Post by ingen on Nov 5, 2021 19:42:56 GMT
Luasu system
A burning hulk was floating in space above the planet, deep inside the planetary ring. It was only one of many, making further proof why hastily organised retreats can be incredibly dangerous. Thirty Dominion hulks of all shapes and sizes floated above the planet, with a charred outside and a destroyed inside. A gloomy sight for anyone in general. Even though it had only been a day, even less, after the battle had been won for the defenders, small ships launched from the Furrelian carrier Posineta were already dissecting the wrecks for anything of value, or any survivors. On the surface, any debris small enough to be brought to the surface in one piece was melted and turned into hunks of alloys and usable materials on the spaceport of Luasu. The spaceport of Luasu prime, recently renamed to the “Katharian Regional Spaceport of Luasu” had been expanded since the beginning of the occupation, now being able to host multiple medium-to-large ships, including a small flotilla of Furrelian cargo hauliers, and finally proper anti-orbital emplacements. It also acted as a forward supply base for Furrelian ships on patrol. Among those parked on the tarmac of the port, was the Furrelian frigate Dilinam Orezant, a ship of the frightener class, just short of 600 meters. It was not the only ship parked there, but besides the destroyer, it was the largest. Its captain, a young Furrelian officer by the name of Kolmandit Omedema, had returned to the Luasu system for a quick re-supply but had to stick for longer after the Dominion attack caught the colony by surprise. Omedema had just come out of the city, the twin suns of Luasu greeting him, warming him on his red face. Luasu had a reputation among Furrelian captains as a barren planet, but the reality was more calming. Yes, the steppes were there, but not of the barrenness, the captains claimed. Some, like Omedema even liked the planet for its terrain, just not for its people.
“Sir, orders from Luasu local command. Should I re-direct them to the bridge?” An ensign reported to Omedema, as he walked over the tarmac to the frigate.
“Patch it in, I want to get off this rock as fast as possible.”
“Copy that, sir.” the ensign said, before returning to his original post. New orders, at least for the frigate and its crew, were in most cases just patrols, exercises with other members of its squadron, or rarely participation in combat. This order, however, was different. During the second battle of Luasu, a few Furrelian ships fell attack by an armed civilian ship, even though it was ordered out of the battle multiple times. The order from Local command was simple. Go to the last-known location of the ship, which was open space, and try to capture, and if needed, kill, the crew of the ship.
“Well, get us off then. Begin preparations for take-off.” Omedema said, and instantly the bridge devolved into a flurry of sounds. A notification including the order was spread across the ship, the exit hatches were sealed and the engines were pre-warmed.
“Luasu control, this is the FDS Dilinam Orezant. Requesting take-off using exit vector 532-V-4. Thank you for giving the ship a place to supply.”
”FDS Dilinam Orezant, Luasu control here. Permission for take-off using vector 532-V-4 through 532-V-6 granted. Good luck.”
And with that, the engines were used properly. Manoeuvring trusters lifted the craft into the sky, and the main engine ignited. Before long, the ship had exited Luasu prime’s sphere of influence, and shortly afterwards it jumped towards open space, in the hope to find the criminals.
SPACE, SOMEWHERE ALONG THE GAUSS-JADE TRADE CORRIDOR
The mood aboard the IJN Volley Of Arrows was jubilant. The first on-scene to the site of the distress call, the Katsumoto-class frigate had discovered a battered and beaten corvette that carried no other than the Jade Princess Mitsuyoshi, missing for over a year. Captain Kuyoki Karo was already in the process of ordering the ship to move closer and take the corvette into its port side hangar when sensors reported an incoming FTL signature.
This was not a usual waypoint for the trade corridor and Karo's hackles were immediately up. When the ship reverted to realspace and revealed itself to be a Furrelian frigate, she knew without a doubt that this was no coincidence. "Launch fighters immediately." she barked, quickly mastering her emotions and preventing the excitement of moments previous from influencing her actions now.
"Unidentified Furrelian vessel this is the IJN Volley Of Arrows, stand off immediately." she announced in Common over an open hail, before bending to her console. There was the shudder of launching vessels as the ship's fighter complement began to pour out of either flank, the entire ship itself drifting portwards and down somewhat, keeping its prow firmly towards the Furrelian ship.
Karo was already assessing the enemy vessel. Slightly longer than the Volley, it appeared to have a similar armament - one spinal gun, a few turrets and some missile emplacements. Close enough in firepower, at least...
“What the fuck? Move her starboard, avoid a collision!” Omedema shouted over the bridge, as the frigate rushed towards its Ingenious counterpart. The sudden order caught the bridge of guard, as it was expected that nobody would be there, hence security measures were relaxed. The navigation officer quickly worked to alter the course, emergency thrusters deploying to push the ship upwards, while the weapons officer activated the ships point-defence guns in response to the launching of fighters. The ship barely missed the other one, as it hurled past it at immense speeds, point-defence turrets turning to keep a direct line on the ship. Only after the ship had passed, the message arrived. Standing down, for trying to capture criminals. That was something that wouldn’t happen. As the ship passed the Ingenious frigate, sensors were able to get efficient readings on it; Smaller, but had similar weaponry.
“Open a communications channel, now!” Omedema barked as the ship turned around to line up from behind and below, a standard Furrelian combat manoeuvre.
“Ingenious vessel, this is the FDS Dilinam Orezant in service with the Furrelian security force for the Gauss Dominion. We’ve been ordered to persecute a corvette under the command of raiders, see the attached file for more information. In accordance with the Tychana agreement of 2233, the Jade Empire of Ingen is not to stand in the way of the persecution of these dangerous criminals and is not allowed to harbour them either. Stand down with your fighters at once and keep a distance of 10 clicks of the Dilinam Orezant, or we will be forced to take defensive actions.” Omedema communicated to the Jade ship, as his own prepared to take the defensive actions he had spoken about. With the message, combat footage and sensor cutouts, together with the order for the arrest, were transmitted towards the other frigate.
As the Dilinam Orezant hurtled past, Karo was already snapping orders to her bridge crew. The ship began to come around, auxiliary thrusters sending it's prow starboard, rolling slightly in that direction to as it turned after the Furrelian frigate. She watched as it passed overhead, the glow of its rear thrusters bright against the darkness, her attention drawn by the reply as the ship regained control of itself and began to turn.
The message was simple. The Furrelians had no intention of standing off, and even worse were actively seeking to capture the Jade Princess. Karo did not waste time or breath with a reply, but instead began assigning fire missions on her console.
Almost immediately, the two ventral and one starboard 912-LB railguns opened fire, all three targeting the engines at the rear of the enemy ship before the attack window closed. The turrets hammered, their reports shuddering the ship faintly as the 50mm slugs roared into the void, deforming into a dense cloud of particulate that raked at the rear of the enemy ship.
The Volley continued its turn, trying to bring its spinal gun to bear as the Furrelian frigate moved away and downwards, but couldn't quite get a shot lined up....
In the airspace around the Volley, its twelve fightercraft were forming into their three squads of four. Chief Turoc Heard, callsign "Tankard", glanced over at his wingmate, Lieutenant Sogo Tsunetoki, callsign 'Dagger'. He did not much care for his CO, but the man was at least a responsible fighter pilot. Dagger's dispassionate voice came over the comms.
