THE IMPERIAL DISTURBANCE OF ANCERIOUS
Every journey began with a single step. This was a long-held philosophy among the people of the Jade Empire of Ingen, and whilst it was not applicable in a literal sense to the ongoing voyage of the Jade Colony Fleet, the sentiment still rang true. Together on the journey were seventeen capital ships, five freighters and a scattering of lighter vessels. Aboard them were thousands of Imperial naval personnel, four full Marine regiments, and nearly a million colonists. Flag Admiral Zhang Yu was responsible for every last soul in the fleet, a burden that lay heavily on her shoulders. An imposing woman, short in stature but with a wealth of years and experience behind her dark eyes, she was a veteran of many years and had been given command of the IJN Junrei after her exemplary command of the IJN Ritual of Service during the Battles over Terra and Sera.
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The appointment had soon soured, however, as she languished in inactivity. Her Executive Officer, Captain Stefani Esposito, a young and energetic Alejandran woman, handled the day-to-day running of the ship with an almost infuriating efficiency, and given the ship did nothing but float menacingly in the outer reaches of the Laptev System, Flag Admiral Zhang Yu found her days filled with exercise, reading, correspondence chess and extensive use of the virtual reality suites. -
All that had changed when she had been informed that the Junrei was to form the core of a new colony fleet being dispatched to the mysterious Ancerious Galaxy. The Kokubosho War Office was determined not to see a repeat of the fall of the FB-1 Galaxy, and so wished to spread the Jade Empire's influence across the stars, and this fabled, mineral-rich galaxy in which the Pords had established a foothold had been scouted. What little information they had managed to acquire corroborated the unofficial rumours that had slipped through the net and into Imperial ears, and so a force of seventeen detached or lost warships had been assembled and designated the Jade Colony Fleet ANC. Repainted in shimmering white, with blazing jade-green trim, the seventeen ships and their five unlovely Ushi-class freighters had set off for the unknown. Now they were nearing the outskirts of what had been designated the Sanrin System. A primary, habitable planet covered in verdant growth and primitive life had been designated SANRIN-1, whilst another that showed signs it had once sustained water and basic life was SANRIN-2. Another two planets hinted at the potential for rich mineral resource beneath the surface - really it was modest, but the reports had been glowing in order to ensure the colony effort was greenlit.The Beef (Ingen)10/30/2019- Now, at the bridge of the Junrei, watching the battlecruiser Masamune advancing ahead of them towards the planet, Zhang Yu felt a swell of pride. In years to come, this system would become a bastion of Imperial civilisation, and she was to plant the flag. Perhaps she could convince the colonial administration to name a city after her? From the belly of the Masamune spilled a small flotilla of shuttlecraft, followed by one bulky Kankyo IV-class dropship. They were the first wave, to secure a landing zone planetside, whilst the fleet itself began dispersing automated drones and corvette patrols to begin setting up the infrastructure which would eventually become the defensive and navigational network of the Sanrin System...
The Union had been keeping a watchful eye on the Avarian since the fall of Anderson, they weren't going to be blindsided by another invasion ever again. When the northern stations started sending alarms for a larger then usual FTL signature there wasn't anytime to waste in sending a vanguard fleet to begin reconnaissance and preliminary assaults on whatever came out of FTL in the system. Under the Emergency Wartime Act 2601, Union forces were already on alert and ready to move in just a few hours. The legality of the deployment was covered and it was now in the hands of the military to accomplish the objective. Being sent out was Vanguard twelve of CSG (Carrier Strike Group) Seven as part of the larger Fourth Ancerious Fleet. Helming the mission and the responsibility of it's success was Rear Admiral Thomas 'Tommy' Nitz. A competent leader in his own right and an under recognised officer, being passed over for several promotions to Admiral due to the lack of connections he had with his superiors. This expedition wasn;t going to be a saving grace of his career it was just another patrol to a distant system. The number of times his fleet gets mobilised and demobilised in a day was too many for his liking, he only expected to find dust and cosmic rays at the location and maybe a destroyed ship that had a FTL accident. The Fleet left dock from Port Tomak in the Unions northern sector of space, Close Space drives opened a wormhole directly there from the the systems edge and they entered the edges of the Sanrin System roughly nine AU from the systems star. It was from here that the first wave of active scans would be commenced and once they were done the would move forward one AU at a time and spend several hours after that scanning individual stellar bodies that were in the system.
At one of the control stations below Zhang Yu's command dais, a quiet but insistent alarm began to blare. The lieutenant at that post, a reliable but aging felidaen, took a moment to observe one of his monitors and then turned to call out to Captain Esposito. "Unknown contacts, a dozen hulls, 9AU out. Moving in-system." Captain Esposito and Flag Admiral Yu both brought the display up on their own stations, and almost before it had loaded Yu was already snapping out commands. The entire fleet was drummed to battle stations, the vast bulk of the IJN Junrei turning slowly in the centre of the formation as the other destroyers and frigates wheeled either side of her. The five freighters continued their steady course onwards, passing underneath the looming shadow of the battleship to reach the comparative safety behind her. Ahead of them, the Masamune slowed and began to turn, but with the sudden reversal the deadly cruiser was now at the rear of the formation. The Parity of Truth moved out to their port flank, leading the Tower of Dusk and Eight Clay Plates and Rancho de Piedra, whilst on their starboard the Young Red Dragon led the Ragged in Fur and Scorn no Seas in a mirroring move. The light destroyers and frigates were not the most powerful warships in the fleet, but they were fast and maneuverable and Zhang Yu did not want to sit and wait like frightened deer whilst strangers prowled through the system unchecked.
