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// This will be the background to the Kusari battleship I am now powertrading for. Chosen font makes " marks appear as solid blocks.

The hulk of the old Battleship Nagasaki sat silently in the orbit of the Tau-29 star. The silent, scarred hull long abandoned. Now the soft flare of engines illuminated the faded pattern of the Imperial Navy. The crackle of radio chatter buzzed between the trio of vessels. Hoy. Lookit this thingy. S an old Kusari Balle ship! Said the first Junker to the other two. No shi? I wunner how much the Bretties will pay t get they hands on it? Said the second Junker.

Naw, man. The Sarians ll pay way more fer it. We just gotta drop a flag here, and wait for them to pick us up. Naw, they may not like us, but they will still reward ussns if we present it nicely.

And thats what the Junkers did. They dropped a buoy, and sent a transmission to the Kusarians. They left the area in search of other scrap, and returned to the site five hours later. There was a Wyrm there, bearing a masked transponder. Upon spotting the Junkers approaching, the pilot engaged cruise engines and flew the opposite direction, back to Kusari. Hey! Wait, ya bugger! Wheres our cash? Said the third Junker. The Wyrm slipped off of scanner range.

Les wait here until they gets back. They know its here, now. Said the first Junker. And wait they did, and all three were dozing in their cockpits when their scanners beeped, regarding new contacts. All three snapped awake, their CSVs rocking slightly. Scanners read two Heavy Lifters, a repair vessel, and two utility craft, with a gunboat and three fighters as escort. The Junkers read a payment ping to each of their neural nets. Time to move along, gaijin. Said the gunboat, obviously the leader of the excursion.

The Junkers found no argument, their payment fulfilled. They all activated their cruise engines and left the site, congratulating themselves on their latest payment.

The Repair vessel moved in and began repairing the most minor of structure flaws, and reinforcing several points on the ship. The sides were still blown open, the front fangs snapped in half or mangled, and the nose of the ship was splayed in a splash pattern from a high velocity ram. The engines were the most intact part of the ship, though that wasnt saying much. The main drives were jammed with space debris, and the auxiliary engines were mangled, mainly from exploding fuel lines.

Everybody at the site had concluded that it was too damaged for repair, and ought to simply be scrapped and repurposed. But they had their orders, this hulk had to make it to Hiroshima intact for complete retrofitting.

So, whats the point of brining this scrap heap back to Kusari? It looks like it will fall apart just towing it back. Said one of the fighter escorts. Thats what Im trying to prevent, said the Repair ship, I have reinforce these struts, and structural weaknesses. We have our orders. This thing is going to have to fly again. Confusion and disbelief still floated like a cloud around the group.

Finally the repair ship decided that it had done all it can, and the utility ship moved inside the destroyed hulk, taking a complete scan of the vessel, inside and out. Alright, pilots. Time to stop gawking and start moving. Patrol Matsu one and two, move in a clockwise motion five kilometers out from the wreck. Matsu three, with me. Were doing longer range recon. Were vulnerable out here. Outcasts wont hesitate to attack us.

The ships moved to their positions as the utility ship finished his scan. The captain, somewhat disappointedly, said, Well, scans are done. Looks like most of the damage is on the outside. The only internal damage is the gravity module, pressurization monitor, shield system, and the fuel lines. The Nagasaki only needs external repair, new seats, and some replaced fuel lines. Lifters Go, Roku, move into position. Extend tow lines and take this thing home.

The utility ship moved out of the hulk, as the Lifters moved into position. Tow lines whistled and thunked onto the hull. Engines strained, and the hulk began to gather momentum. Sir, what exactly happened to this ship? I remember hearing it went MIA in 798 during the Outcast Offensive, but this ships neural net log is limited.

The Gunboat captain replied, I fought alongside this ship during that battle. I was a fighter pilot then. Yes, the Outcast Offensive of 798. That was a magnificent battle, and Kyushu might not still be under our control had we lost that pivotal battle.