"They're not scrambling fighters. Either they're waiting for us or they don't have 'em. Red squad, you're on CAP. Gold, follow me. Bronze, cover our six."
With that the eight fighters of gold and bronze squad manuevered to the prow of the Volley and then accelerated towards the stern of the Dilinam, wary of incoming fire.
“Incoming fire! Initiate syphoning, move her around, and return fire! Point defence to full readiness, launch the drones!” Omedema shouted over the bridge, taping on orders as he went. This was, to say the least, uncalled for. But, the Ingenious had opened fire first, and the proof was there. The Furrelian Frigate was now able to simply return the favour, and finish it there. The bridge turned into a forest of sounds, as each officer did his tasks. Within a dozen or so seconds, the disruptors were armed and ready to fire. The Dilinam Orezant turned around to face the Ingenious frigate, but halfway in the turn, it sustained its first damage. The slugs did not hit the engines, as that window had been closed during the turn. Instead, it had hit the starboard rear of the Furrelian frigate, igniting the cloud, and charring a few sections of the hull, and the electronics associated with it. The blackened section of the hull continued operating for a few more seconds, but after that, fell silent. The backup power had not been activated yet, so a part of the hull laid defenceless. However, even though it came close, no weapons had been disabled, nor had the engines. The ship simply continued its turn, now determined to defend itself. The point defence guns ignited to action as the fighters closed in, bulbs of white plasma being shot repeatedly at incredibly short intervals, being tracked as precisely as possible.
Omedema looked through the viewscreen of the bridge. The ship had turned around into a preferrable position, and was now ready to return fire. Within a few seconds, the disruptor guns went from seemingly inactive, to blasting with green plasma, as the first salvo was launched, trying to damage the Ingenious’ frigate’s engines, and anything else they could target from below. A second followed shortly afterwards, before a third smaller one tried to go straight for the hull. The spinal disruptor had not been used yet, as Omedema tried to keep that one for if the situation became very dire, but for now everything seemed good. However, something felt off. The Ingenious ship had no right to attack, but that would’ve been overlooked. Instead, this battle could spark a spark in the gasoline pool of the Ingen-Furrelian relations, and ignite it whole. One war would’ve been just won, and another would start.
Karo watched as the shots impacted the Furrelian hull, causing minor damage but nothing significant. The Furrelians replied, their own plasma turrets barking, blobs of green plasma barreling towards the Jade ship. The automated Tezcatlipoca RCPS elements inside the Silverbrig Countermeasures Systems burst with their quiet snapping noises, sending clouds of reflective glass microbeads towards the plasma blasts, shredding their containment field and detonating them in blooms of green flame. A few shots slipped through here and there, crashing into the lamellar vitredur panelling and shattering several of them along the lower starboard flank of the ship.
The Volley continued its roll, as did the Dilinam, bringing them face-to-face after their first pass. They were at practically knife-fight range, but they were now lined up perfectly. She flicked a finger across her console and immediately her chief of gunnery bellowed out a warning. The ship shook as its spinal gun, a Type 85 Barrage Gun, began to churn out rounds, booming a dozen times a minute as it sent its vast reinforced quartz shells to burst against the Dilinam's prow, aiming at its spinal weaponry.
Karo held her silence as the flare of gunfire flickered in the gloom. The Furrelians were overweaning, it seemed, in light of their successes against the Gauss Dominion. The IJN had been taken aback by the victory, and had studied every scrap of data it could get its hands on. The Dominion had been overconfident too, assured of their technological advantage, and it had cost them. Now the Furrelians were assured of their own prowess, daring to attempt the kidnap of a Jade princess in full view of the IJN. For that insult alone she would have opened fire, and with the Jade princess' freedom and perhaps even life on the line, she had no choice but to roll the dice and commit her crew to battle. She muttered a quick devotion to her family kami as she felt the ship move beneath her..
Gold squad, much faster than the hulking frigates, roared into position behind the Dilinam as it began launching drones. Dagger crackled a warning over the comms and, almost immediately, atlatl smart interceptor missiles began pouring from the flanks of the Volley, hissing towards the drone swarm as they began to launch from the Furrelian frigate. Some were almost immediately shut down by the white blobs of defensive plasma, but yet more screamed in attack vectors at the drones.
As Gold squad lined up for their attack run, one of these plasma bolts caught Dagger unexpectedly. He had let his gaze linger too long to confirm the Volley had launched torpedoes, and had only just turned back in time to avoid one stream of plasma, rolling away and into another. The wing of his long senjin* fightercraft blew apart, sending the craft into a crazy spin that broke it into pieces.
"Dagger do you read?" called Heard, knowing already that Dagger's vitals were reading as red. "Gold squad, let them have it. Bronze, follow up."
The three remaining fighters loosed their own atlatl missiles, two apiece to start, which screamed towards the engine assemblies at the rear of the enemy ship. Peeling off, they switched roles with Bronze squad, who followed up with eight missiles of their own, coming from a different trajectory with the goal of overwhelming the enemy point-defenses.
For a moment, silence, then, chaos. It was not expected that the Jade ship would use its spinal weapon that fast, but apparently, the Furrelians had underestimated their capabilities, and were now suffering the consequences. The first few shots were intercepted, but the fourth slipped through. After that, it was basically a free turkey shoot. The shot which passed through had exploded in front of the port point-defence turret, disabling its ability to counter the incoming shots. The rest of the shots, almost all, landed. The silence was deafening. Within seconds, the pressure to the front sections were ripped out of the ship, as were the people unfortunate enough to be in there. A few Furrelians were thrown out with the debris, as the hull plating got ripped off, and tires spread across the front decks. Doors were instantly closed to the spaces under most threat, but it was too late to delay the inevitable. The spinal gun had been disabled, permanently too. The disruptors continued firing though. If they stopped, they would’ve shown that the Furrelians were inferior to the Ingenious, which they were not, at least according to Furrelian propaganda. The point defence continued ripping, firing at whatever munition or fighter came close, lightening certain areas up with its white glow.
“Report!” Omedema shouted over the bridge. “I want updates, we need to change our strategy!”
“Decks 12, 13 and 15 are reporting casualties, all in the front section! 6 Killed, 18 Injured!” one of the general officers answered, shortly followed up by the operations officer.
“Spinal gun disabled, continuing with drone launch, but casualties there too are rising! Fighters on our si-!” He suddenly fell quiet as the energy to the bridge fell out for a few seconds, leaving them in the dark before it returned. The operations officer, Tisineda, immediately re-ran analyses.
“Engine blocks Two and Five have been disabled! Fighter-launched missiles. Returning fire!”
The majority of the drones had not survived the missile attack, the ship carried thirty-six total, of which twelve were sent out. Of those, eight were picked apart by the incoming missile swarm. The fighters that did survive though instantly returned fire. Slightly larger than an average Furrelian fighter, and armed with a series of weapons, the drones persecuted the fighters on the ship’s rear, launching Gamma radiation missiles in an attempt to disable the fighters by the squadron, before firing disruptors upon any caught in the radius of the missile. Not being held back by an organic pilot, all of its space was used for either weapon, defence, or mobility, the last being proven by its manoeuvrability, being roughly equivalent to the Ingenious fighters themselves.