At the Battle over Terra she had felt the gut-wrenching fear as she had watched the numerically superior Concordiat forces envelop the Fourth Fleet and force it to retreat, lashed and scarred by an obscene volume of fire. At the Battle over Sera she had watched the same drama play out in reverse, as the combined Axis fleets had assaulted the trapped Concordiat fleet, driven them against the teeth of the planetary defenses and beaten them into bloody submission. Sitting still was an invitation to defeat, and that was an invitation she did not care to extend to these...interlopers. Once the fleet had shaken itself into something of an acceptable formation, the Flag Admiral ordered Captain Esposito to open comms. Her voice was clear and calm, with only a faint accent, though like many of people of Dong Wu, she had a tendency to split words into their component syllables. "Unidentified vessels, this is Flag Admiral Zhang Yu of the Imperial Jade Navy of Ingen. We are the Jade Colony Fleet ANC and this system has been claimed as sovereign Imperial territory. Please identify yourselves immediately."
It was a surprise to be sure that their was another nation here and not a black mass of Shadows trying to creep their way into Ancerious from another location. Nitz didn't call off the scans or halt the fleet, he was going to accomplish his mission to the letter and as far as he could tell no one was getting hurt. The Fleet closed quickly from the Nine AU distance and had closed the gap to five and half AU now. The fact that this nation also quickly took to hostilities was a tell tale sign they were new to the Galaxy, the Union wasn't the danger they were there to stop the danger. Since the fall of the UWA as well as acquiring several territories else where in the galaxy, the Union was able to take up it's traditional role as a galactic peacekeeper. Sometimes this role did require some unsavoury moments such as trespassing so that greater damages could be mitigated if they were present. He sent a quick response to Flag Admiral Zhang. "This is Rear Admiral Thomas Nitz, Union of Democratic States Navy, Twelfth Vanguard, CSG Seven, Ancerious Fourth Fleet. We have a mission to conduct in this sector and will be gone the moment it is complete. Nitz out." He spoke sternly to Zhang
Admiral Thundering Stone sat in his office as his ship transitioned from slipspace back to real space. He monitored his task force from the screens in his office. He had found himself rather bored with his current assignment. He was an admiral of a siege fleet with no enemy to fight and his siege cruiser was reassigned to R&D for the foreseeable future. He left his Battlecarrier and by extension the expedition, to his XO Captain Red-with-envy. The expedition consisted of 1 Battlecarrier and 4 destroyers. Their mission to see if a previous scanned location was still up for grabs, as a recent scan showed energy signatures that weren't their before. The ships entered at the edge of the system and began to scan the system.
Aboard the bridge of the Junrei, the same elderly lieutenant called out another warning, this time of a cluster of ships of unknown provenance and size that had just emerged behind them at 8 o'clock, on the far side of the system. Although they were many AU away, the Colony Fleet was more or less surrounded by the two groups of ships, and sensors reported that the new group was actively ping-scanning the Jade ships, the first step in long-range target acquisition. Zhang Yu stood, her hands gripping the arms of her chair. "Open fire!" she barked, turning to her control console and keying in a series of commands that were immediately distributed to the fleet. Captain Esposito shifted uncomfortably, but repeated the order, clarifying. Beneath them, the two huge Super-MaC Mark III railgun assemblies boomed, shaking the ship one after the other with a thunder that made everyone aboard pause in awe, as they propelled 6000 tonnes of alloyed tungsten in the form of two S2 MaC Rounds at the leading ship of the Union flotilla. Effectively immediately, barely ten kilometers from the muzzles of the giant Super-MaCs, two red Slipgate portals opened up and swallowed the rounds. The Slipgates simultaneously slid open perhaps twenty thousand kilometers from the Union ships, vomiting out the rounds which screamed toward their targets at 0.9% the speed of light. As they reentered realspace, the two slugs activated their one-shot TILT generators which, for the second it took them to cross the 20,000 kilometers, would actively interrupt all attempts to use non-direct FTL methods to redirect the munitions. Any gates, ruptures, wormholes or similar technology would open in a slightly different location thanks to the momentary warping of local space-time caused by the giant gravity shadow lattice the TILT generator emitted.
- Following the two colossal MaC rounds at a more leisurely pace came a barrage of argent red blasts from the assembled Arisaka Flame Lance weapon systems of the fleet. At this range they were not likely to hit, but they were deadly in their potency all the same. The Jade warships began to advance, whilst on the flanks the six smaller vessels suddenly blinked into nonexistence. Already designed to have minimal heat, radar, electronic and gravity signatures, they had activated their Voit-Ring systems, redirecting all neutrinos and other waste matter directly to the rear of the ships using localised, short-range Slipgates surrounding the ships' reactors. The engines had also been killed, using their existing inertia in the practically frictionless vacuum of space to glide silently forwards. With gravity well manipulators reversing the faint pull they had on their environment, their flanks compelled by electrical impulse to revert to their light-absorbent black coating, and their electrical and heat signatures dampened by reduced power modes and inbuilt dampeners and absorbers, the only easy ways to detect them were to have a low-energy neutrino detector directly aft of them, or to physically bump into them. In silence, they drifted onward, aiming at positions to port and starboard of the Union fleet. Zhang Yu dismissed a frantic call from Admiral Daisuke Minowara aboard the Masamune and waved for comms to be opened again. "Attention Rear Admiral Nitz. Your treacherous flank attack has been detected! Remove your fleet from Imperial territory immediately! Any ships that do not withdraw will be destroyed!"
- Although the bridge section responsible for interdiction and shielding had prepared their gravity well generator systems to ward off potential FTL-based assaults, she had purposefully not raised any kind of Faster-Than-Light Interdiction, partially because the infrastructure was not in place to raise a complete field over the system and so she would have to drain her fleet's power reserves to do so, and partially because she wanted these interlopers driven off.
"Weapons fire detected!" "FTL Signatures in front of the rounds." "It right on top of us, John Markney is down sir, i say again John Markeny is down with all hands." The chatter from the MPSDA operators filled the CIC "Battle Stations!" Nitz yelled out Quickly claxons began blaring as the CIC went from brightly lit to a dull blue, announcements went over the ships intercom as crew scrambled to their posts. From Nitz's flagship the UDSNS Melissa Track launched several void groups of interceptors and bombers which established combat patrols around the Union Fleet. Once targets had been locked the Union Fleet opened fire in return, 6100 series Super Accelerators fired in rapid succession from the destroyers and heavy cruisers. The white hot stream of metal cascaded through the system at .9c towards the Ingen fleet this was supported by a fusillade of supporting fire from standard 3000 series Grav Accelerators which sent rounds down range that kept speed with the larger 6100 streams, this first strike was followed by a secondary strike consisting of Braunstein Laser fire and Series 9190 sustained Fusion torpedoes. For the smaller ships to the flank their stealth was insufficient against the upgraded sensors aboard the Union vessels for them given their close range was sent several salvos of E-series Graviton missiles which upon detonation would create a space time shearing effect. The Vanguard was a small force and as such not equipped to go toe to toe with a hostile fleet, they began stopped forward thrust and began a full reverse out of the system. The incident was already reported to sector command who would now begin the process of threat elimination.