It started with some fighter detected on the long-range. This Nagasaki moved into position and handled the situation. From there, waves upon waves of Outcast forces began to pour out of Tau 29. First it was the fighter scout waves. Then bombers joined the attack. Then gunships moved in. And then the cruisers. When the Nagasaki was about to go under, and its fighter wings depleted, we arrived to save it. Just as the Outcast flagship, the El Diablo, jumped in. The Nagasaki ordered a full boost to engines. The panicked ship, facing a battleship charging at full speed and firepower, fled back to Tau 29. The Nagasaki followed it. From there, the reports are fuzzy. I was ordered in with some other pilots to search for survivors, and we found nothing except the ruined flagship. It was sheared clean in half, but one of the fangs of the Nagasaki was stuck in it. Scanners showed the Nagasaki very distantly, with some anomaly of jump hole and the suns gravity propelling it away from us very quickly. In recent years, it must have simply drifted back into local range from the gravity of the sun here.

There were some whistles of admiration, and one of the escorts said, The crew of the Nagasaki died honorable deaths. May their spirits be forever at peace.

It was arduous, slow work to tow the battleship. The escorts began frantically clearing a path for the hulk, destroying or ramming aside asteroids that might endanger their cargo. Finally, the jump hole to Kyushu appeared in view, and upon approaching it, began the sequence. The hulk of the Nagasaki began to be pulled into the jump hole behind the lifters, and the escorts followed.

--- Debriefing Report---
Gunboat Commander Azi Mokhu
1200 hours, Sirian year 818

Battleship Nagasaki hulk retrieved successfully
No hostile incidents
Scans indicate minimal interior damage; severe external damage
Unknown time to complete repair
Cost lower than initially expected; cheaper to repair than to repurpose

Hataki

The battleship Hataki was finished. The repaired hulk of the old Nagasaki, lost in battle in 798 AS. The busted hull repaired, the ruined interior replaced, the Hataki was set to guard the secluded system of Kitakyushu, a system that was only recently charted. Many of Hiroshimas exposed bases were moved into Kitakyushu, as Hiroshima was no longer a secret.

Hiratsuka shipyard, the yard that the Hataki was repaired at, detached the security lines from the repaired battleship. Fuel lines were opened, and engines flared to life. The ship gained momentum, and lurched forward. The Hataki moved with silent grace into space.

The ship was on its maiden voyage, a calculation run. Readings were being analyzed on-site as the ship tested its new equipment. Engineers were talking amongst themselves as they watched the battleship move.

Its repaired nicely.
Yes, quite nicely.
Questionable structural durability on deck five, flight two.
Agreed. Reinforce that area.
But then we would need to reinforce decks seven and eight, they are both directly connected with flight two.
Then do so. The Kataki is our newest battleship, it deserves everything we can give it.
Hiro, youre so cold. Dont refer to the Hataki as an it. Shes our newest child.
I want a son, not a weak little girl.

The squabble went quietly on, and the ship finally ran its course. It was some hours later that weapons were fixed onto the ship. As each one was attached and secured, the powercore gave a flutter that worried everyone watching. But it held steady in the green as the last one connected. Security lines detached, and the ship floated out for armament and tracking algorithm testing.

Drones buzzed around the Hataki, and were promptly shut down. The guns flared brightly, and sent flaming wrecks spinning away from the grand vessel. It once again, moored.

Testing was complete. The Hataki was deemed battle-ready. An Aoi Iseijin operative on the base sent the signal. The time was now right. The Hataki slid out, headed for Hiroshima, and battle. The crew had been shuttled in a few hours prior, and were excited to serve on the newest and best of Kusari. When the perimeter alarms started blaring, everybody was lost for a moment. They milled around, before the commander began whipping out orders.

