasted the Sukui feminine soprano.
“Comms, we have a confirmed survivor. Repeat: a confirmed survivor in an AMES.” Takeo let out a sigh of relief and elation at the news. One crew-member wasn't as good as rescuing the full complement, but it was better than he had expected. But the transmission continued. ”Be advised that the rest of the crew escaped in the freighter's Fox shuttle and Mindy armors. The survivor says the NMX destroyer that shot them down took off after the escapees and has not yet returned.”
Takeo felt the blood drain out of his face. The Fox and Mindys would be hard pressed to outrun the destroyer. That the destroyer hadn't returned to inspect its kill already indicated that the crew had probably made it quite some distance in the past fourteen hours, but personally Takeo didn't hold a shred of hope that they could get away. And when they were caught, the destroyer would inevitably return.
“All right; Sensors, we're going active. If there are any other survivors I want them found five minutes ago. Helm, warm up the hyper units. We may need to withdraw rapidly. Intel, get together everything we have about NMX destroyers and work out how long our armors could hold one off if need be.” Takeo glanced about, meeting the eyes of Mifuno, Kauri, and Nito Juni Kurita Noriko at the Intelligence Station. “Come on, people! We can't take on a destroyer in a stand-up fight. Let's not get caught flat footed on top of that.”
He sat back a moment, basking in the sudden rush of noise and action. Things were certainly not boring now; while silence had reigned a moment ago, now his crew was talking rapidly with the armor teams, with each other, and occasionally to themselves, all in the effort to sort out how exactly they could complete their mission and get out alive. To be fair, it wasn't like the destroyer had returned yet; but that was quite the point. Takeo hadn't built his career on ignoring what hadn't yet happened, and he certainly hadn't gained command of the Relief that way. His time in Logistics, commanding freighters, had endowed him with a hefty, though not debilitating, sense of tactical paranoia, compounding upon his already cautious nature. Those lessons had been learned well, and he had made a point of making his first act of command aboard the SAR vessel the calling of a meeting to stress to his crew just how important preparedness for all eventualities was.
“Sir, Team Two reports that they are ready to bring the survivor aboard now.”
Takeo glanced up at his Communications Officer. “We're ignoring standard procedure on this one, Kohosei. Have Alerce and Nikau bring the survivor aboard; keep the rest of the team on station and get those two back out in space as quick as they can. Also, alert Medical, if you please, that they are receiving a visitor.”
“Aye aye, sir. Relief-2-Actual, Relief Comms; direct 2-4 and 2-5 to...”
Takeo turned away from Communications and toward his XO. “Planning Room,” he said simply and stood, calling out, “Kohosei, you have the Bridge,” as he slipped through the hatch in the aft bulkhead. The Chui followed a moment later and stopped before him at parade rest. “All right, Ex. Thoughts?”
The smaller woman frowned pensively and relaxed her posture slightly. “You're absolutely right, sir. We haven't a chance of going toe-to-toe with any sort of proper warship. And Her Majesty help us if it's a hunter-killer wolf-pack we're facing.” She broke off, hesitating to continue. Takeo refrained from urging her on at the moment – counting on their working relationship becoming more personal with time rather than artifice. “I think,” she began again after a few seconds, “the most prudent course of action would be to hyper out the moment we get this survivor aboard.”
“Ah.” Takeo nodded judiciously. “You are probably right. However, consider that there may be another survivor out there. Abandoning procedure would mean abandoning them.”
“But the survivor said the rest of the crew made it away from the wreck.”
“True, and I pity those who did, trying to escape from a destroyer. But I am not inclined, at the moment, to take the word of an exhausted and likely confused survivor over the possibility to leaving someone behind. No.” He nodded his head with increasing certainty. “We're playing this one by the book. But get with Kurita and work out a new deployment for Team One that will give them good shots on any approaching warship and keep them in position for a rapid recall. I don't want there to be any confused mess with both teams trying to get back aboard at the same time.”
The chime of the intercom interrupted their tête-à-tête. “Captain, Medical reports the survivor is aboard. Relief-2-4 and 2-5 are back on station.”