As the fighters were being persecuted by the drones, the point-defence turrets ripped onto the fighters, working together with the drones to disable them. Further to the front, the disruptor turrets halfway of the ship fired in salvos at the spinal weapon of the Jade ship, shortly afterwards being joined by four of the turrets on the front. It was not all it fired, though. One of the many other surprises the small frigate had were missiles, a whole five-hundred of them. The frigate, with its remaining engines, surged forward, racing underneath the Jade ship, before moving to gain distance. Underneath the ship, it happened. Missiles were activated, launched from their tubes, adjusted for coordinates, and fired to their final destination at terminal speeds, the Jade ship was its target, specifically its “Underbelly”. The missiles, Sievert class anti-ship missiles, were launched in a swarm of around thirty, each targeting a different section of the underbelly. When the Dilinam had finished speeding underneath the Jade one, it turned around, stopping once its front had once again been exposed to the Voley, this time firing disruptors as it went.
Disruptor fire thumped into the Volley's hull, buckling plating and starting fires mostly along the starboard prow. The starboard capacitor for the KanshoCorp Tractor Beam blew out, shuddering the flank of the ship.
"We lost contact with Bosun Sujio," reported Lieutenant Hogan, "Sending SAR now."
Karo said nothing, her stomach tight. Sujio was a good mariner and, whilst there was a chance the drones and the four-man SAR team would be able to find him and his work crew, she held little hope. The forces at play in space combat were so colossal the crew may as well have been particles of dust, tossed in the breeze.
"They're heading underneath us." came the warning call from Lieutenant Temjin, the sailing master of the ship in charge of the helm and navigation.
"Split-S," replied Karo immediately. Temjin, anticipating the order, was already operating his console, barking a warning across the ship's PA. The Volley revolved 180° along it's x-axis, so that its underbelly was now facing up and away from the enemy, its upper deck and bridge facing down. The enemy frigate now appeared to be 'above' them from the point of view of Karo and her crew. As they rotated, the railguns continued firing, hammering at close-range into the Dilinam.
As the Dilinam blew past, the ventral thrusters at the prow and dorsal thrusters at the stern fired, the bathymetric drive straining as the ship span through a half-loop. "Fire as you bear!" she called to Bosun Hanzu, the ship's gunner, and again he had been anticipating the order. He bellowed the affirmative in his eager voice even as the spinal gun lined up with the rear of the slowed enemy ship, which was limping past in an attempt to broadside them. Again the huge quartz shells, in their glinting nickel frames, hurtled down the ship's length to thump at the enemy, this time raking them from the stern, crashing into the already-damaged engines.
Bronze squad ran right into the enemy point defenses and surviving drones. Even as they tried to disentangle, a gamma missile detonated between one wing pair, disabling both. One pilot was quick enough to eject, but even as he floated into the void, his emergency beacon activated, he watched as point-defense lasers blasted Arai, his wingmate, to dust. He grappled for his pistol for a moment, then realised the futility and struggled instead with himself, trying to find self-mastery that could quell the despair and anger boiling inside him.
The survivors of Gold and Bronze squad bore away, dropping back towards the protection of the Volley and its point-defense systems as the frigate came up behind them now, firing another volley of missiles at the surviving drones and flying defensively, taking over patrol duties from the as-yet unengaged Red squadron.
Red squadron, given the go-ahead by the XO, moved to engage. Striking from above, they launched their own missiles in a furious volley at the Furrelian torpedo tubes as they launched their Sievert missiles, hoping to trigger premature detonation and blunt the enemy volley and even perhaps ignite their ready racks.
Karo bit back a triumphant yell as she watched fire blossom at the rear of the Dilinam, even as a kaleidoscopic display of explosions also marked the strike by Red Squadron as they raked the spine of the Furrelian ship, scotching the missile launch and leaving its launch bays twisted and wrecked.
The enemy frigate was trying to come around, but the Volley drifted to starboard, trying to keep its own position towards the aft of the enemy ship. Disruptor fire came sporadically from the battered Furrelians, one round ploughing into the forward hangar and detonating a Sverkhu shuttle that was parked inside, shattering the frame and leaving a guttering fire boiling from the wreck of twisted metal. Alerts blared as monitor droids moved to respond, but with the engineering team hit hard already and SAR tied up there Lieutenant Hogan made the decision to seal off the hangar and ordered the spinal gun just below it to cease firing. Karo glanced over at him and nodded - she understood his reasoning, and risking the entire ship just as they had gained the upper hand was not Karo's idea of sound seamanship.
The spinal gun fell silent, the four 912-LB railguns continuing their fire as the Dilinam's prow came around, hammering its flank and aiming to pick off the remaining disruptors, the Volley using its undamaged engines to maintain superior position to the aft of the enemy vessel.
"FDS Dilinam Orezant, strike your colours immediately and prepare for a prize party or I will continue to fire into you. If you refuse I cannot grant you further quarter." came Karo's voice over the open comms channel, the steadiness of her inflection hiding the adrenaline rushing through her system. She had never personally taken an enemy ship before, not even a pirate vessel, and this single action almost guaranteed her promotion.
Outside, the remnants of the fighter wing formed up, ready to launch fresh strikes on the damaged enemy warship...
“Damnit…. DAMNIT!” Omedema shouted over the bridge. He had been to slow to react, and now he would suffer the consequences. He looked at the other people on the bridge, the morale had been crushed, and there was only one way for them to survive; surrendering to the smaller ship of the IJN, a crushing defeat. The Furrelian Union at home would, of course, blame it on Omedema himself, being a coward and an incompetent commander, undeserving of the title of captain, but he understood why he lost himself. The Dilinam Orezant was anything but a modern ship, having been constructed prior to the D’Karian war, and having been mothballed after it. The transfer to Ancerious just resulted in its placement in a reserve fleet, and when the war broke out, it was sent with an inexperienced crew to the frontlines. This was the first actual time Omedema and his crew had faced combat, and most likely the last time too.
“Gentlemen, it has been an honour serving with you all, but now it becomes time the Dilinam suffers what it has to, due to my incompetence. I apologise to you all, but I have a final series of orders, after that we can hand her over.” The rest of the crew listened as he gave his speech. “We need to prevent any secrets from leaking out, and we need to inform headquarters on this. All of you must delete any documents which might be important to them in your respective sectors, keep crew rosters and the likes, but remove blueprints, or classified messages from HQ. Konedema, you still have the comms, you must transmit the details of the combat back to headquarters, we must learn from it. Throw whatever encryption you seem fit onto it, then send it. I will signal to the Ingenious ship that we will surrender.” His speech was followed by silence before a few confirming nods took over, and the bridge filled with the beeps of the touchscreens.
A bit later, a transmission would be sent to the Jade ship, with Omedema at the word. It was an audio-only transmission, with only some basic information.
“IJN Volley Of Arrows, this is Captain Omedema of the FDS Dilinam Orezant, we are standing down. Use entry point 294-D-4 to enter the hangar, I shall be waiting there to negotiate the terms of surrender.”