Aboard the Parity of Truth, the various stealth countermeasures deactivated as flares of light indicated the Junrei had opened fire. They were still some way from the interlopers' fleet, but almost instantly a volley of alarm signals blared as the enemy began to launch torpedoes towards the Jade flanking force that had suddenly appeared. As their battlefield awareness suites began to blink back online, Captain Konda Terumoto began to calmly relay orders. The IdaiTech BAT-1 Fire Control Suite began by spamming communication requests in a variety of formats to the incoming missiles in an attempt to drown out any communication between them and the enemy fleet. Simultaneously, the Jade vessels began dumping their own torpedoes. First came a round of Mark II Soldier Termite decoy torpedoes. These torpedoes were designed to emit readings similar to the ship that launched them, and when their victims were deprived of assistance from their more powerful shipboard systems the ruse often worked. Behind them, as the enemy torpedoes came closer, a welter of more conventional anti-missile munitions crashed into them. Larger models exploded in a shower of tiny superheated high density fléchettes, which smaller more agile missiles simply attempted to collide with their targets and detonate their own high-explosive payloads. At short range, Gyaku-Ko Beam Defense Points opened up, shimmering lines of blue energy whipping through the darkness to knock down torpedoes with pinpoint accuracy. Despite all these countermeasures, some torpedoes made it through the fireworks display and crashed home against the prow and flanks of the Parity of Truth. One blast in particular shuddered the superstructure, knocking out several weapons batteries on the port flank and sending clouds of debris spiraling into the void. Alerts blared across the vessel and it listed briefly before thrusters corrected its painful limp, the huge hull straightening up relative to its escorts even as it continued to bleed. Captain Terumoto listened dispassionately as strained voices called in damage and casualty reports, before contacting his two subordinates aboard their Miséricorde frigates. Accordingly, the Eight Clay Plates moved into position to cover their stricken flank. The IJN Junrei was not so lucky. The other vessels of the Fleet were agile enough to simply move out of the way of the worst of the fire or manoeuvre to present their strongest areas for targeting, as even pure light would take nearly two minutes to close the quarter-AU gap now between the two fleets.. The Junrei, however, was not so speedy, and her Slipgate generators needed time to recharge after firing the augmented MAC rounds which had opened the battle by hulling an enemy destroyer. The streams of molten metal crashed against the shielding of the Junrei, barely affected by the desperate volleys launched by the ship's various defenses. After a few moments the shielding flickered, letting several short bursts of metal through. Crashing against the thick hull of the ship, the streams melted and fused angrily, but the vulnerable viewports of the bridge itself collapsed almost instantly. In less than a second, the cabin depressurised, filled with pure fire and metal, killing the entire bridge crew. Someone somewhere in one of the shielding relays had the wit of mind to activate gravity generators and gently redirect the remaining beams of metal, slewing them widely across a broader area to reduce their impact, but the Junrei listed badly, wounded and leaderless, as the surviving chain of command struggled to reroute control to the reserve bridge deck.
Aboard the Masamune, Daisuke Minowara realised that he was now the de facto commander of the entire ANC Colony Fleet. Enraged, although whether by Zhang Yu's refusal to heed his warnings or by the destruction their enemies had caused he knew not, he began barking orders to his fleet in order to press the attack, but a glance at the tactical readout revealed that their targets were already withdrawing in good order. Lingering for a moment, tempted to plunge onwards towards glorious battle, better sense prevailed. He had a duty to his crew and his mission, and so he ordered a full stop. "Let them go," he said when the captain of the Oaken Pagoda protested. "Just let them go." His voice sounded exhausted and quiet even to his own ears.
"This is the C.W.M.V. Echoing Thunder of the Commonwealth of Darastrix Isk. We wish you no harm to either side of this current battle, and thus we will hold our position. We will defend ourselves if either of you attack us." Came the response from Captain Red-with-envy. The Commonwealth vessels stopped all of their forward movements but kept up there scanning. A few of their weapons began to move from their resting positions in anticipation of being attacked. To all who were watching them it was clear that they were taking up defensive positions.
"Give them one last salvo before we make our exit" Nitz Ordered from the centre of his CIC As the Close space portal opened up behind the Union fleet they launched one last salvo of E-series missiles at the Ingen Fleet this time being sent into direct contact with hulls with the use of the Close Space gates at the end of their launch tubes, as the last one left the Union fleet slipped quietly through the mirrored portal back to their own territory. With one ship down and with a variety of damages from scratches to full breaches alongside several decompressed compartment, the vanguard fleet would be in dock for sometime before it would be operational ready again. The Ingen however would be hearing from the Union again very soon.
