Hikomaru was taken aback by his commanding officer's shouting, but he took it in stride as best he could. "LAMIA, Shoi. LAMIA and weapon pods from the Iori ... the fleet looked like it was under attack."
Jatsu stood against the wall watching the conversation, occasionally glancing to see how Meitner's scan was progressing. LAMIA...the Iori...they're right outside. We never moved, he thought. He looked at the injured neko he belittled on the bridge. I'm such an idiot...
Roger grumbled. "If we're getting hammered on the outside, then we should probably focus on staying alive rather than trying to investigate what's going on with the chick, especially if the nurse here says that we're not going to be able to get anything out of here." Though in all honesty, what Jatsu did earlier is what I want to do right about now... "Commander?"
Aoiko flopped back against the wall, staring for a moment into space. "Why is the Iori shooting at us?" she asked, glancing around all assembled. "Is it... Another mutiny?" She shivered suddenly, and peered into the now-empty sake bottle, then let it drop to the floor. "What do you think we should do?" she asked again to nobody in general as she watched it roll.
Hikomaru just looked at his commander and wondered how things had become this bad. Certainly he wasn't about to suggest they do anything.
Jatsu closed his eyes tightly. "We're sitting ducks with our scanners brok..." He opened his eyes. "Wait, why haven't we been attacked yet? Our armors got attacked right when they left the ship, yet nobody shot at the Yukika?" He looked at Hikomaru. "Did you see anything else out there? Any anomalies or anything? Or did you provoke them? There must be some reason..."
Something just struck Hikomaru. "The Mishhu vessels ... we saw them, but they didn't appear on our sensors. At least, they weren't on mine!"
The commander just asked US what to do? Fuuuuuck. Roger smacked a fist into his palm repeatedly, the veins on his forehead noticably beginning to stand out. Oh god, Aoiko... look what you're going to make me do. "Well, there's one thing I know we need." This is going to cost me, big time. He grabbed a nearby bottle of saline, uncapped it, and with a little thought of bye bye pension, dumped it over Aoiko's head in an attempt to sober her up. "We need you, commander. The lives of this ship are counting on you to make a decision; we'll go to our deaths at your word, but YOU've got to give it." Roger grabbed another bottle. "You can court martial me afterwards if it comes down to it, but you can't court martial me if we're all dead." He dumped the second bottle over her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Do you understand, sir?!"
Aoiko yelped as the saline hit her face, the blush in her cheeks fading quite rapidly as she sputtered, looking frantically around the room and bringing her arms up to ward off a little bit of the second splash. With almost exaggerated slowness, she slowly took Roger's wrists and pulled his hands from her shoulder, opening her eyes to look into his. "Thank you, Kard-san," she said rather dryly, "but I am not certain why you felt the need to do that. I am operating on very little information and no experience to guide us through this matter." She flicked Roger's hands to the sides, and paused to squeeze a bit of the solution out of her hair. "One of my crew members has been wounded by an Iori LAMIA," she said irritably, "but they are not shooting at us. There are Mishhuvurthyar vessels nearby, but our armours' sensors cannot detect them. And _we_ cannot detect anything at all." She tossed her hair over her shoulders and scowled. "You will forgive me if I find myself at a loss."
"That's definitely strange," Jatsu noted to Hikamaru, "but it doesn't really-" He looked over at the now wet Aoiko, then to Roger. He started walking toward Roger, as he finished, "It doesn't really explain why they're not aiming at us. Definitely needs to be looked into, though." He put his steel hand on Roger's shoulder and squeezed it firmly, then sternly whispered, "I don't advise you do that again."
Minako stepped between everyone again. Her voice was, as usual, loud. "Everyone! I think the sprite has something to say about all this ..."
Roger sighed, slightly relieved. "Call it a precaution, commander. I know we're working with not a whole lot of detail, but I... nevermind." Then, quietly, to Jatsu he stated, "I won't. I'm concerned, Jatsu, not erratic." He spoke back to the commander. "Commander, Jatsu's right. We need to take a closer look at things; our stealth field should still be up, and the engines are still ready for a boost if we need to get aw-" Minako cut him off mid sentence.
Aoiko nodded to each of them as they spoke, her eyes lifting a little as she watched Jatsu's hand. She motioned to the sprite, and raised a hand for silence.
Minako gestured everyone to come to the sprite. Its mouth barely moved ... Minako bent down a little and pressed her ear to the sprite's lips. She spoke each word as she heard it. "Let ... down ... thy walls ... of protection." The sprite closed its mouth and said nothing again. "Let down thy walls of protection?"