Takeo snatched up a handset from the side of the planning table. “Very good, Kohosei. Keep Team Two on a search sweep. I'll be back on the Bridge in a minute.” He returned the handset with a weighty clunk to its cradle and looked up at Misago. “Anything else, Ex?”
“Sir, no sir.”
“All right, then. Let's get to it.” Gesturing for Misago to take the lead, Takeo followed her back through the hatch and onto the Bridge.
***************************************
Two hours later, there were still no signs of further survivors and only a fraction of the debris cloud had been checked, even with the Relief's active sensors joining in the search. The two armor teams had switched between the search effort and security picket three times already, more out of concern for the team members' states of mind than anything else. Floating in space, ruminating on the monstrous warship that might hyper in practically on top of you at any moment did not an attentive soldier make.
For his part, Takeo had pitched in to help Mifuno sort through the massive amount of data being returned by the sensors. The Odori had clearly been making the cargo run full to the brim and the wild assortment of debris, each with a different mass and vector, made for a frightful analytic situation – not to mention a stultifyingly tedious one. As such, it was with suppressed hope for a distraction that Takeo met Tildon's eyes as the Comms Officer turned away from his station.
“Sir, Medical reports the survivor has regained consciousness and is in well enough condition to answer any questions at this time.”
“Ah. Good.” The survivor, exhausted but understandably a little hysterical from the ordeal, had been promptly sedated once in the hands of Medical. Takeo had happily deferred his questions at the time, but they still burned in the back of his mind. “Tell them I'll be down presently. Ex, you have the Bridge.”
His strong pace brought him to the survivor's bedside swiftly enough. Shoi Jennifer Michaelson, the Medical Officer, still loitered over the groggy patient, running a diagnostic probe over the nekovalkyrja's medical gown covered form.
“Take things easy please, Captain. She's tracking well at the moment, so I'd appreciate it if you don't push my patient too far,” said Michaelson without looking up from her scan.
Takeo's lips quirked with the beginnings of a grin. He had a sneaking suspicion that even the presence of a Taisho wouldn't shake the doctor's single-minded dedication to her profession. “Quite so, Michaelson-Shoi.” The Medical Officer glanced up at him for a moment and then walked off to her office. Looking back down at the survivor, Takeo smiled. “And how are you feeling?”
“Nishitaka Mizuno, sir. Santo Hei, YSS Pack Horse. I'm well enough at the moment,” replied the Neko, glancing around at the Automated Basic Medical Unit she was situated upon.
“I was curious about the details of the attack, Nishitaka-Hei. For instance, how did the destroyer come to attack you all they way out here? Interstellar space is hardly a typical battleground.”
“Yes, sir. We first ran into the destroyer when we dropped out of hyper at UX-10 with the rest of our convoy, to coordinate our next hyper jump. In addition to the destroyer, there was a squadron of NMX patrol ships. All of the freighters began jumping out on different vectors, while our escort, an Irim Gunship, moved to engage the enemy. It took down a patrol ship, but it was crippled pretty quickly. The NMX ships started fanning out to follow the freighters, and I guess we had the bad luck of the destroyer picking us. We took damage before we could jump, and I guess the hyper fold unit itself got messed up, because we dropped out of hyperspace pretty quickly. The destroyer came in behind us a moment later and... there was nothing we could do, sir.”
“I don't doubt it,” said Takeo, with a reassuring pat on Nishitaka's arm. “But are you certain you were the only crew-member left aboard? For that matter, how did the others get away at all?”
“I was the Starship Operator, sir. I stayed behind to distract the destroyer while the others jumped away, not that it took too long for it to finish the ship off. But I'm certain I'm the only one who stayed.” She looked up warily. “Are you still looking for survivors? Is that why we haven't jumped out yet, sir?”
Takeo, arms folded, made a noncommittal noise. “SAR standard procedure calls for a complete search of all wreckage if at all possible. With the amount of debris your ship generated, we're going to be searching for a while longer, yet. But is there at least a soul savior pod, in case the destroyer catches up with your comrades?”