Although the bridge crew were dead, their previous decision to ready the TILT generators against potential FTLi attacks paid off. As the Close Space gates attempted to open near the Jade fleet, a TILT flash twisted the space-time continuum momentarily through the use of a lattice of gravity shadows, meaning that the intended exit coordinates for the Close Space gates were lost. Missiles scattered randomly within an AU of the fleet, and even those that managed to reorient were easily fended off by the combined defenses of the remaining functional warships. Minowara breathed a silent sigh of relief, and then began to take stock. Firstly, the second squadron of ships, claiming to be from some Commonwealth. He wanted them to be telling the truth, so that no further blood would have to be spilled, but if they told the truth then it meant Zhang Yu had fucked up in a grand way and her death had been entirely unnecessary. After a moment, he ordered the IJN Cleansed By Rain to jump half the distance towards the CWMV Echoing Thunder and hail them. The 7km long Katana destroyer slid into realspace through a flaming red Slipgate and held position, hailing the Commonwealth ship on the same frequency it had used. "This is the Imperial Jade Navy. We intend to approach and dispatch a shuttle craft on a diplomatic mission to your fleet.". Meanwhile, aboard the Junrei, one of the first people to arrive at the ruined bridge was Lieutenant Kuribayashi of the 77th Marine Regiment. A young man clad in MACS armour, he entered the corridor adjacent to the ruined bridge. Behind him, the bulkhead doors sealed and he typed the override code into the door in front of him. After a warning reminder, during which he activated the mag seals on his combat boots, the door hissed open, the rush of air past his helmet the first indicator of the void beyond. Kuribayashi gasped involuntarily. Ahead of him was nothingness. A bizarre, alien landscape of slagged metal, a brutal gash in the pristine flank of the giant warship. Where once this door had opened on to the bridge, now it opened onto chaotic lumps and swirls of metal, different hues struck through one vast mass above, below and either side of him, ending only in an open, jagged glimpse of the stars beyond. It was immediately clear that no human could have survived such cataclysmic energies. He took a few steps out, then stopped. Behind him, the door hissed again, and more footsteps faltered. Kuribayashi had been attached to Captain Esposito. She was more than a decade older than him, but in the typical way of youth he had been caught by a few chance glances and dreamy fantasies of the lustrous skin of the Mediolanii XO. She, along with the rest of the bridge crew and a Jade Flag Admiral were now gone, reduced to atoms in an instant. Despite the devastating loss, the fleet still had a mission. Thousands upon thousands of KanshoCorp Defender Network Drones, packed away in the hold of the IJN Dark Comber, were launched and shirred away to their stations, where they knit together a shell of Faster-Than-Light Interdiction three AU out from the system's star. The Ushi freighters moved into high orbit, awaiting the marine force that would secure the initial landing zones, but the rest of the fleet was still in disarray
"Imperial Jade Navy vessel your are clear to approach. Please approach our largest vessel in our formation. Please do not be alarmed about our weapons not returning to their stored positions. We are doing this for the simple fact that you just had a recent engagement and we rather side on the side of caution. We will not be offended if you choose to do the same ," came the response from the C.W.M.V. Echoing Thunder.
The Cleansed By Rain sprang closer to the Commonwealth fleet and then dropped an elegant Soyokaze shuttle from one of its hangars. The small craft approached the Echoing Thunder and sailed gently into a landing berth as directed. With a pneumatic hiss, a ramp extended from the belly of the craft and a woman in a white qipao-style dress with dark green embroidery depicting primarily dragons led a small contingent of marines in their parade colours, white with green trim. "Greetings to you," she began "I am Taira Toshi, a Daimyo of the Jade Empire of Ingen."
The Daimyo and her party were greeted by a small contingent of marines wearing dull grey armor. The marines' weapons were kept in a parade carry. At the head of the group was the captain of the ship, she has bright vibrant teal scales and a nice pressed white uniform decorated with various awards. Behind her stood the Admiral Thundering Stone, he stood there his emerald colored scales glistening in the hanger lights, like the captain, he wore a white uniform with various awards on it. The rest of the hanger seemed to be undergoing some sort of organized chaos. There was a line of fighters on the overhead magnetic launch. One of the pilots had his canopy open and was arguing with one of the flight deck personnel. There was various buggies, loaded with various tools or weapons, moving to and fro in the hanger. All of this were just clear signs of an active warship, and to those who serve on a carrier they would feel at home. "Greetings, and welcome to the C.W.M.V Echoing Thunder. I am Captain Red-with-envy and this is Admiral Thundering Stone," the captain said.
Daiymo Toshi, a polished diplomat, betrayed no surprise at the alien physiology. Tall and reptilian, they reminded her subconsciously of dragons, a propitious animal in the Jade Empire. The admiral in particular was huge, nearly ten feet tall, but other than that the hangar seemed almost familiar. It looked much like the hangars aboard the Cleansed By Rain or any other Imperial ship. Some of Toshi's marines, in jungle camouflaged armour in anticipation of the planetary landings, were less sanguine about the giant aliens, some shocked or wary whilst others were thrown offguard, but behind their impassive visors their reactions were not discernible. "A pleasure," Toshi said with a bow. "Thank you for inviting us aboard your vessel. I apologise for the eventful nature of our arrival, and hope we can use this opportunity to open cordial relations between our two nations." _
Meanwhile The fleet was a mess. The Junrei was still drifting, held in place by gravity wells from two Nodachi class vessels, whilst the Parity of Truth, a Tanto destroyer, was so badly damaged it had been anchored and non-essential staff were being transferred elsewhere whilst repairs were begun. Other ships had suffered lesser damages, from guns dismounted to hull plates wrecked and bulkheads burst, giving the engineers of the fleet more work than they could handle. Minowara decided that to dally or hesitate would be a mistake. He ordered the landings to go ahead, watching as the Kankyo dropship which had been waiting awkwardly turned again to head to the surface...J
"The pleasure is ours," Red-with-envy said with a quick salute to the Daiymo. "It was a little short notice but, we have managed to quickly convert one of our ready rooms into a impromptu conference room. We have water and a verity of teas made from various fruits and leaves from our home galaxy. Though you might want to scan them before consumption as to make sure the drinks are not harmful to your biology." The marines stayed at parade rest with their weapons while the captain spoke. A few of the other personnel in the hanger had stopped what they were doing to look before being motivated by their superiors to get back to work.
Toshi nodded thankfully. "Please, lead the way. Captain Shigeru, remain with the shuttle." Stepping forwards, her marines clearly uneasy, she appeared serene. Alien though they were, these Commonwealthers seemed reasonable enough, and if their hosts did prove to be treacherous a handful of marines wouldn't be enough to fight their way out of an entire alien cruiser anyway. As they headed to the makeshift conference room, Toshi launched into her standard spool about the Empire. "The Jade Empire is a majority human nation spread over three settled planets and more than forty colonies. A robust mining and agricultural network supports more than 25 billion citizens, who enjoy substantial personal rights and engage in free mercantilism, all protected by the Imperial Jade Navy. The Empire is colonising the Sanrin System to gain a foothold in the Ancerious Galaxy, hoping to establish new trade routes and uncover new resources."