Omedema was indeed in the hangar, but not alone. A detachment of ship security, fifty men, had lined up in a cohort, trying to give a final show of power to the Jade Empire.
There was a tense moment of silence before the surrender came through. Even before Omedema had finished his transmission, the crew were cheering with calls of banzai, exulting in their victory.
The battered warship drifted closer to the Dilinam, the fighter escort shaking itself into a fresh formation, their guns still trained on the Furrelian ship in case of any duplicity.
Karo's voice came back over the comms channel. "Understood. Be so good as to deactivate your remaining combat systems and prepare for a prize party."
A few minutes later, the frigate's other Sverkhu dropship, an Imaginariumese import, slipped into the Furrelian hangar. Lowering to the deck, its prow-mounted chainguns quietly menaced the large Furrelian reception party. The rear ramp of the 20m long shuttle hissed down as the pneumatic landing gears settled into position, and clanking footsteps announced the arrival of a platoon of Jade marines. Soldiers of the 711th, their armour was pristine white over chestnut brown fatigues, with glinting brassy antlers on their helmets. They carried AA-42 gunspears and formed up opposite the Furrelians. Once they had taken position, Captain Karo followed along with a younger lieutenant, both in the red uniforms and black hats of IJN officers.
Karo had a gentle face with a slightly oversized nose, high elegant cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes. She was perhaps in her mid-30s, and had a quiet voice in person.
"Captain Omedema, I congratulate you on a hard-fought action. I must ask for your sword. Yourself, your officers and your vessel will be taken into Jade custody and transported back to Jade territory. Your enlisted crew will be permitted to return to Furrelian Union territory aboard any shuttles or tenders you have aboard."
She set her jaw, hands behind her back, waiting for the Furrelian's response
Karo was awaited in the Hangar by five officers, including Omedema. The dropship filled up half of the hangar’s space, with the other half being used to park the Furrelian ship’s own shuttles, six in total. Omedema watched as the two smaller officers of the Jade empire walked towards him and his officers. Each of the Furrelians wore the same uniform; A simple green-greyish colour with silver demarkations. Omedema, being the captain, had three pins as his rank demarkation, instead of one, and had his collar outlined with a dark red colour, showing that he was from the command division. He looked at his first officer, who wore a similar uniform but with only one pin on his uniform. Omedema sighed, before saying something to the first officer.
“Let’s get this over with, it has been an honour serving with you all.”
“Likewise, sir.”
As Karo gave her terms, Omedema listened carefully. This was the first time someone had congratulated a Furrelian crew on their actions, which was even weirder coming from the person who they tried to kill. As Karo finished up her sentence, Omedema remained silent, thinking about the terms, before finally responding. He put on a more kind voice, while still trying to sound serious.
“Captain Karo. I must likewise congratulate you, you made a valiant, and successful, defence. It is a shame that our nations do not work closer together but I assume this is a good lesson for both.” He cleared his throat. “I agree to the terms given, me, my officers and my ship will be yours. However, I am not sure how my enlisted crewmembers will be able to depart and return to the Union though. We’re with 200-ish, but only have five shuttles, each without FTL drive, but enough space to host my crew. I assume that an SOS will be sent to the local HQ, but before that, you must depart, or this battle will continue as the rescue ship will see you as aggressors. But, my sword is yours.” He responded, with a serious look on his face, and his hands behind his back.
Karo glanced at the shuttles. "Leaving your men stranded without FTL drives would be a contradiction of our General Sailing Instructions. We will bring your enlisted men and arrange for their safe transport from Jade territory upon arrival there. Yourself and your officers will be repatriated following the conclusion of hostilities"
Some time later
It had taken a little time to sort out the logistics. Karo had stayed to oversee the disarmament of the Furrelian marines and waited for them to be confined to quarters, the RAI Frame body of Volley partitioning itself into a discrete entity from the mothership and heading to the Furrelian bridge to assume command of all security and internal functions. Once that was done, she took Omedema, his officers, and half her marines back to the Volley.
Control of the Dilinam would be sloppy, but it would suffice to bring it back to the Sanrin System. By the time Karo and her guests were back aboard the Volley more IJN warships had arrived and had taken the Princess and her companions aboard, but Karo had not been concerned. The prestige from this victory was all the boost her career needed, and no doubt she would have time to meet the Princess later.
As it was, she was sat in her quarters. Across the desk from her was Captain Omedema, who like his officers had given his parole and so was allowed to leave the brig if escorted. Between them sat a tray with cups, a pot of steaming tea, a carafe of water and a couple of bottles of Leninade, the popular soda drink licensed from Imaginarium.
She weighed up the Furrelian carefully. She had not had much experience with the species, though they reminded her faintly of canidaens, one of the constituent races of the Katasian Ryk, wherever that nomadic people now were. She was studiously avoiding the topic of their battle, considering it poor form to mention.
"I understand your navy found some success against the Gauss GDAN. That must have been some hot work?" she asked
“I believe we did indeed.” Omedema took a breath, he wouldn’t have guessed he would be talking face-to-face with the Ingenious captain he tried to kill only a few hours ago.
“I wouldn’t deny it, but morale was low at the beginning of the war. It was expected, in the months leading up to the war, that we would keep a defensive stance, and conquer a few outer and a single-core system. The turning point, of course, was Luasu. Especially the destruction of the Paragon worked in favour of the Furrelian morale. The establishment of the Katharian protectorate helped too in morale, showing that we were not the only ones fighting against the Dogs. Could I have some of the Jisedane?” Omedema said. He was, outside of his duties, a rather open man, who liked having conversations. While Omedema was waiting for his drink, he continued to talk. Jisedane was a Furrelian drink, not too dissimilar from Ingenious tea.
“Another change in favour of the morale actually happened recently; Pobbma. I can not share too many details about it, considering it happened less than a week ago, but it was not expected we would suffer this little damage. The morale of my crew rose after the second battle of Luasu. The GDAN has changed since the beginning of the war, and not in a good way. The Furrelian force around Luasu consists of less than 50 ships, the Dominion attacked with 100. And still, we have beaten of their attack. I’m not sure what is happening within the Dominion right now, but the most recent report I have heard is that a coup happened, but I am not sure about the authenticity.” Omedema coughed.
“I am curious though, the IJN is a bystander of this conflict, but what is its opinion on it, and specifically the GDAN?”
Karo kept her reserve, allowing Omedema to talk as she poured him some tea. Listening intently, she shrugged when he had finished, offering a noncommittal response.
"We have not seen enough to make a true assessment. It was a little surprising to us that the GDAN seems to have performed so poorly, but I am sure the full data would shed light on how and why they failed."
"True true." Omedema took a sip of his hot tea. "I am in no way a representative of the Furrelian Union or its government, but I do feel that our two nations, while not being allies, could at least solve the current problems. The Tychana agreement was badly negotiated, just done quickly to resolve a disaster. It failed at that, this engagement was proof of that. I'm sure that you will have to write a report about this, so maybe include a request to re-open diplomatic ties to your High Command? I'm sure the opinions between our two nations could be better, so maybe that could be the first step?" He took another sip. "Please take it into consideration."