Jatsu let go of Roger and looked to the sprite with anticipation, then quickly narrowed his eyes after she spoke. "So the enemy's telling us to take down our shields. Yeah, that's a great idea. Damnit, Meitner...haven't you extracted anything yet?"
"To me, that sounds like the mother of all traps," Roger stated, crossing his arms once Jatsu had released him. "Even I wouldn't recommend that, and... well you get the idea." He brought a hand up to his scraggly chin. "Unless... unless it's possible she's not talking to us? Jatsu, would it be possible that this girl is just acting as an antennae for some sort of mass-broadcast message?"
Aoiko drew herself up, looking a little less than dignified in her soaking-wet dress whites. "That could certainly be true," she said, gazing down at the sprite. "It did not seem to be communicating to us with its earlier message. Perhaps it could be referring to the Iori?" She paused, idly scratching her cheek. "Or, it could simply be more religious nonsense." She glanced over to the door. "I do sincerely wish we could communicate with the fleet, or even see outside. Perhaps we should move to the bridge."
" ... " Hikomaru looked at the floor for a moment, then looked up. "Shoi ... we were getting fleet chatter when we slipped outside the CFS. The moment we went back in ... it was gone."
Jatsu shrugged. "It's poss-" he started, before Aoiko answered for him. He held back from laughing. She's already starting to speak for me, huh? "Err...yeah, what she said. Anyway, bridge sounds good, doesn't seem like we're going to get anything out of her and we should probably figure out what's screwing with our scanners and comms."
Roger cracked a small grin when no one was looking. That's more like it, commander. Even if you're stuck in a rut without a rope, you at least try clawing your way out. "Sir! It sounds like our stealth field is screwing up the comm systems for some reason. I reaaaaly don't like the sound of it, but maybe we need to pop into view for a few seconds while we sort things out. Maybe if we hide behind something while we do that, we won't be a sitting duck; the Yukika's pretty small in comparison, after all. In the meantime, we can take the stealth field energy and dump it into the engines; it should give us about the same amount of boost as when we had it the other way around, in case we need to burn rubber anyway." Then, he paused, and now it was his turn to blush and look embarassed. "Ah, commander, about your uniform..."
Aoiko quite smartly walked towards the door, pausing as it opened. "Kimura-san, please take the logs from the power armours and see if you are able to project the current location of one of our less mobile battleships. We will move just behind it, and decloak. It is worth a try. Kard-san, Minako-san, go to Engineering and prepare for using the stealth field energy to boost the engines. I will..." She looked down at herself, and closed her eyes. The air flickered around her, and a moment later, every sign of saline was gone. "I will be on the bridge. Please hurry, now."
Jatsu nodded. "Shouldn't take long, I'll be on the bridge in 5," he said as he walked out the door. He quickly arrived in the armor bay and loaded the scanner data from the armors, then compiled them into one window. His jaw dropped slightly as he looked at it. Damnit...what the hell's going on out there? he thought, then shook his head and started looking for suitable cover.
"Aye, sir! Minako!" Roger called, motioning toward the engineering bay. The made due time to the bay, where Stronach and Haruo were rapidly flittering back and forth among all the panels. "Keep doing what you're doing!" Roger stated firmly as the two of them entered the bay. "Minako, go to the power conversion panels and do the same modifications we did back when the commander wanted us slow and quiet, but use the stealth field energy instead of the shield and weapon energy, and shut off the overdamping I jury-rigged; I don't think anyone's going to notice a little extra engine wash in this mess. Stronach, Haruo! Expect some fluctuation as we switch gears; we may go over pressure a few times, but as long we don't redline for too long, I don't care; she's built tough!" Roger himself ran over to the engine and began switching the manual safeties he'd futzed around with earlier to the configuration neccessary to receive the different energy flow.
Aoiko, meanwhile, settled herself on the bridge. "You will be recieving a plotted course soon," she called over to the pilot. "I know it will be difficult, but please try your best to follow it. And be on the alert..." She glanced around the crew. "Everyone, please be on the alert. We will be entering a combat situation very shortly. Hopefully, we will pull through it with no great loss other than Takahashi-san's arm."
"There," Jatsu said as he noticed a large immobile object. "Now...how to get there..." He looked at the beginning of the data. The armors came out around here, so the armor bay is right here...which means the Yukika's facing this way. He smirked as he plotted the course, thinking, Well, I did that even faster than I said I would. He sent the course to Aoiko, then started walking to the bridge.