The Admiral grumbled in his native tongue, and the captain responded in the same tongue. The conference room was rather modest with a few terminals and projectors to display any information that may be warranted. The room was sparsely decorated with a few images from worlds from beyond Ancerious. "The Commonwealth has a similar goals," the captain said as she took a seat....
All that had changed when she had been informed that the Junrei was to form the core of a new colony fleet being dispatched to the mysterious Ancerious Galaxy. The Kokubosho War Office was determined not to see a repeat of the fall of the FB-1 Galaxy, and so wished to spread the Jade Empire's influence across the stars, and this fabled, mineral-rich galaxy in which the Pords had established a foothold had been scouted. What little information they had managed to acquire corroborated the unofficial rumours that had slipped through the net and into Imperial ears, and so a force of seventeen detached or lost warships had been assembled and designated the Jade Colony Fleet ANC. Repainted in shimmering white, with blazing jade-green trim, the seventeen ships and their five unlovely Ushi-class freighters had set off for the unknown. Now they were nearing the outskirts of what had been designated the Sanrin System. A primary, habitable planet covered in verdant growth and primitive life had been designated SANRIN-1, whilst another that showed signs it had once sustained water and basic life was SANRIN-2. Another two planets hinted at the potential for rich mineral resource beneath the surface - really it was modest, but the reports had been glowing in order to ensure the colony effort was greenlit.The Beef (Ingen)10/30/2019- Now, at the bridge of the Junrei, watching the battlecruiser Masamune advancing ahead of them towards the planet, Zhang Yu felt a swell of pride. In years to come, this system would become a bastion of Imperial civilisation, and she was to plant the flag. Perhaps she could convince the colonial administration to name a city after her? From the belly of the Masamune spilled a small flotilla of shuttlecraft, followed by one bulky Kankyo IV-class dropship. They were the first wave, to secure a landing zone planetside, whilst the fleet itself began dispersing automated drones and corvette patrols to begin setting up the infrastructure which would eventually become the defensive and navigational network of the Sanrin System...
The Union had been keeping a watchful eye on the Avarian since the fall of Anderson, they weren't going to be blindsided by another invasion ever again. When the northern stations started sending alarms for a larger then usual FTL signature there wasn't anytime to waste in sending a vanguard fleet to begin reconnaissance and preliminary assaults on whatever came out of FTL in the system. Under the Emergency Wartime Act 2601, Union forces were already on alert and ready to move in just a few hours. The legality of the deployment was covered and it was now in the hands of the military to accomplish the objective. Being sent out was Vanguard twelve of CSG (Carrier Strike Group) Seven as part of the larger Fourth Ancerious Fleet. Helming the mission and the responsibility of it's success was Rear Admiral Thomas 'Tommy' Nitz. A competent leader in his own right and an under recognised officer, being passed over for several promotions to Admiral due to the lack of connections he had with his superiors. This expedition wasn;t going to be a saving grace of his career it was just another patrol to a distant system. The number of times his fleet gets mobilised and demobilised in a day was too many for his liking, he only expected to find dust and cosmic rays at the location and maybe a destroyed ship that had a FTL accident. The Fleet left dock from Port Tomak in the Unions northern sector of space, Close Space drives opened a wormhole directly there from the the systems edge and they entered the edges of the Sanrin System roughly nine AU from the systems star. It was from here that the first wave of active scans would be commenced and once they were done the would move forward one AU at a time and spend several hours after that scanning individual stellar bodies that were in the system.
At one of the control stations below Zhang Yu's command dais, a quiet but insistent alarm began to blare. The lieutenant at that post, a reliable but aging felidaen, took a moment to observe one of his monitors and then turned to call out to Captain Esposito. "Unknown contacts, a dozen hulls, 9AU out. Moving in-system." Captain Esposito and Flag Admiral Yu both brought the display up on their own stations, and almost before it had loaded Yu was already snapping out commands. The entire fleet was drummed to battle stations, the vast bulk of the IJN Junrei turning slowly in the centre of the formation as the other destroyers and frigates wheeled either side of her. The five freighters continued their steady course onwards, passing underneath the looming shadow of the battleship to reach the comparative safety behind her. Ahead of them, the Masamune slowed and began to turn, but with the sudden reversal the deadly cruiser was now at the rear of the formation. The Parity of Truth moved out to their port flank, leading the Tower of Dusk and Eight Clay Plates and Rancho de Piedra, whilst on their starboard the Young Red Dragon led the Ragged in Fur and Scorn no Seas in a mirroring move. The light destroyers and frigates were not the most powerful warships in the fleet, but they were fast and maneuverable and Zhang Yu did not want to sit and wait like frightened deer whilst strangers prowled through the system unchecked.
At the Battle over Terra she had felt the gut-wrenching fear as she had watched the numerically superior Concordiat forces envelop the Fourth Fleet and force it to retreat, lashed and scarred by an obscene volume of fire. At the Battle over Sera she had watched the same drama play out in reverse, as the combined Axis fleets had assaulted the trapped Concordiat fleet, driven them against the teeth of the planetary defenses and beaten them into bloody submission. Sitting still was an invitation to defeat, and that was an invitation she did not care to extend to these...interlopers. Once the fleet had shaken itself into something of an acceptable formation, the Flag Admiral ordered Captain Esposito to open comms. Her voice was clear and calm, with only a faint accent, though like many of people of Dong Wu, she had a tendency to split words into their component syllables. "Unidentified vessels, this is Flag Admiral Zhang Yu of the Imperial Jade Navy of Ingen. We are the Jade Colony Fleet ANC and this system has been claimed as sovereign Imperial territory. Please identify yourselves immediately."