“Oh,” Nishitaka said, looking a little apprehensive. “No sir. We all agreed to destroy it. We've heard rumors about the Mishhu zombies. We didn't want to get resurrected by the NMX and made into slaves.”
“Huh.” Takeo was taken aback for a moment. “But that's-” He held back his half-bewildered, half-reproving remarks. “I have not heard of anything like that happening before. But I suppose if you have already destroyed it, it doesn't matter anyways. At any rate, is there anything else of importance you can think of at the moment?”
“I'm afraid not, sir. I wish there was more I could do.”
“You've done quite enough, Santo Hei. Staying aboard your ship to give your shipmates time to escape was quite heroic. I intend to mention it quite prominently in my report.”
Nishitaka opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by Michaelson rushing out from her office. “Captain, urgent message for you.” With a reassuring smile, Takeo left the survivor's side and followed the Shoi back to her office and grabbed up the waiting handset.
“Go,” he said gruffly.
”Sir, we have a transmission from the UX-12 Defense Headquarters. They say a lone Mindy just reached the North Gate and is being retrieved now,” came Tildon's voice.
“Damn,” muttered Takeo. “I'll be up in a second.” He practically threw the handset at its cradle and dashed out of the office and back up to deck 2. He ground to a halt beside his command chair and stared at the Communications Officer.
“Sir, UX-12 HQ is confirming that the Mindy operator claims to have abandoned the YSS Pack Horse, an Odori the operator claims was attacked in this general area.”
Takeo nodded. “The survivor just informed me of that, Kohosei. The debris is from the Pack Horse. But what of the rest of the crew?”
“Apparently the Mindy is the sole survivor, aside from ours, sir. The operator is claiming that the other armors and the shuttle were picked off by an NMX destroyer a little over an hour ago.”
“Then the destroyer will be on us any minute now.” Takeo nodded grimly. “Ex, sound General Quarters. Bring us to Battle Stations. Have team – which team is on search right now?”
“Team Two again, sir.”
“Have Team Two expedite their sweep and focus only on the most likely fragments. I want to get as much done as we can, just in case the survivors are wrong and someone else is there.” Takeo kept his voice level and professional, but inside he knew that his dedication to the search was as much out of following the procedure to the letter as it was a rather foolish optimism. He took his turn first in slipping on an AMES stored in lockers against the aft bulkhead of the compartment; the other Bridge crew quickly followed suit. Thus prepared, he settled into his chair for the tense wait.
He didn't have to wait long.
“Sir!” yelled Mifuno from Sensors. “Hyper footprint... Confirmed, an NMX destroyer.”
This deep in interstellar space, there wasn't even close to enough light to illuminate objects for an actual visual. Moreover, the destroyer had jumped in just over 5000 kilometers away – closer than Takeo had hoped, but still too distant to see even with light. But that didn't stop his mind's eye from painting a picture of the lumbering warship, halted, as shown on the sensor plot, for a brief moment of hesitation, the Relief's presence a surprise. And then it ground into action, active sensors lashing out and fire control grabbing for a lock on the SAR vessel.
“Team One is weapons free. Recall Team Two and standby to recall Team One.” Takeo's orders flowed out to Communications clipped, staccato. “Helm, jump the moment they are aboard. Ex, regulate shields and don't waste any power on returning fire.” The first salvo from the destroyer arrived now and the Relief shook as the impact of weapons fire on the shields communicated some kinetic energy. It appeared that the destroyer hadn't quite had all its guns up, as the shield status barely dropped before regenerating. The next salvos were not so light. The lights in the Bridge flickered and then died as the red back-up lighting came on. Each drop in shield strength was calmly marked by reports from Misago, even as her hands flew across her input key panel, fighting to redistribute power.
The destroyer, however, seemed relatively unencumbered as it pushed forward, toward the SAR vessel. At this range, it was nearly impossible for Team One's Aether Beam Saber-Rifles to miss, but sensor data showed hardly any shift in the destroyer's shields, let alone actual damage to the hull. The ineffectiveness of the fire was intentional; Takeo only wanted to distract the destroyer, not draw its attention to the armors, for if the range was close enough for his people to guarantee hits it was more than close enough for the destroyer to swat Team One from space if it focused its fire.