A burning hulk was floating in space above the planet, deep inside the planetary ring. It was only one of many, making further proof why hastily organised retreats can be incredibly dangerous. Thirty Dominion hulks of all shapes and sizes floated above the planet, with a charred outside and a destroyed inside. A gloomy sight for anyone in general. Even though it had only been a day, even less, after the battle had been won for the defenders, small ships launched from the Furrelian carrier Posineta were already dissecting the wrecks for anything of value, or any survivors. On the surface, any debris small enough to be brought to the surface in one piece was melted and turned into hunks of alloys and usable materials on the spaceport of Luasu. The spaceport of Luasu prime, recently renamed to the “Katharian Regional Spaceport of Luasu” had been expanded since the beginning of the occupation, now being able to host multiple medium-to-large ships, including a small flotilla of Furrelian cargo hauliers, and finally proper anti-orbital emplacements. It also acted as a forward supply base for Furrelian ships on patrol. Among those parked on the tarmac of the port, was the Furrelian frigate Dilinam Orezant, a ship of the frightener class, just short of 600 meters. It was not the only ship parked there, but besides the destroyer, it was the largest. Its captain, a young Furrelian officer by the name of Kolmandit Omedema, had returned to the Luasu system for a quick re-supply but had to stick for longer after the Dominion attack caught the colony by surprise. Omedema had just come out of the city, the twin suns of Luasu greeting him, warming him on his red face. Luasu had a reputation among Furrelian captains as a barren planet, but the reality was more calming. Yes, the steppes were there, but not of the barrenness, the captains claimed. Some, like Omedema even liked the planet for its terrain, just not for its people.
“Sir, orders from Luasu local command. Should I re-direct them to the bridge?” An ensign reported to Omedema, as he walked over the tarmac to the frigate.
“Patch it in, I want to get off this rock as fast as possible.”
“Copy that, sir.” the ensign said, before returning to his original post. New orders, at least for the frigate and its crew, were in most cases just patrols, exercises with other members of its squadron, or rarely participation in combat. This order, however, was different. During the second battle of Luasu, a few Furrelian ships fell attack by an armed civilian ship, even though it was ordered out of the battle multiple times. The order from Local command was simple. Go to the last-known location of the ship, which was open space, and try to capture, and if needed, kill, the crew of the ship.
“Well, get us off then. Begin preparations for take-off.” Omedema said, and instantly the bridge devolved into a flurry of sounds. A notification including the order was spread across the ship, the exit hatches were sealed and the engines were pre-warmed.
“Luasu control, this is the FDS Dilinam Orezant. Requesting take-off using exit vector 532-V-4. Thank you for giving the ship a place to supply.”
”FDS Dilinam Orezant, Luasu control here. Permission for take-off using vector 532-V-4 through 532-V-6 granted. Good luck.”
And with that, the engines were used properly. Manoeuvring trusters lifted the craft into the sky, and the main engine ignited. Before long, the ship had exited Luasu prime’s sphere of influence, and shortly afterwards it jumped towards open space, in the hope to find the criminals.
SPACE, SOMEWHERE ALONG THE GAUSS-JADE TRADE CORRIDOR
The mood aboard the IJN Volley Of Arrows was jubilant. The first on-scene to the site of the distress call, the Katsumoto-class frigate had discovered a battered and beaten corvette that carried no other than the Jade Princess Mitsuyoshi, missing for over a year. Captain Kuyoki Karo was already in the process of ordering the ship to move closer and take the corvette into its port side hangar when sensors reported an incoming FTL signature.
This was not a usual waypoint for the trade corridor and Karo's hackles were immediately up. When the ship reverted to realspace and revealed itself to be a Furrelian frigate, she knew without a doubt that this was no coincidence. "Launch fighters immediately." she barked, quickly mastering her emotions and preventing the excitement of moments previous from influencing her actions now.
"Unidentified Furrelian vessel this is the IJN Volley Of Arrows, stand off immediately." she announced in Common over an open hail, before bending to her console. There was the shudder of launching vessels as the ship's fighter complement began to pour out of either flank, the entire ship itself drifting portwards and down somewhat, keeping its prow firmly towards the Furrelian ship.
Karo was already assessing the enemy vessel. Slightly longer than the Volley, it appeared to have a similar armament - one spinal gun, a few turrets and some missile emplacements. Close enough in firepower, at least...
“What the fuck? Move her starboard, avoid a collision!” Omedema shouted over the bridge, as the frigate rushed towards its Ingenious counterpart. The sudden order caught the bridge of guard, as it was expected that nobody would be there, hence security measures were relaxed. The navigation officer quickly worked to alter the course, emergency thrusters deploying to push the ship upwards, while the weapons officer activated the ships point-defence guns in response to the launching of fighters. The ship barely missed the other one, as it hurled past it at immense speeds, point-defence turrets turning to keep a direct line on the ship. Only after the ship had passed, the message arrived. Standing down, for trying to capture criminals. That was something that wouldn’t happen. As the ship passed the Ingenious frigate, sensors were able to get efficient readings on it; Smaller, but had similar weaponry.
“Open a communications channel, now!” Omedema barked as the ship turned around to line up from behind and below, a standard Furrelian combat manoeuvre.
“Ingenious vessel, this is the FDS Dilinam Orezant in service with the Furrelian security force for the Gauss Dominion. We’ve been ordered to persecute a corvette under the command of raiders, see the attached file for more information. In accordance with the Tychana agreement of 2233, the Jade Empire of Ingen is not to stand in the way of the persecution of these dangerous criminals and is not allowed to harbour them either. Stand down with your fighters at once and keep a distance of 10 clicks of the Dilinam Orezant, or we will be forced to take defensive actions.” Omedema communicated to the Jade ship, as his own prepared to take the defensive actions he had spoken about. With the message, combat footage and sensor cutouts, together with the order for the arrest, were transmitted towards the other frigate.
As the Dilinam Orezant hurtled past, Karo was already snapping orders to her bridge crew. The ship began to come around, auxiliary thrusters sending it's prow starboard, rolling slightly in that direction to as it turned after the Furrelian frigate. She watched as it passed overhead, the glow of its rear thrusters bright against the darkness, her attention drawn by the reply as the ship regained control of itself and began to turn.
The message was simple. The Furrelians had no intention of standing off, and even worse were actively seeking to capture the Jade Princess. Karo did not waste time or breath with a reply, but instead began assigning fire missions on her console.
Almost immediately, the two ventral and one starboard 912-LB railguns opened fire, all three targeting the engines at the rear of the enemy ship before the attack window closed. The turrets hammered, their reports shuddering the ship faintly as the 50mm slugs roared into the void, deforming into a dense cloud of particulate that raked at the rear of the enemy ship.
The Volley continued its turn, trying to bring its spinal gun to bear as the Furrelian frigate moved away and downwards, but couldn't quite get a shot lined up....
In the airspace around the Volley, its twelve fightercraft were forming into their three squads of four. Chief Turoc Heard, callsign "Tankard", glanced over at his wingmate, Lieutenant Sogo Tsunetoki, callsign 'Dagger'. He did not much care for his CO, but the man was at least a responsible fighter pilot. Dagger's dispassionate voice came over the comms.