It was a surprise to be sure that their was another nation here and not a black mass of Shadows trying to creep their way into Ancerious from another location. Nitz didn't call off the scans or halt the fleet, he was going to accomplish his mission to the letter and as far as he could tell no one was getting hurt. The Fleet closed quickly from the Nine AU distance and had closed the gap to five and half AU now. The fact that this nation also quickly took to hostilities was a tell tale sign they were new to the Galaxy, the Union wasn't the danger they were there to stop the danger. Since the fall of the UWA as well as acquiring several territories else where in the galaxy, the Union was able to take up it's traditional role as a galactic peacekeeper. Sometimes this role did require some unsavoury moments such as trespassing so that greater damages could be mitigated if they were present. He sent a quick response to Flag Admiral Zhang. "This is Rear Admiral Thomas Nitz, Union of Democratic States Navy, Twelfth Vanguard, CSG Seven, Ancerious Fourth Fleet. We have a mission to conduct in this sector and will be gone the moment it is complete. Nitz out." He spoke sternly to Zhang
Admiral Thundering Stone sat in his office as his ship transitioned from slipspace back to real space. He monitored his task force from the screens in his office. He had found himself rather bored with his current assignment. He was an admiral of a siege fleet with no enemy to fight and his siege cruiser was reassigned to R&D for the foreseeable future. He left his Battlecarrier and by extension the expedition, to his XO Captain Red-with-envy. The expedition consisted of 1 Battlecarrier and 4 destroyers. Their mission to see if a previous scanned location was still up for grabs, as a recent scan showed energy signatures that weren't their before. The ships entered at the edge of the system and began to scan the system.
Aboard the bridge of the Junrei, the same elderly lieutenant called out another warning, this time of a cluster of ships of unknown provenance and size that had just emerged behind them at 8 o'clock, on the far side of the system. Although they were many AU away, the Colony Fleet was more or less surrounded by the two groups of ships, and sensors reported that the new group was actively ping-scanning the Jade ships, the first step in long-range target acquisition. Zhang Yu stood, her hands gripping the arms of her chair. "Open fire!" she barked, turning to her control console and keying in a series of commands that were immediately distributed to the fleet. Captain Esposito shifted uncomfortably, but repeated the order, clarifying. Beneath them, the two huge Super-MaC Mark III railgun assemblies boomed, shaking the ship one after the other with a thunder that made everyone aboard pause in awe, as they propelled 6000 tonnes of alloyed tungsten in the form of two S2 MaC Rounds at the leading ship of the Union flotilla. Effectively immediately, barely ten kilometers from the muzzles of the giant Super-MaCs, two red Slipgate portals opened up and swallowed the rounds. The Slipgates simultaneously slid open perhaps twenty thousand kilometers from the Union ships, vomiting out the rounds which screamed toward their targets at 0.9% the speed of light. As they reentered realspace, the two slugs activated their one-shot TILT generators which, for the second it took them to cross the 20,000 kilometers, would actively interrupt all attempts to use non-direct FTL methods to redirect the munitions. Any gates, ruptures, wormholes or similar technology would open in a slightly different location thanks to the momentary warping of local space-time caused by the giant gravity shadow lattice the TILT generator emitted.
- Following the two colossal MaC rounds at a more leisurely pace came a barrage of argent red blasts from the assembled Arisaka Flame Lance weapon systems of the fleet. At this range they were not likely to hit, but they were deadly in their potency all the same. The Jade warships began to advance, whilst on the flanks the six smaller vessels suddenly blinked into nonexistence. Already designed to have minimal heat, radar, electronic and gravity signatures, they had activated their Voit-Ring systems, redirecting all neutrinos and other waste matter directly to the rear of the ships using localised, short-range Slipgates surrounding the ships' reactors. The engines had also been killed, using their existing inertia in the practically frictionless vacuum of space to glide silently forwards. With gravity well manipulators reversing the faint pull they had on their environment, their flanks compelled by electrical impulse to revert to their light-absorbent black coating, and their electrical and heat signatures dampened by reduced power modes and inbuilt dampeners and absorbers, the only easy ways to detect them were to have a low-energy neutrino detector directly aft of them, or to physically bump into them. In silence, they drifted onward, aiming at positions to port and starboard of the Union fleet. Zhang Yu dismissed a frantic call from Admiral Daisuke Minowara aboard the Masamune and waved for comms to be opened again. "Attention Rear Admiral Nitz. Your treacherous flank attack has been detected! Remove your fleet from Imperial territory immediately! Any ships that do not withdraw will be destroyed!"
- Although the bridge section responsible for interdiction and shielding had prepared their gravity well generator systems to ward off potential FTL-based assaults, she had purposefully not raised any kind of Faster-Than-Light Interdiction, partially because the infrastructure was not in place to raise a complete field over the system and so she would have to drain her fleet's power reserves to do so, and partially because she wanted these interlopers driven off.
"Weapons fire detected!" "FTL Signatures in front of the rounds." "It right on top of us, John Markney is down sir, i say again John Markeny is down with all hands." The chatter from the MPSDA operators filled the CIC "Battle Stations!" Nitz yelled out Quickly claxons began blaring as the CIC went from brightly lit to a dull blue, announcements went over the ships intercom as crew scrambled to their posts. From Nitz's flagship the UDSNS Melissa Track launched several void groups of interceptors and bombers which established combat patrols around the Union Fleet. Once targets had been locked the Union Fleet opened fire in return, 6100 series Super Accelerators fired in rapid succession from the destroyers and heavy cruisers. The white hot stream of metal cascaded through the system at .9c towards the Ingen fleet this was supported by a fusillade of supporting fire from standard 3000 series Grav Accelerators which sent rounds down range that kept speed with the larger 6100 streams, this first strike was followed by a secondary strike consisting of Braunstein Laser fire and Series 9190 sustained Fusion torpedoes. For the smaller ships to the flank their stealth was insufficient against the upgraded sensors aboard the Union vessels for them given their close range was sent several salvos of E-series Graviton missiles which upon detonation would create a space time shearing effect. The Vanguard was a small force and as such not equipped to go toe to toe with a hostile fleet, they began stopped forward thrust and began a full reverse out of the system. The incident was already reported to sector command who would now begin the process of threat elimination.
