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15.03.818.AS - Omicron-92

The lumbering hull of the OCV-Akhenaten.II drifted through the shards of rock, it's scanners set to probe deep into the darkness. The system was well known for it's electromagnetic fields, disrupting scanners and making the system almost impossible to map. They were flying blind.

The Akhenaten had three wings, amounting to two Hathors, four Nephthys and three Bastets in total, along with reserves waiting to fly within it's carrier tubes. The Geb itself was floating through on impulse, it's wings spread out and covered the perimeter, ready for anything.

The system had been dormant for the last eighteen years, a dormant Nomad Hive near the center of the field was assumed to be the source of the electromagnetic interference, though no research wing had been assigned to study it due it it's active weapon systems.

In a split second, the hunters began their strike.

A Kagutsuchi appeared from within the rocks, invisible to the Geb's scanners. This was the Sahaquiel, and it was not alone. Several Katanas swarmed out from the mist, purple and orange fire burned through space towards the wings of Order ships, the element of surprise stunning the support for the Geb.

The Order ships defended themselves as a wing of Nodachi bombers made their strike from behind the Geb, chipping away at the Battleship-class shield with bursts of Antimatter. The support wings were too busy on the defence to support the Akhenaten, which had begun opening fire on Sahaquiel.

Sahaquiel's superior weaponary was about matched to the Geb's pure firepower, though the thin profile of the Kagutsuchi and it's swift manuverabiliy gave it the upper hand in the long range combat.

Soon enough the Akhenaten's shield had fallen, it's fighter tubes were ready to fire it's payload, support for the ongoing battle. It was the Nephthys in bay three that died first, the young pilot barely got a glimpse of space before the torp tube was filled a bright orange and purple orb of energy.
Sahaquiel's forward cannon was responsible for the shot, striking when the Geb's shield was down. A critical hit that hit the very core of the Akhenaten, tearing it apart from the inside.

The Akhenaten itself quickly became a column of fire and metal, drifting forward and colliding with one of the larger rocks, as parts of the ship broke off or ruptured in an inferno of scrap and armour plating.

The Akhenaten II exploded brilliantly as her drive cores went supernova. The various bits and pieces of hull and internal components drifted through the asteroid field, showering the remaining combatants as they fearfully fought for their lives against the alien attackers.

The communication channels were in disarray as the frantic pilots desperately tried to cope with their current predicament.

The carriers down!

What do we do now?!

I dont wanna diiiiiiiiieeeee!

Get em off my tail!

It went on and on, no one able to grab hold of their wits. Their assailants, on the other hand, remained quiet and calm. Their focus was inhuman as their hands drifted across the controls of their ships with fluid movements.

A Nephthys spun out of control as its port engine exploded, slamming into an asteroid and exploding in a resounding orange and white fireball. One of the escorting Hathors took note of this, rocketing from the midst of a cluster of asteroids and taking fire at the Katana responsible for the death of its ally.

Two volleys of pink and white slammed into its prow stripping the vessel of its shields. In quick succession a ball of orange erupted from the main cannon of Sahaquiel. The destructive orb slammed into the Hathor, punching into the cockpit and ripping out of the engine. The now bisected vessel drifted apart and into a cluster of combating fighters. Before they could pull away it exploded, the fireball consuming four of the vessels and flash-vaporizing them.

Just as quickly the second Hathor was picked apart by a squadron of Katanas. This explosion wasnt as beautiful or showy as the first. The chewed-apart Hathor lazily drifted apart as the drive core hurtled them away with the force of its explosion.

Four more Nephthys were chewed asunder by the alien weapons of the Katanas. The screams of their pilots echoing over the radio and leaving a sinking feeling in the hopes of the survivors.

Retreat, God dammit! The cry rang out over communication channel to spur everyone into leaving.