"They're not scrambling fighters. Either they're waiting for us or they don't have 'em. Red squad, you're on CAP. Gold, follow me. Bronze, cover our six."
With that the eight fighters of gold and bronze squad manuevered to the prow of the Volley and then accelerated towards the stern of the Dilinam, wary of incoming fire.
“Incoming fire! Initiate syphoning, move her around, and return fire! Point defence to full readiness, launch the drones!” Omedema shouted over the bridge, taping on orders as he went. This was, to say the least, uncalled for. But, the Ingenious had opened fire first, and the proof was there. The Furrelian Frigate was now able to simply return the favour, and finish it there. The bridge turned into a forest of sounds, as each officer did his tasks. Within a dozen or so seconds, the disruptors were armed and ready to fire. The Dilinam Orezant turned around to face the Ingenious frigate, but halfway in the turn, it sustained its first damage. The slugs did not hit the engines, as that window had been closed during the turn. Instead, it had hit the starboard rear of the Furrelian frigate, igniting the cloud, and charring a few sections of the hull, and the electronics associated with it. The blackened section of the hull continued operating for a few more seconds, but after that, fell silent. The backup power had not been activated yet, so a part of the hull laid defenceless. However, even though it came close, no weapons had been disabled, nor had the engines. The ship simply continued its turn, now determined to defend itself. The point defence guns ignited to action as the fighters closed in, bulbs of white plasma being shot repeatedly at incredibly short intervals, being tracked as precisely as possible.
Omedema looked through the viewscreen of the bridge. The ship had turned around into a preferrable position, and was now ready to return fire. Within a few seconds, the disruptor guns went from seemingly inactive, to blasting with green plasma, as the first salvo was launched, trying to damage the Ingenious’ frigate’s engines, and anything else they could target from below. A second followed shortly afterwards, before a third smaller one tried to go straight for the hull. The spinal disruptor had not been used yet, as Omedema tried to keep that one for if the situation became very dire, but for now everything seemed good. However, something felt off. The Ingenious ship had no right to attack, but that would’ve been overlooked. Instead, this battle could spark a spark in the gasoline pool of the Ingen-Furrelian relations, and ignite it whole. One war would’ve been just won, and another would start.
Karo watched as the shots impacted the Furrelian hull, causing minor damage but nothing significant. The Furrelians replied, their own plasma turrets barking, blobs of green plasma barreling towards the Jade ship. The automated Tezcatlipoca RCPS elements inside the Silverbrig Countermeasures Systems burst with their quiet snapping noises, sending clouds of reflective glass microbeads towards the plasma blasts, shredding their containment field and detonating them in blooms of green flame. A few shots slipped through here and there, crashing into the lamellar vitredur panelling and shattering several of them along the lower starboard flank of the ship.
The Volley continued its roll, as did the Dilinam, bringing them face-to-face after their first pass. They were at practically knife-fight range, but they were now lined up perfectly. She flicked a finger across her console and immediately her chief of gunnery bellowed out a warning. The ship shook as its spinal gun, a Type 85 Barrage Gun, began to churn out rounds, booming a dozen times a minute as it sent its vast reinforced quartz shells to burst against the Dilinam's prow, aiming at its spinal weaponry.
Karo held her silence as the flare of gunfire flickered in the gloom. The Furrelians were overweaning, it seemed, in light of their successes against the Gauss Dominion. The IJN had been taken aback by the victory, and had studied every scrap of data it could get its hands on. The Dominion had been overconfident too, assured of their technological advantage, and it had cost them. Now the Furrelians were assured of their own prowess, daring to attempt the kidnap of a Jade princess in full view of the IJN. For that insult alone she would have opened fire, and with the Jade princess' freedom and perhaps even life on the line, she had no choice but to roll the dice and commit her crew to battle. She muttered a quick devotion to her family kami as she felt the ship move beneath her..
Gold squad, much faster than the hulking frigates, roared into position behind the Dilinam as it began launching drones. Dagger crackled a warning over the comms and, almost immediately, atlatl smart interceptor missiles began pouring from the flanks of the Volley, hissing towards the drone swarm as they began to launch from the Furrelian frigate. Some were almost immediately shut down by the white blobs of defensive plasma, but yet more screamed in attack vectors at the drones.
As Gold squad lined up for their attack run, one of these plasma bolts caught Dagger unexpectedly. He had let his gaze linger too long to confirm the Volley had launched torpedoes, and had only just turned back in time to avoid one stream of plasma, rolling away and into another. The wing of his long senjin* fightercraft blew apart, sending the craft into a crazy spin that broke it into pieces.
"Dagger do you read?" called Heard, knowing already that Dagger's vitals were reading as red. "Gold squad, let them have it. Bronze, follow up."
The three remaining fighters loosed their own atlatl missiles, two apiece to start, which screamed towards the engine assemblies at the rear of the enemy ship. Peeling off, they switched roles with Bronze squad, who followed up with eight missiles of their own, coming from a different trajectory with the goal of overwhelming the enemy point-defenses.
For a moment, silence, then, chaos. It was not expected that the Jade ship would use its spinal weapon that fast, but apparently, the Furrelians had underestimated their capabilities, and were now suffering the consequences. The first few shots were intercepted, but the fourth slipped through. After that, it was basically a free turkey shoot. The shot which passed through had exploded in front of the port point-defence turret, disabling its ability to counter the incoming shots. The rest of the shots, almost all, landed. The silence was deafening. Within seconds, the pressure to the front sections were ripped out of the ship, as were the people unfortunate enough to be in there. A few Furrelians were thrown out with the debris, as the hull plating got ripped off, and tires spread across the front decks. Doors were instantly closed to the spaces under most threat, but it was too late to delay the inevitable. The spinal gun had been disabled, permanently too. The disruptors continued firing though. If they stopped, they would’ve shown that the Furrelians were inferior to the Ingenious, which they were not, at least according to Furrelian propaganda. The point defence continued ripping, firing at whatever munition or fighter came close, lightening certain areas up with its white glow.
“Report!” Omedema shouted over the bridge. “I want updates, we need to change our strategy!”
“Decks 12, 13 and 15 are reporting casualties, all in the front section! 6 Killed, 18 Injured!” one of the general officers answered, shortly followed up by the operations officer.
“Spinal gun disabled, continuing with drone launch, but casualties there too are rising! Fighters on our si-!” He suddenly fell quiet as the energy to the bridge fell out for a few seconds, leaving them in the dark before it returned. The operations officer, Tisineda, immediately re-ran analyses.
“Engine blocks Two and Five have been disabled! Fighter-launched missiles. Returning fire!”
The majority of the drones had not survived the missile attack, the ship carried thirty-six total, of which twelve were sent out. Of those, eight were picked apart by the incoming missile swarm. The fighters that did survive though instantly returned fire. Slightly larger than an average Furrelian fighter, and armed with a series of weapons, the drones persecuted the fighters on the ship’s rear, launching Gamma radiation missiles in an attempt to disable the fighters by the squadron, before firing disruptors upon any caught in the radius of the missile. Not being held back by an organic pilot, all of its space was used for either weapon, defence, or mobility, the last being proven by its manoeuvrability, being roughly equivalent to the Ingenious fighters themselves.