Aboard the Parity of Truth, the various stealth countermeasures deactivated as flares of light indicated the Junrei had opened fire. They were still some way from the interlopers' fleet, but almost instantly a volley of alarm signals blared as the enemy began to launch torpedoes towards the Jade flanking force that had suddenly appeared. As their battlefield awareness suites began to blink back online, Captain Konda Terumoto began to calmly relay orders. The IdaiTech BAT-1 Fire Control Suite began by spamming communication requests in a variety of formats to the incoming missiles in an attempt to drown out any communication between them and the enemy fleet. Simultaneously, the Jade vessels began dumping their own torpedoes. First came a round of Mark II Soldier Termite decoy torpedoes. These torpedoes were designed to emit readings similar to the ship that launched them, and when their victims were deprived of assistance from their more powerful shipboard systems the ruse often worked. Behind them, as the enemy torpedoes came closer, a welter of more conventional anti-missile munitions crashed into them. Larger models exploded in a shower of tiny superheated high density fléchettes, which smaller more agile missiles simply attempted to collide with their targets and detonate their own high-explosive payloads. At short range, Gyaku-Ko Beam Defense Points opened up, shimmering lines of blue energy whipping through the darkness to knock down torpedoes with pinpoint accuracy. Despite all these countermeasures, some torpedoes made it through the fireworks display and crashed home against the prow and flanks of the Parity of Truth. One blast in particular shuddered the superstructure, knocking out several weapons batteries on the port flank and sending clouds of debris spiraling into the void. Alerts blared across the vessel and it listed briefly before thrusters corrected its painful limp, the huge hull straightening up relative to its escorts even as it continued to bleed. Captain Terumoto listened dispassionately as strained voices called in damage and casualty reports, before contacting his two subordinates aboard their Miséricorde frigates. Accordingly, the Eight Clay Plates moved into position to cover their stricken flank. The IJN Junrei was not so lucky. The other vessels of the Fleet were agile enough to simply move out of the way of the worst of the fire or manoeuvre to present their strongest areas for targeting, as even pure light would take nearly two minutes to close the quarter-AU gap now between the two fleets.. The Junrei, however, was not so speedy, and her Slipgate generators needed time to recharge after firing the augmented MAC rounds which had opened the battle by hulling an enemy destroyer. The streams of molten metal crashed against the shielding of the Junrei, barely affected by the desperate volleys launched by the ship's various defenses. After a few moments the shielding flickered, letting several short bursts of metal through. Crashing against the thick hull of the ship, the streams melted and fused angrily, but the vulnerable viewports of the bridge itself collapsed almost instantly. In less than a second, the cabin depressurised, filled with pure fire and metal, killing the entire bridge crew. Someone somewhere in one of the shielding relays had the wit of mind to activate gravity generators and gently redirect the remaining beams of metal, slewing them widely across a broader area to reduce their impact, but the Junrei listed badly, wounded and leaderless, as the surviving chain of command struggled to reroute control to the reserve bridge deck.
Aboard the Masamune, Daisuke Minowara realised that he was now the de facto commander of the entire ANC Colony Fleet. Enraged, although whether by Zhang Yu's refusal to heed his warnings or by the destruction their enemies had caused he knew not, he began barking orders to his fleet in order to press the attack, but a glance at the tactical readout revealed that their targets were already withdrawing in good order. Lingering for a moment, tempted to plunge onwards towards glorious battle, better sense prevailed. He had a duty to his crew and his mission, and so he ordered a full stop. "Let them go," he said when the captain of the Oaken Pagoda protested. "Just let them go." His voice sounded exhausted and quiet even to his own ears.
"This is the C.W.M.V. Echoing Thunder of the Commonwealth of Darastrix Isk. We wish you no harm to either side of this current battle, and thus we will hold our position. We will defend ourselves if either of you attack us." Came the response from Captain Red-with-envy. The Commonwealth vessels stopped all of their forward movements but kept up there scanning. A few of their weapons began to move from their resting positions in anticipation of being attacked. To all who were watching them it was clear that they were taking up defensive positions.
"Give them one last salvo before we make our exit" Nitz Ordered from the centre of his CIC As the Close space portal opened up behind the Union fleet they launched one last salvo of E-series missiles at the Ingen Fleet this time being sent into direct contact with hulls with the use of the Close Space gates at the end of their launch tubes, as the last one left the Union fleet slipped quietly through the mirrored portal back to their own territory. With one ship down and with a variety of damages from scratches to full breaches alongside several decompressed compartment, the vanguard fleet would be in dock for sometime before it would be operational ready again. The Ingen however would be hearing from the Union again very soon.