The panic only made it easier to fire at them as they ran. One by one, they were shot down. None were left alive. With the final Nephthys down and the field of debris expanding, the Katanas entered formation with the abominable cruiser. They faded away into the mists, leaving only the wreckage of the Order as evidence of their presence.

23.07.246.AS - Kusari, Hideyoshi Shogunate

Kusari was young, the Hideyoshi Dynasty flourished, exploring the vast space beyond the Crow Nebula. One such exploration cruiser was the Meiyona-chusei. The task of the ship was to seek out valuable minerals for mining beyond the area now known as Tohoku.

It was a relitively armoured cruiser, designed to withstand the volatile gas pockets in around Kusari, the advanced probes and scanners present along the nose of the ship were to fully map out and search for deep deposits of minerals.


"Captain, we've left the main body of the nebula, engines are holding steady"

"Very good, continue the path marked out, let me know if the situation changes"

"Yes sir"

The Captain stood down from the command deck, leaving the navigations officer and pilot to keep the ship on track. Captain Ryu Takeda descended the steps down to the lower decks, headed down through the halls of the ship.

He stopped at a small panel on the wall, throwing a couple of red switches and pressing his hand on a lit up green button,

"Status report on that backup generator" Captain Takeda requested, speaking into the panel,

"Lights were all green, until about ten minutes ago, Captain" the head engineer responded through the radio,

"Will it be a problem, what exactly is wrong?"

"Umm.. well we tried replacing the-" the engineer paused, "Well, on second thought, we can re-route-... yeah, we're fine actually, I'll get the boys onto it right away" the engineer was confident

"Good, we will most likely need that backup, we are heading into murky waters, do not let me down Kenti"

"Understood, I'll have her ready to kick in at full, you have my word"


Captain Takeda threw a couple more switches, pressing the green button again,

"Takao, you have the bridge" the Captain ordered his First Officer,

"Yes sir, I'll let you know when we arrive at the core of the nebula"

The Captain followed the cramped halls towards a small ladder, to which he began climbing down, a a couple of rungs at a time. Entering his quarters present below the decks. He sighed and loosened his jacket, slipping it off and hanging it on a small hook next to a crude space suit.

Takeda had enough time to sleep, the nebula was rather far out, and they had a couple of hours travel time yet. The mission would go smoothly, he knew it.

First Officer Karuda Takao sat in the captain's chair, smiling to himself. His finger suddenly snapped up, pointing at the helmsman. "Increase power to the engines. Let's impress the Captain and get there in a more time-efficient manner."

"Yes, sir," The helmsman said tiredly, his fingers dancing lazily across the control panel.

"Where's the enthusiasm?" Karuda asked, turning his nose up and looking down at the man.

"Aye, sir! Increasing power to engines! Increasing time-efficiency!" He gave more cheer into his tone. Karuda smiled, glad that the point was put across. The speed increased slightly, the effects of inertia felt for a split second before the dampeners kicked in. He lurched slightly, giving a disapproving grunt.

"Contact engineering. Tell them that the dampeners are failing."

"But, Sir-" The communications officer was cut off as Karuda's eyes stared daggers at him. With a sigh he replied, "Yes, Sir. Contacting engineering."

Everything was going perfectly.

Two hours later

Karuda's cat nap was disrupted by the blare of an alarm. His eyes fluttered open, hand coming up to wipe at the line of drool at the corner of his mouth. "Status report!" He screeched.

"Asteroid field, Sir!" The helmsman replied, "Should we contact the captain?"

"No!" He practically yelled it, "We are going to prevail. This shouldn't be here! This isn't right!" His gaze locked with the screen, showing rocks of all sizes and shapes lazily drifting about. Now was the time to prove himself. "Increase engines to full. Charge into the field and bash the rocks aside with our hull!"

"Bu-"

"DO IT!"

"Yes...sir..."

The engines flared suddenly, the vessel plowing into the asteroid field.