“Team Two aboard. Recalling Team One,” reported Tildon. Takeo sucked in a quiet breath. He hated the feeling of not being in control of the situation, but at this point the contingency orders already in place were doing all of the work. He wished the Relief had a heavier armament, any sort of real armament for that matter, or even for an escort of a Plumeria-gunship or two. But they were alone and out-gunned; much as he loathed it now, in the face of action, he knew he was right before, that fleeing was their only recourse.
“Engineering reports light damage to the docking port,” said Kurita, temporarily running Damage Control from the Intelligence Station. “Tao-Heisho reports Holly-Hei is on her way to patch up a minor atmosphere leak.”
“Team One aboard.” Takeo looked up sharply as Tildon turned away from Communications, his job done for now. The destroyer loomed ever nearer and the Relief's shields were fading fast.
“Ready for hyper fold, sir,” said Kauri, calm as ever at the helm.
“Do it,” said Takeo with a snarl of frustration. A moment's pause later, jostled once more by incoming fire, the Relief winked out of existence.
To be sure, he had hoped upon taking command of the YSS Relief that there would be little for his ship and his crew to do. After all, the Relief was a Kyaa-class Search and Rescue Vessel and its business was picking up the pieces after a battle, retrieving stranded, injured, and dead crewmen. Frankly, Takeo wasn't a fan of any of those categories. However, the sudden and unwelcome outbreak of the Second Mishhuvurthyar War had rapidly dashed any hopes of a quiet stint as commander of the SAR ship, let alone hopes of completing pre-deployment work-ups before going operational. But when a priority scramble SAR code was passed down from Medical and Rescue Group Command in the KMS, it was only natural to drop everything and get the ship into action. At least, conceded Takeo, they had managed to physically check over the ship before deployment. His main lingering concern was that, aside from a few officers, the only things he knew about the crew were their names and summaries of their service records. He looked up suddenly, distracted from his internal grousing by a flashing status bar on the main view screen.
The Relief had dropped out of hyper hours ago to begin the creeping approach to the wreck. Takeo understood all too well that time could be of the essence in SAR operations, but he had no interest in adding his unescorted Kyaa-class vessel to the slowly expanding debris field detected before them. That the debris was in deep interstellar space, light-years from the closest system made him even more cautious, and suspicious. Only boosting briefly with STL engines after arrival, the Relief continued its run silent and black, the stealth field generated by the Xiulurium-S armor dampening any stray emission that might escape.
Takeo glanced around the Bridge, trying to distract himself from excessive worry. Though fully manned, the compartment was quite conspicuously silent – aside from the occasional clack of input keys or warning tone from the computer; the tension in the air quelled any thought of conversation. A warning beep interrupted the quiet with near simultaneity from both the sensor station and the sensor repeater pulled up in front of Takeo. A trickle of electromagnetic activity had been picked up by the straining passive sensors.
“Just a slagged capacitor among the debris, Taii,” murmured Santo Juni Mifuno Ami from the sensor station. Takeo nodded his silent understanding and returned to contemplating the situation. The tense boredom they all felt was infinitely preferable to finding an NMX cruiser lurking over its kill. Realistically speaking whatever had destroyed the Odori freighter, name and IRN unknown, had done so long before the Relief had arrived. The mayday signal detected fourteen hours before had been abruptly cut short and hideously scrambled, to the point that the ship specific identifying carrier wave couldn't be made out, but the comm techs had managed to work out a location, ship class, and that the freighter was not going to last long. But Takeo hadn't been able to help feeling he was bringing his new command into a trap. At least, he supposed, he got to sit and worry in the comfort of his plush command chair. The wait had to be far more excruciating for the armor team, who had pre-flighted and been sealed up in their PAs on the Launch Deck since the moment they dropped out of hyper.