As the fighters were being persecuted by the drones, the point-defence turrets ripped onto the fighters, working together with the drones to disable them. Further to the front, the disruptor turrets halfway of the ship fired in salvos at the spinal weapon of the Jade ship, shortly afterwards being joined by four of the turrets on the front. It was not all it fired, though. One of the many other surprises the small frigate had were missiles, a whole five-hundred of them. The frigate, with its remaining engines, surged forward, racing underneath the Jade ship, before moving to gain distance. Underneath the ship, it happened. Missiles were activated, launched from their tubes, adjusted for coordinates, and fired to their final destination at terminal speeds, the Jade ship was its target, specifically its “Underbelly”. The missiles, Sievert class anti-ship missiles, were launched in a swarm of around thirty, each targeting a different section of the underbelly. When the Dilinam had finished speeding underneath the Jade one, it turned around, stopping once its front had once again been exposed to the Voley, this time firing disruptors as it went.
Disruptor fire thumped into the Volley's hull, buckling plating and starting fires mostly along the starboard prow. The starboard capacitor for the KanshoCorp Tractor Beam blew out, shuddering the flank of the ship.
"We lost contact with Bosun Sujio," reported Lieutenant Hogan, "Sending SAR now."
Karo said nothing, her stomach tight. Sujio was a good mariner and, whilst there was a chance the drones and the four-man SAR team would be able to find him and his work crew, she held little hope. The forces at play in space combat were so colossal the crew may as well have been particles of dust, tossed in the breeze.
"They're heading underneath us." came the warning call from Lieutenant Temjin, the sailing master of the ship in charge of the helm and navigation.
"Split-S," replied Karo immediately. Temjin, anticipating the order, was already operating his console, barking a warning across the ship's PA. The Volley revolved 180° along it's x-axis, so that its underbelly was now facing up and away from the enemy, its upper deck and bridge facing down. The enemy frigate now appeared to be 'above' them from the point of view of Karo and her crew. As they rotated, the railguns continued firing, hammering at close-range into the Dilinam.
As the Dilinam blew past, the ventral thrusters at the prow and dorsal thrusters at the stern fired, the bathymetric drive straining as the ship span through a half-loop. "Fire as you bear!" she called to Bosun Hanzu, the ship's gunner, and again he had been anticipating the order. He bellowed the affirmative in his eager voice even as the spinal gun lined up with the rear of the slowed enemy ship, which was limping past in an attempt to broadside them. Again the huge quartz shells, in their glinting nickel frames, hurtled down the ship's length to thump at the enemy, this time raking them from the stern, crashing into the already-damaged engines.
Bronze squad ran right into the enemy point defenses and surviving drones. Even as they tried to disentangle, a gamma missile detonated between one wing pair, disabling both. One pilot was quick enough to eject, but even as he floated into the void, his emergency beacon activated, he watched as point-defense lasers blasted Arai, his wingmate, to dust. He grappled for his pistol for a moment, then realised the futility and struggled instead with himself, trying to find self-mastery that could quell the despair and anger boiling inside him.
The survivors of Gold and Bronze squad bore away, dropping back towards the protection of the Volley and its point-defense systems as the frigate came up behind them now, firing another volley of missiles at the surviving drones and flying defensively, taking over patrol duties from the as-yet unengaged Red squadron.
Red squadron, given the go-ahead by the XO, moved to engage. Striking from above, they launched their own missiles in a furious volley at the Furrelian torpedo tubes as they launched their Sievert missiles, hoping to trigger premature detonation and blunt the enemy volley and even perhaps ignite their ready racks.
Karo bit back a triumphant yell as she watched fire blossom at the rear of the Dilinam, even as a kaleidoscopic display of explosions also marked the strike by Red Squadron as they raked the spine of the Furrelian ship, scotching the missile launch and leaving its launch bays twisted and wrecked.
The enemy frigate was trying to come around, but the Volley drifted to starboard, trying to keep its own position towards the aft of the enemy ship. Disruptor fire came sporadically from the battered Furrelians, one round ploughing into the forward hangar and detonating a Sverkhu shuttle that was parked inside, shattering the frame and leaving a guttering fire boiling from the wreck of twisted metal. Alerts blared as monitor droids moved to respond, but with the engineering team hit hard already and SAR tied up there Lieutenant Hogan made the decision to seal off the hangar and ordered the spinal gun just below it to cease firing. Karo glanced over at him and nodded - she understood his reasoning, and risking the entire ship just as they had gained the upper hand was not Karo's idea of sound seamanship.
The spinal gun fell silent, the four 912-LB railguns continuing their fire as the Dilinam's prow came around, hammering its flank and aiming to pick off the remaining disruptors, the Volley using its undamaged engines to maintain superior position to the aft of the enemy vessel.
"FDS Dilinam Orezant, strike your colours immediately and prepare for a prize party or I will continue to fire into you. If you refuse I cannot grant you further quarter." came Karo's voice over the open comms channel, the steadiness of her inflection hiding the adrenaline rushing through her system. She had never personally taken an enemy ship before, not even a pirate vessel, and this single action almost guaranteed her promotion.
Outside, the remnants of the fighter wing formed up, ready to launch fresh strikes on the damaged enemy warship...
“Damnit…. DAMNIT!” Omedema shouted over the bridge. He had been to slow to react, and now he would suffer the consequences. He looked at the other people on the bridge, the morale had been crushed, and there was only one way for them to survive; surrendering to the smaller ship of the IJN, a crushing defeat. The Furrelian Union at home would, of course, blame it on Omedema himself, being a coward and an incompetent commander, undeserving of the title of captain, but he understood why he lost himself. The Dilinam Orezant was anything but a modern ship, having been constructed prior to the D’Karian war, and having been mothballed after it. The transfer to Ancerious just resulted in its placement in a reserve fleet, and when the war broke out, it was sent with an inexperienced crew to the frontlines. This was the first actual time Omedema and his crew had faced combat, and most likely the last time too.
“Gentlemen, it has been an honour serving with you all, but now it becomes time the Dilinam suffers what it has to, due to my incompetence. I apologise to you all, but I have a final series of orders, after that we can hand her over.” The rest of the crew listened as he gave his speech. “We need to prevent any secrets from leaking out, and we need to inform headquarters on this. All of you must delete any documents which might be important to them in your respective sectors, keep crew rosters and the likes, but remove blueprints, or classified messages from HQ. Konedema, you still have the comms, you must transmit the details of the combat back to headquarters, we must learn from it. Throw whatever encryption you seem fit onto it, then send it. I will signal to the Ingenious ship that we will surrender.” His speech was followed by silence before a few confirming nods took over, and the bridge filled with the beeps of the touchscreens.
A bit later, a transmission would be sent to the Jade ship, with Omedema at the word. It was an audio-only transmission, with only some basic information.
“IJN Volley Of Arrows, this is Captain Omedema of the FDS Dilinam Orezant, we are standing down. Use entry point 294-D-4 to enter the hangar, I shall be waiting there to negotiate the terms of surrender.”