Weve got intruders! All hands to your stations! Gunners, get to your posts! Navigation and Engineering, get us in position to protect the jump hole! Scouts began feeding information. Weve got a mix of Nomad vessels and presumed Aoi Iseijin. Reading a fighter interceptor wing of four fighters, bomber wing of five ships of alien and Kusari design, and a Marduk Nomad battleship!

The Nagasaki positioned Its broadside across the jump hole, all guns trained on the Marduk. Fighters poured from its hangar, and as soon as they had, the invaders were upon them.

Aoi Iseijin and human pilot fought, twisting and turning in mad dances of death and glory. Every human pilot there hardly breathed, living off the adrenaline of the life and death situation they faced. The bombers were hanging back, with the Marduk. As soon as the Marduk was five kilometers from firing range, they sped forward, barraging the shield with their energy weapons and singularity generators. The shield was brand new, and lasted quite a while before finally exhausting. Instantly, all of the attacking vessels threw themselves at the battleship, working to destroy all of the weapons on it that they could. With their backs to the Kusarians, they fell quickly, but not before a dozen of the battleship guns were crippled. The confusion of the battle had allowed the Marduk to approach.

The Nomad battleship fired upon the shipyard with everything it had, targeting the Hangar first. The shields held for a moment, then collapsed. The metal flew apart and the fuel inside the grounded vessels ignited, sending huge blasts of flame out of the area. Gouts of flaming liquid splashed the few escaping fighters. Human fighters, no matter how bravely fighting, fell one by one. Escape shuttles were shot down, and the last vestiges of humanity purged from the area. However, the battleship stood, firing on the Marduk and inflicting serious damage. The swarm turned on it, and disarmed the broadside facing the Marduk, who was finishing destroying the human shipyard. The Hataki engaged engines, attempting to flee, but the swarm of fighters stopped it from charging it's engines to full strength.

The Marduk easily overtook the ship and began the long process of manipulating it's shell. It formed small 'hooks' and attached itself to the gun-less side of the battleship. It used the easiest opening it could find to begin to enter the ship. In the Marduk, a pore opened and began to expand, directly over the Hangar bay. It opened a tunnel to it's interior energy, which lanced out and scored a hole in the hangar, and two tendrils reached out, slowly, and began to pry open the opening.

It was a process of several weeks that the Marduk slowly worked it's way into the ship, transferring it's own energy into the Hataki. The crew was long subdued by the Aoi Iseijin sleeper agents, and pilots from the battle. They were kept alive by the Aoi Iseijin, who one by one, converted the humans into their agents. After a time, the ship looked completely human on the outside. But below the armored plate, lay a second layer of blue-purple armor, and the air within thrummed with a constant energy, and purple hue. The crew activated the cruise engines, and set course for a far distant jump hole.

The ship flew for many days, until they approached a jump hole that had been stabilized using Daam KVosh gate technology. The battleship entered this jump hole, and they existed in the tunnel for hours, before hurtling out of FTL speed, in the far outskirts of the Tohoku system.

It was several hours of flying, when the ships engines ran out of fuel, and the Nomad controlling force began using its own energy to power the ship. The Arch came into distant view, and the Controller stopped using its energy, allowing momentum to carry it the rest of the way.

At the Arch, many ships were brought up to stop the coasting battleship, and it was eventually carried to a nearby outpost. The Controller had time now to rest, and fully integrate itself into its new shell, until it flowed through every power line, controlled every circuit, and busied itself with the wealth of knowledge on the ships main computer bank.

The crew filtered back onto the ship, one by one, to learn how to operate the massive battleship. While it was controlled by a Nomad, it could not operate every little process. The old crew was moved back on, chosen for their previous knowledge of operating human warships. Small hands scurried across the vessel, satisfying the small itches that the master could not reach.

It would soon be ready to operate. Soon be ready to return to Kusari, and have the revenge of the Hataki brought upon them. Fighter craft swarmed around every contour of the ship, each one ready to sacrifice itself to reclaim its true home.

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