“We will reach turnover in fifteen minutes, captain,” said Joto Heisho Kauri. Really, Sukui Kauri-Heisho, he thought as he contemplated the calm and collected ex-sprite sitting at the pilot station. Though terribly bad manners in other conditions, Takeo, and the rest of the non-sprite crew, had taken to referring to the “Sukui sisters” by their given names; it would have been entirely too confusing to sort out which of the twenty-two emancipated Neko was being referred to if the adopted given name was used alone.
Shaking his head minutely to clear the cobwebs of idle thought, Takeo straightened up. “Very well. Bring us about, Helm, and standby to thrust. Ex, we will launch Teams One and Two at the designated points as planned.”
Kauri's faint, “Aye, sir,” was drowned out by Chui Misago Aoko's much louder, “Understood, sir.” The first officer set about confirming the launch times with the armor teams as Takeo reconfigured his display to show a volumetric representation of local space, centered on the Relief. The display showed that they were about to pass, as he had arbitrarily defined it, “above” the outer edges of the drifting debris field. These scraps of ablated armor plating were of far less interest to him than the more massive chunks of hull in the middle of the field. So far, there had been no distress transmissions or locater beacons active in the area, but Takeo wasn't going to give up hope until the armor teams checked out every speck of the shattered freighter.
“We've reached Launch Point One.” His focus broken, Takeo looked up at Misago. He hesitated for a second and then nodded at the executive officer.
“Okay then. Launch Team One.”
“Very good, sir.” Misago snatched up her handset as she turned away from the command chair. “Relief-1, you are clear to launch.” A faint clicking echoed through the hull as nine power armors lifted out of the bay and spread out around the Relief. Takeo watched in satisfaction as the light-codes on his display showed the armor team fanning out flawlessly to provide perimeter security. It was ironic, Takeo thought, that his ship was more lightly armed than the freighter now scattered through space “beneath” him; the Mindy armors on station represented far more firepower than what the SAR vessel could project, and they would be counted on to cover the Relief's withdrawal should anything untoward happen.
“With your permission, launching Team Two now,” said Misago quietly. Takeo nodded his approval and watched the light-codes of nine more armors appear on the display. With the same purposeful choreography as the first team, the new armors proceeded directly to the chunks of hull and began checking them one by one for signs of life.
“We are at turnover,” said Kauri.
“Begin thrusting,” replied Takeo, almost dismissively. The brief activation of the STL engines was unnoticeable thanks to the ship's quite capable inertial dampening. The cessation of the maneuver passed equally discreetly as the Relief came to a halt relative to the debris just on the far side from where they had hypered in.
”Relief, this is Relief-2-Actual. Standby for traffic, over.” The transmission played over the intercom in the Bridge was slightly marred by faint static. The voice, though, was obviously identical to Kauri's; the armor teams were entirely composed of and lead by ex-sprites, in this case Houn-Hei, the Team Two leader.
“Relief-2-Actual, Relief Comms. Send traffic, over.” Shoi Kohosei William Tildon's deeply masculine voice at Communications sharply contrasted the Sukui feminine soprano.
“Comms, we have a confirmed survivor. Repeat: a confirmed survivor in an AMES.” Takeo let out a sigh of relief and elation at the news. One crew-member wasn't as good as rescuing the full complement, but it was better than he had expected. But the transmission continued. ”Be advised that the rest of the crew escaped in the freighter's Fox shuttle and Mindy armors. The survivor says the NMX destroyer that shot them down took off after the escapees and has not yet returned.”
Takeo felt the blood drain out of his face. The Fox and Mindys would be hard pressed to outrun the destroyer. That the destroyer hadn't returned to inspect its kill already indicated that the crew had probably made it quite some distance in the past fourteen hours, but personally Takeo didn't hold a shred of hope that they could get away. And when they were caught, the destroyer would inevitably return.
“All right; Sensors, we're going active. If there are any other survivors I want them found five minutes ago. Helm, warm up the hyper units. We may need to withdraw rapidly. Intel, get together everything we have about NMX destroyers and work out how long our armors could hold one off if need be.” Takeo glanced about, meeting the eyes of Mifuno, Kauri, and Nito Juni Kurita Noriko at the Intelligence Station. “Come on, people! We can't take on a destroyer in a stand-up fight. Let's not get caught flat footed on top of that.”