Omedema was indeed in the hangar, but not alone. A detachment of ship security, fifty men, had lined up in a cohort, trying to give a final show of power to the Jade Empire.
There was a tense moment of silence before the surrender came through. Even before Omedema had finished his transmission, the crew were cheering with calls of banzai, exulting in their victory.
The battered warship drifted closer to the Dilinam, the fighter escort shaking itself into a fresh formation, their guns still trained on the Furrelian ship in case of any duplicity.
Karo's voice came back over the comms channel. "Understood. Be so good as to deactivate your remaining combat systems and prepare for a prize party."
A few minutes later, the frigate's other Sverkhu dropship, an Imaginariumese import, slipped into the Furrelian hangar. Lowering to the deck, its prow-mounted chainguns quietly menaced the large Furrelian reception party. The rear ramp of the 20m long shuttle hissed down as the pneumatic landing gears settled into position, and clanking footsteps announced the arrival of a platoon of Jade marines. Soldiers of the 711th, their armour was pristine white over chestnut brown fatigues, with glinting brassy antlers on their helmets. They carried AA-42 gunspears and formed up opposite the Furrelians. Once they had taken position, Captain Karo followed along with a younger lieutenant, both in the red uniforms and black hats of IJN officers.
Karo had a gentle face with a slightly oversized nose, high elegant cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes. She was perhaps in her mid-30s, and had a quiet voice in person.
"Captain Omedema, I congratulate you on a hard-fought action. I must ask for your sword. Yourself, your officers and your vessel will be taken into Jade custody and transported back to Jade territory. Your enlisted crew will be permitted to return to Furrelian Union territory aboard any shuttles or tenders you have aboard."
She set her jaw, hands behind her back, waiting for the Furrelian's response
Karo was awaited in the Hangar by five officers, including Omedema. The dropship filled up half of the hangar’s space, with the other half being used to park the Furrelian ship’s own shuttles, six in total. Omedema watched as the two smaller officers of the Jade empire walked towards him and his officers. Each of the Furrelians wore the same uniform; A simple green-greyish colour with silver demarkations. Omedema, being the captain, had three pins as his rank demarkation, instead of one, and had his collar outlined with a dark red colour, showing that he was from the command division. He looked at his first officer, who wore a similar uniform but with only one pin on his uniform. Omedema sighed, before saying something to the first officer.
“Let’s get this over with, it has been an honour serving with you all.”
“Likewise, sir.”
As Karo gave her terms, Omedema listened carefully. This was the first time someone had congratulated a Furrelian crew on their actions, which was even weirder coming from the person who they tried to kill. As Karo finished up her sentence, Omedema remained silent, thinking about the terms, before finally responding. He put on a more kind voice, while still trying to sound serious.
“Captain Karo. I must likewise congratulate you, you made a valiant, and successful, defence. It is a shame that our nations do not work closer together but I assume this is a good lesson for both.” He cleared his throat. “I agree to the terms given, me, my officers and my ship will be yours. However, I am not sure how my enlisted crewmembers will be able to depart and return to the Union though. We’re with 200-ish, but only have five shuttles, each without FTL drive, but enough space to host my crew. I assume that an SOS will be sent to the local HQ, but before that, you must depart, or this battle will continue as the rescue ship will see you as aggressors. But, my sword is yours.” He responded, with a serious look on his face, and his hands behind his back.
Karo glanced at the shuttles. "Leaving your men stranded without FTL drives would be a contradiction of our General Sailing Instructions. We will bring your enlisted men and arrange for their safe transport from Jade territory upon arrival there. Yourself and your officers will be repatriated following the conclusion of hostilities"
Some time later
It had taken a little time to sort out the logistics. Karo had stayed to oversee the disarmament of the Furrelian marines and waited for them to be confined to quarters, the RAI Frame body of Volley partitioning itself into a discrete entity from the mothership and heading to the Furrelian bridge to assume command of all security and internal functions. Once that was done, she took Omedema, his officers, and half her marines back to the Volley.
Control of the Dilinam would be sloppy, but it would suffice to bring it back to the Sanrin System. By the time Karo and her guests were back aboard the Volley more IJN warships had arrived and had taken the Princess and her companions aboard, but Karo had not been concerned. The prestige from this victory was all the boost her career needed, and no doubt she would have time to meet the Princess later.
As it was, she was sat in her quarters. Across the desk from her was Captain Omedema, who like his officers had given his parole and so was allowed to leave the brig if escorted. Between them sat a tray with cups, a pot of steaming tea, a carafe of water and a couple of bottles of Leninade, the popular soda drink licensed from Imaginarium.
She weighed up the Furrelian carefully. She had not had much experience with the species, though they reminded her faintly of canidaens, one of the constituent races of the Katasian Ryk, wherever that nomadic people now were. She was studiously avoiding the topic of their battle, considering it poor form to mention.
"I understand your navy found some success against the Gauss GDAN. That must have been some hot work?" she asked
“I believe we did indeed.” Omedema took a breath, he wouldn’t have guessed he would be talking face-to-face with the Ingenious captain he tried to kill only a few hours ago.
“I wouldn’t deny it, but morale was low at the beginning of the war. It was expected, in the months leading up to the war, that we would keep a defensive stance, and conquer a few outer and a single-core system. The turning point, of course, was Luasu. Especially the destruction of the Paragon worked in favour of the Furrelian morale. The establishment of the Katharian protectorate helped too in morale, showing that we were not the only ones fighting against the Dogs. Could I have some of the Jisedane?” Omedema said. He was, outside of his duties, a rather open man, who liked having conversations. While Omedema was waiting for his drink, he continued to talk. Jisedane was a Furrelian drink, not too dissimilar from Ingenious tea.
“Another change in favour of the morale actually happened recently; Pobbma. I can not share too many details about it, considering it happened less than a week ago, but it was not expected we would suffer this little damage. The morale of my crew rose after the second battle of Luasu. The GDAN has changed since the beginning of the war, and not in a good way. The Furrelian force around Luasu consists of less than 50 ships, the Dominion attacked with 100. And still, we have beaten of their attack. I’m not sure what is happening within the Dominion right now, but the most recent report I have heard is that a coup happened, but I am not sure about the authenticity.” Omedema coughed.
“I am curious though, the IJN is a bystander of this conflict, but what is its opinion on it, and specifically the GDAN?”
Karo kept her reserve, allowing Omedema to talk as she poured him some tea. Listening intently, she shrugged when he had finished, offering a noncommittal response.
"We have not seen enough to make a true assessment. It was a little surprising to us that the GDAN seems to have performed so poorly, but I am sure the full data would shed light on how and why they failed."
"True true." Omedema took a sip of his hot tea. "I am in no way a representative of the Furrelian Union or its government, but I do feel that our two nations, while not being allies, could at least solve the current problems. The Tychana agreement was badly negotiated, just done quickly to resolve a disaster. It failed at that, this engagement was proof of that. I'm sure that you will have to write a report about this, so maybe include a request to re-open diplomatic ties to your High Command? I'm sure the opinions between our two nations could be better, so maybe that could be the first step?" He took another sip. "Please take it into consideration."