Although the bridge crew were dead, their previous decision to ready the TILT generators against potential FTLi attacks paid off. As the Close Space gates attempted to open near the Jade fleet, a TILT flash twisted the space-time continuum momentarily through the use of a lattice of gravity shadows, meaning that the intended exit coordinates for the Close Space gates were lost. Missiles scattered randomly within an AU of the fleet, and even those that managed to reorient were easily fended off by the combined defenses of the remaining functional warships. Minowara breathed a silent sigh of relief, and then began to take stock. Firstly, the second squadron of ships, claiming to be from some Commonwealth. He wanted them to be telling the truth, so that no further blood would have to be spilled, but if they told the truth then it meant Zhang Yu had fucked up in a grand way and her death had been entirely unnecessary. After a moment, he ordered the IJN Cleansed By Rain to jump half the distance towards the CWMV Echoing Thunder and hail them. The 7km long Katana destroyer slid into realspace through a flaming red Slipgate and held position, hailing the Commonwealth ship on the same frequency it had used. "This is the Imperial Jade Navy. We intend to approach and dispatch a shuttle craft on a diplomatic mission to your fleet.". Meanwhile, aboard the Junrei, one of the first people to arrive at the ruined bridge was Lieutenant Kuribayashi of the 77th Marine Regiment. A young man clad in MACS armour, he entered the corridor adjacent to the ruined bridge. Behind him, the bulkhead doors sealed and he typed the override code into the door in front of him. After a warning reminder, during which he activated the mag seals on his combat boots, the door hissed open, the rush of air past his helmet the first indicator of the void beyond. Kuribayashi gasped involuntarily. Ahead of him was nothingness. A bizarre, alien landscape of slagged metal, a brutal gash in the pristine flank of the giant warship. Where once this door had opened on to the bridge, now it opened onto chaotic lumps and swirls of metal, different hues struck through one vast mass above, below and either side of him, ending only in an open, jagged glimpse of the stars beyond. It was immediately clear that no human could have survived such cataclysmic energies. He took a few steps out, then stopped. Behind him, the door hissed again, and more footsteps faltered. Kuribayashi had been attached to Captain Esposito. She was more than a decade older than him, but in the typical way of youth he had been caught by a few chance glances and dreamy fantasies of the lustrous skin of the Mediolanii XO. She, along with the rest of the bridge crew and a Jade Flag Admiral were now gone, reduced to atoms in an instant. Despite the devastating loss, the fleet still had a mission. Thousands upon thousands of KanshoCorp Defender Network Drones, packed away in the hold of the IJN Dark Comber, were launched and shirred away to their stations, where they knit together a shell of Faster-Than-Light Interdiction three AU out from the system's star. The Ushi freighters moved into high orbit, awaiting the marine force that would secure the initial landing zones, but the rest of the fleet was still in disarray
"Imperial Jade Navy vessel your are clear to approach. Please approach our largest vessel in our formation. Please do not be alarmed about our weapons not returning to their stored positions. We are doing this for the simple fact that you just had a recent engagement and we rather side on the side of caution. We will not be offended if you choose to do the same ," came the response from the C.W.M.V. Echoing Thunder.
The Cleansed By Rain sprang closer to the Commonwealth fleet and then dropped an elegant Soyokaze shuttle from one of its hangars. The small craft approached the Echoing Thunder and sailed gently into a landing berth as directed. With a pneumatic hiss, a ramp extended from the belly of the craft and a woman in a white qipao-style dress with dark green embroidery depicting primarily dragons led a small contingent of marines in their parade colours, white with green trim. "Greetings to you," she began "I am Taira Toshi, a Daimyo of the Jade Empire of Ingen."
The Daimyo and her party were greeted by a small contingent of marines wearing dull grey armor. The marines' weapons were kept in a parade carry. At the head of the group was the captain of the ship, she has bright vibrant teal scales and a nice pressed white uniform decorated with various awards. Behind her stood the Admiral Thundering Stone, he stood there his emerald colored scales glistening in the hanger lights, like the captain, he wore a white uniform with various awards on it. The rest of the hanger seemed to be undergoing some sort of organized chaos. There was a line of fighters on the overhead magnetic launch. One of the pilots had his canopy open and was arguing with one of the flight deck personnel. There was various buggies, loaded with various tools or weapons, moving to and fro in the hanger. All of this were just clear signs of an active warship, and to those who serve on a carrier they would feel at home. "Greetings, and welcome to the C.W.M.V Echoing Thunder. I am Captain Red-with-envy and this is Admiral Thundering Stone," the captain said.
Daiymo Toshi, a polished diplomat, betrayed no surprise at the alien physiology. Tall and reptilian, they reminded her subconsciously of dragons, a propitious animal in the Jade Empire. The admiral in particular was huge, nearly ten feet tall, but other than that the hangar seemed almost familiar. It looked much like the hangars aboard the Cleansed By Rain or any other Imperial ship. Some of Toshi's marines, in jungle camouflaged armour in anticipation of the planetary landings, were less sanguine about the giant aliens, some shocked or wary whilst others were thrown offguard, but behind their impassive visors their reactions were not discernible. "A pleasure," Toshi said with a bow. "Thank you for inviting us aboard your vessel. I apologise for the eventful nature of our arrival, and hope we can use this opportunity to open cordial relations between our two nations." _
Meanwhile The fleet was a mess. The Junrei was still drifting, held in place by gravity wells from two Nodachi class vessels, whilst the Parity of Truth, a Tanto destroyer, was so badly damaged it had been anchored and non-essential staff were being transferred elsewhere whilst repairs were begun. Other ships had suffered lesser damages, from guns dismounted to hull plates wrecked and bulkheads burst, giving the engineers of the fleet more work than they could handle. Minowara decided that to dally or hesitate would be a mistake. He ordered the landings to go ahead, watching as the Kankyo dropship which had been waiting awkwardly turned again to head to the surface...J
"The pleasure is ours," Red-with-envy said with a quick salute to the Daiymo. "It was a little short notice but, we have managed to quickly convert one of our ready rooms into a impromptu conference room. We have water and a verity of teas made from various fruits and leaves from our home galaxy. Though you might want to scan them before consumption as to make sure the drinks are not harmful to your biology." The marines stayed at parade rest with their weapons while the captain spoke. A few of the other personnel in the hanger had stopped what they were doing to look before being motivated by their superiors to get back to work.
Toshi nodded thankfully. "Please, lead the way. Captain Shigeru, remain with the shuttle." Stepping forwards, her marines clearly uneasy, she appeared serene. Alien though they were, these Commonwealthers seemed reasonable enough, and if their hosts did prove to be treacherous a handful of marines wouldn't be enough to fight their way out of an entire alien cruiser anyway. As they headed to the makeshift conference room, Toshi launched into her standard spool about the Empire. "The Jade Empire is a majority human nation spread over three settled planets and more than forty colonies. A robust mining and agricultural network supports more than 25 billion citizens, who enjoy substantial personal rights and engage in free mercantilism, all protected by the Imperial Jade Navy. The Empire is colonising the Sanrin System to gain a foothold in the Ancerious Galaxy, hoping to establish new trade routes and uncover new resources."
The Admiral grumbled in his native tongue, and the captain responded in the same tongue. The conference room was rather modest with a few terminals and projectors to display any information that may be warranted. The room was sparsely decorated with a few images from worlds from beyond Ancerious. "The Commonwealth has a similar goals," the captain said as she took a seat....