He sat back a moment, basking in the sudden rush of noise and action. Things were certainly not boring now; while silence had reigned a moment ago, now his crew was talking rapidly with the armor teams, with each other, and occasionally to themselves, all in the effort to sort out how exactly they could complete their mission and get out alive. To be fair, it wasn't like the destroyer had returned yet; but that was quite the point. Takeo hadn't built his career on ignoring what hadn't yet happened, and he certainly hadn't gained command of the Relief that way. His time in Logistics, commanding freighters, had endowed him with a hefty, though not debilitating, sense of tactical paranoia, compounding upon his already cautious nature. Those lessons had been learned well, and he had made a point of making his first act of command aboard the SAR vessel the calling of a meeting to stress to his crew just how important preparedness for all eventualities was.
“Sir, Team Two reports that they are ready to bring the survivor aboard now.”
Takeo glanced up at his Communications Officer. “We're ignoring standard procedure on this one, Kohosei. Have Alerce and Nikau bring the survivor aboard; keep the rest of the team on station and get those two back out in space as quick as they can. Also, alert Medical, if you please, that they are receiving a visitor.”
“Aye aye, sir. Relief-2-Actual, Relief Comms; direct 2-4 and 2-5 to...”
Takeo turned away from Communications and toward his XO. “Planning Room,” he said simply and stood, calling out, “Kohosei, you have the Bridge,” as he slipped through the hatch in the aft bulkhead. The Chui followed a moment later and stopped before him at parade rest. “All right, Ex. Thoughts?”
The smaller woman frowned pensively and relaxed her posture slightly. “You're absolutely right, sir. We haven't a chance of going toe-to-toe with any sort of proper warship. And Her Majesty help us if it's a hunter-killer wolf-pack we're facing.” She broke off, hesitating to continue. Takeo refrained from urging her on at the moment – counting on their working relationship becoming more personal with time rather than artifice. “I think,” she began again after a few seconds, “the most prudent course of action would be to hyper out the moment we get this survivor aboard.”
“Ah.” Takeo nodded judiciously. “You are probably right. However, consider that there may be another survivor out there. Abandoning procedure would mean abandoning them.”
“But the survivor said the rest of the crew made it away from the wreck.”
“True, and I pity those who did, trying to escape from a destroyer. But I am not inclined, at the moment, to take the word of an exhausted and likely confused survivor over the possibility to leaving someone behind. No.” He nodded his head with increasing certainty. “We're playing this one by the book. But get with Kurita and work out a new deployment for Team One that will give them good shots on any approaching warship and keep them in position for a rapid recall. I don't want there to be any confused mess with both teams trying to get back aboard at the same time.”
The chime of the intercom interrupted their tête-à-tête. “Captain, Medical reports the survivor is aboard. Relief-2-4 and 2-5 are back on station.”
Takeo snatched up a handset from the side of the planning table. “Very good, Kohosei. Keep Team Two on a search sweep. I'll be back on the Bridge in a minute.” He returned the handset with a weighty clunk to its cradle and looked up at Misago. “Anything else, Ex?”
“Sir, no sir.”
“All right, then. Let's get to it.” Gesturing for Misago to take the lead, Takeo followed her back through the hatch and onto the Bridge.
***************************************
Two hours later, there were still no signs of further survivors and only a fraction of the debris cloud had been checked, even with the Relief's active sensors joining in the search. The two armor teams had switched between the search effort and security picket three times already, more out of concern for the team members' states of mind than anything else. Floating in space, ruminating on the monstrous warship that might hyper in practically on top of you at any moment did not an attentive soldier make.
For his part, Takeo had pitched in to help Mifuno sort through the massive amount of data being returned by the sensors. The Odori had clearly been making the cargo run full to the brim and the wild assortment of debris, each with a different mass and vector, made for a frightful analytic situation – not to mention a stultifyingly tedious one. As such, it was with suppressed hope for a distraction that Takeo met Tildon's eyes as the Comms Officer turned away from his station.