Roger watched the engine flow diagram change as they made their course adjustments. He grabbed an intercom. "Commander, we're all set down here for boost speed; without the damping, we should get a pretty impressive kick even if we're just using the stealth energy; tell the helm to be careful not to run us into the side of this thing. Regular impulse should be unchanged." To the crew, he nodded. "Keep the flow steady guys."
As the stealth dropped, everything came into play. The 5th's situation became abundantly clear -- four more ships had been abandoned and finished off due to the damage they had sustained. Shuttles, power armors and LAMIAs were buzzing around the wounded Command Group, picking up survivors and retrieving the injured. The Munin had taken an aether bolt straight to its keel edge, leaving the underbelly of the thin ship glowing with still-hot twists of metal. Only the Dainslef was untouched. Several Nozomi scouts had been destroyed as well.
Aoiko's eyes widened as she surveyed the damage across the fleet. "What... Happened here? Get me a broadcast line, and tell me what is still hostile!" She adjusted the recording window before her and opened a communication to the fleet. "This is Shoi Murasaki of the Yukika," she announced. "We had experienced sensor and communication interference and were unable to reach the rest of the fleet. Requesting orders, and a status update."
A scratchy message was abruptly killed, replaced with an even scratchier live feed. The Neko on the other end looked a bit frazzled. "This is Shosa Yomitomo Asuko, executive officer of the Munin ... and your orders were to remain cloaked." She smiled a little. "But we are glad you did not, for now. Our scout pool has been almost entirely disabled; they took the forefront of the damage."
Jatsu quickly walked to the scanner station as he arrived on the bridge. What the...the fighting stopped? He looked up at the live comm feed. Well, at least we're not alone anymore.
Roger had left the handset off the hook deliberately; right now he wanted to be able to get in contact with the bridge as fast as possible if it came down to it. As such, he heard the commotion of Aoiko trying to get status reports of all the ships. Holy hell, it must look pretty bad out there if Aoiko is flustered. He muted the handset and shouted over the engines din. "All right men, we're now in the thick of it, with our pants down and our asses hanging out like never before. The commander's depending on us to keep this ship moving, so I hope you've all got your balls firmly grasped." He paused for a moment. "With obvious exceptions, that is."
"I apologise for disobeying orders," Aoiko said, glaring again at the screen, "but we were under some rather unusual circumstances. Is everything under control now? And what can we be doing?"
Yomitomo-Shosa looked at a screen next to her, or seemed to, before responding. "Check your sensors and see if you read the Akuro trying to escape ... if you do, pursue it! We cannot afford to let it go."
Jatsu's eyes widened. "Woah, what?" Akuro...escape? Pursue? He looked at the sensors. What the hell's going on? The Iori's attacking us, we're ordered to chase after our flagship...
I heard THAT. "Holy hell," Roger muttered. If the enemy's got hold of the Akuro... no wonder why we're in deep shit. He looked back toward the engines. At least we'll be able to catch it if we have to. He half wanted to run up to the bridge to see what exactly was the situation, but he needed to stay here for the moment, especially if they were going to have to have to sprint after the Akuro.
Aoiko nodded, grimly. "I see. We will set forth straight away. If it would be possible to send us any information that is available about the situation, especially regarding the Akuro, we would very much appreciate it. If there is nothing else..." She motioned to Jatsu. "Extend sensors as far as they will reach, please. Kard-san! We will need those fast engines, as soon as you are able."
Yomitomo-Shosa nodded. "There is only one thing I can tell you -- the Kagemusha ran a sensor sweep of the Akuro. Onboard is your former commanding officer, among others. So you know ... "
Jatsu nodded and readjusted the scanners, then sighed. The enemy has the Akuro...one one hand, it means I'll probably be on the Yukika with Aoi longer, but on the other hand...damnit, I hope Freya, the Taisa, and the Taisho are okay...
Roger unmuted the handset. "We're good to go, commander; just tell me when to let 'er rip- Did she just say our former commanding officer?" What in the hell is Admiral Katsuko doing on the Akuro?
Aoiko nodded. "We shall certainly refrain from turning our vast arsenal against it, and make every effort to preserve the lives of those on board. Thank you." She bowed low, and closed the communications. "Jatsu-san," she said, "please find the Akuro as soon as you are able. We will close to it with all possible haste. If we cannot disable the engines there, we will attempt to board it, and failing that, keep a close watch on its movements." She closed her eyes and sank silently back into her chair.
"It just left the Iori," Jatsu said. "Heading toward Nepleslia." I can't believe this is happening...
"WHAT?" Roger screamed into the handset "What the hell does Ichiro want with my homeplanet?!?" Oh that's it, now it's PERSONAL.