“Sir, Medical reports the survivor has regained consciousness and is in well enough condition to answer any questions at this time.”
“Ah. Good.” The survivor, exhausted but understandably a little hysterical from the ordeal, had been promptly sedated once in the hands of Medical. Takeo had happily deferred his questions at the time, but they still burned in the back of his mind. “Tell them I'll be down presently. Ex, you have the Bridge.”
His strong pace brought him to the survivor's bedside swiftly enough. Shoi Jennifer Michaelson, the Medical Officer, still loitered over the groggy patient, running a diagnostic probe over the nekovalkyrja's medical gown covered form.
“Take things easy please, Captain. She's tracking well at the moment, so I'd appreciate it if you don't push my patient too far,” said Michaelson without looking up from her scan.
Takeo's lips quirked with the beginnings of a grin. He had a sneaking suspicion that even the presence of a Taisho wouldn't shake the doctor's single-minded dedication to her profession. “Quite so, Michaelson-Shoi.” The Medical Officer glanced up at him for a moment and then walked off to her office. Looking back down at the survivor, Takeo smiled. “And how are you feeling?”
“Nishitaka Mizuno, sir. Santo Hei, YSS Pack Horse. I'm well enough at the moment,” replied the Neko, glancing around at the Automated Basic Medical Unit she was situated upon.
“I was curious about the details of the attack, Nishitaka-Hei. For instance, how did the destroyer come to attack you all they way out here? Interstellar space is hardly a typical battleground.”
“Yes, sir. We first ran into the destroyer when we dropped out of hyper at UX-10 with the rest of our convoy, to coordinate our next hyper jump. In addition to the destroyer, there was a squadron of NMX patrol ships. All of the freighters began jumping out on different vectors, while our escort, an Irim Gunship, moved to engage the enemy. It took down a patrol ship, but it was crippled pretty quickly. The NMX ships started fanning out to follow the freighters, and I guess we had the bad luck of the destroyer picking us. We took damage before we could jump, and I guess the hyper fold unit itself got messed up, because we dropped out of hyperspace pretty quickly. The destroyer came in behind us a moment later and... there was nothing we could do, sir.”
“I don't doubt it,” said Takeo, with a reassuring pat on Nishitaka's arm. “But are you certain you were the only crew-member left aboard? For that matter, how did the others get away at all?”
“I was the Starship Operator, sir. I stayed behind to distract the destroyer while the others jumped away, not that it took too long for it to finish the ship off. But I'm certain I'm the only one who stayed.” She looked up warily. “Are you still looking for survivors? Is that why we haven't jumped out yet, sir?”
Takeo, arms folded, made a noncommittal noise. “SAR standard procedure calls for a complete search of all wreckage if at all possible. With the amount of debris your ship generated, we're going to be searching for a while longer, yet. But is there at least a soul savior pod, in case the destroyer catches up with your comrades?”
“Oh,” Nishitaka said, looking a little apprehensive. “No sir. We all agreed to destroy it. We've heard rumors about the Mishhu zombies. We didn't want to get resurrected by the NMX and made into slaves.”
“Huh.” Takeo was taken aback for a moment. “But that's-” He held back his half-bewildered, half-reproving remarks. “I have not heard of anything like that happening before. But I suppose if you have already destroyed it, it doesn't matter anyways. At any rate, is there anything else of importance you can think of at the moment?”
“I'm afraid not, sir. I wish there was more I could do.”
“You've done quite enough, Santo Hei. Staying aboard your ship to give your shipmates time to escape was quite heroic. I intend to mention it quite prominently in my report.”
Nishitaka opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by Michaelson rushing out from her office. “Captain, urgent message for you.” With a reassuring smile, Takeo left the survivor's side and followed the Shoi back to her office and grabbed up the waiting handset.
“Go,” he said gruffly.
”Sir, we have a transmission from the UX-12 Defense Headquarters. They say a lone Mindy just reached the North Gate and is being retrieved now,” came Tildon's voice.
“Damn,” muttered Takeo. “I'll be up in a second.” He practically threw the handset at its cradle and dashed out of the office and back up to deck 2. He ground to a halt beside his command chair and stared at the Communications Officer.
“Sir, UX-12 HQ is confirming that the Mindy operator claims to have abandoned the YSS Pack Horse, an Odori the operator claims was attacked in this general area.”
Takeo nodded. “The survivor just informed me of that, Kohosei. The debris is from the Pack Horse. But what of the rest of the crew?”
“Apparently the Mindy is the sole survivor, aside from ours, sir. The operator is claiming that the other armors and the shuttle were picked off by an NMX destroyer a little over an hour ago.”
“Then the destroyer will be on us any minute now.” Takeo nodded grimly. “Ex, sound General Quarters. Bring us to Battle Stations. Have team – which team is on search right now?”
“Team Two again, sir.”
“Have Team Two expedite their sweep and focus only on the most likely fragments. I want to get as much done as we can, just in case the survivors are wrong and someone else is there.” Takeo kept his voice level and professional, but inside he knew that his dedication to the search was as much out of following the procedure to the letter as it was a rather foolish optimism. He took his turn first in slipping on an AMES stored in lockers against the aft bulkhead of the compartment; the other Bridge crew quickly followed suit. Thus prepared, he settled into his chair for the tense wait.
He didn't have to wait long.
“Sir!” yelled Mifuno from Sensors. “Hyper footprint... Confirmed, an NMX destroyer.”
This deep in interstellar space, there wasn't even close to enough light to illuminate objects for an actual visual. Moreover, the destroyer had jumped in just over 5000 kilometers away – closer than Takeo had hoped, but still too distant to see even with light. But that didn't stop his mind's eye from painting a picture of the lumbering warship, halted, as shown on the sensor plot, for a brief moment of hesitation, the Relief's presence a surprise. And then it ground into action, active sensors lashing out and fire control grabbing for a lock on the SAR vessel.
“Team One is weapons free. Recall Team Two and standby to recall Team One.” Takeo's orders flowed out to Communications clipped, staccato. “Helm, jump the moment they are aboard. Ex, regulate shields and don't waste any power on returning fire.” The first salvo from the destroyer arrived now and the Relief shook as the impact of weapons fire on the shields communicated some kinetic energy. It appeared that the destroyer hadn't quite had all its guns up, as the shield status barely dropped before regenerating. The next salvos were not so light. The lights in the Bridge flickered and then died as the red back-up lighting came on. Each drop in shield strength was calmly marked by reports from Misago, even as her hands flew across her input key panel, fighting to redistribute power.
The destroyer, however, seemed relatively unencumbered as it pushed forward, toward the SAR vessel. At this range, it was nearly impossible for Team One's Aether Beam Saber-Rifles to miss, but sensor data showed hardly any shift in the destroyer's shields, let alone actual damage to the hull. The ineffectiveness of the fire was intentional; Takeo only wanted to distract the destroyer, not draw its attention to the armors, for if the range was close enough for his people to guarantee hits it was more than close enough for the destroyer to swat Team One from space if it focused its fire.
“Team Two aboard. Recalling Team One,” reported Tildon. Takeo sucked in a quiet breath. He hated the feeling of not being in control of the situation, but at this point the contingency orders already in place were doing all of the work. He wished the Relief had a heavier armament, any sort of real armament for that matter, or even for an escort of a Plumeria-gunship or two. But they were alone and out-gunned; much as he loathed it now, in the face of action, he knew he was right before, that fleeing was their only recourse.
“Engineering reports light damage to the docking port,” said Kurita, temporarily running Damage Control from the Intelligence Station. “Tao-Heisho reports Holly-Hei is on her way to patch up a minor atmosphere leak.”
“Team One aboard.” Takeo looked up sharply as Tildon turned away from Communications, his job done for now. The destroyer loomed ever nearer and the Relief's shields were fading fast.
“Ready for hyper fold, sir,” said Kauri, calm as ever at the helm.
“Do it,” said Takeo with a snarl of frustration. A moment's pause later, jostled once more by incoming fire, the Relief winked out of existence.