Captain Takeda stumbled over to one of the communications panels, slamming his hand on the green button,

"Status report I said! What is going on!?" he yelled, his mind racing thoughts of anger and confusion,

First Officer Takao replied to the Captain, responding with wavering confidence,

"Everything is fine, nothing is wrong" Takao lied, staring out at the terrifying rocks ahead,


The Meiyona-chusei had stumbled into what is now the rocks of Omicron-92. They had believed it was a nebula filled with valuable minerals, perhaps even useful construction materials, though this was not the case, the Meiyona-chusei was the first ship of it's class to map this area.

This meant they were unaware of the rocks at first, and should have stopped or slowed before proceeding. The Meiyona-chusei was equiped to breeze through gas pockets and light dust, not through jagged and dense rocks, the poor decisions of First Officer Takao had them in a tight spot.

"Keep going, we'll break through this these rocks soon, then we'll have the minerals!" Takao ordered,

"I don't think-" the navigations officer began,

"Do not talk back! Just do it!"

"Yessir"

The rocks were only going to get denser, as they proceeded into Omicron-92, and they had begun to arrive in the static interference that made the system so dangerous. The situation would only get worse.

"Sir, the sheilds have dropped below half capacity, and the rocks are showing no signs of ending"

"It's too late now, you will take us through this" Takao growled, gripping the Captain's chair,

The navigations officer piped up, frantically pressing buttons across his large panel, attempting to stabilize the already bad situation,

"We've got no response from the backup generator, and the main is under tremendous strain..."

"Then fix it! I don't-"

The ship rocked violently as the shields failed, allowing for the rocks to directly impact the Meiyona-chusei's hull. Takao watched in horror as the delicate scanning equipment shattered and came apart from the main body of the ship, the expensive and brittle probes snapped like twigs and spun off into the deep green clouds.

"Get that backup online!" Takao yelled in panic, hopping down the steps double time to the lower decks, following the small corridors through towards engineering.

The ship rocked violently again, as red, emergency lights began to come on, indicating a serious problem. Takao cursed and turned the corner towards the ladders, pausing as he saw a rather peculiar piece of metal jutting through the wall to the left of the hallway.

Approaching, he recognised it as one of the delicate scanning probes that had come off the nose of the ship. The force from the rocks had thrown it through the unshielded hull of the ship with great velocity, penetrating the bulkhead, but impacting so perfectly so that the corridor he was in was still correctly pressurised.

Takao approached the point of impact, studying the probe and peering in through a small window. On the other side was the breach, the base of the probe was a little thicker, and had decompressurised the room he was looking in to, meaning the probe had crossed the entire room and pierced the wall to the right of the door.

He gawped for a second, panic rushed over him at the newfound revelation. This was the Captain's quarters.

With a little streak of dread, he peered in through the window, looking at the contents of the room. The captain's jacket was torn on a jagged piece of metal, and there were sickly spatters of crimson liquid. A few droplets floated by as Takao glanced to the right at the probe inside the room.

Next to the door, to the right where the probe had pieced the inner corridor, was the Captain, impaled with the spike and stapled to the wall. He must not have seen it coming, catching him in the belly at a stange angle and knocking most of the life out of him before he had a chance to leave his room.

If he didn't die from the fatal injuries right away, he must have suffocated quicker than usual, due to the weakened state of his being.

Takao backed away from the glass, steadying himself on the opposite wall as the ship rocked again violently. The ship was designed to seal off doors and rooms if they were ever decompressed, but the whole Cruiser was designed for toughing out volatile gas pockets, rocks hadn't been taken into consideration for a ship designed for a specific purpose.

He had made a stupid mistake, a series infact. They should have stopped and scanned first, he should have ordered them to look for a safe passage, or simply consult the Captain first, heck, the Captain should have been present, but Takao was stubborn, he was seeing it now.
The backup generator, he knew it wasn't operating right, and he was wrong to rely on it.


He growled, refusing to admit defeat, knowing he was in control of the ship now. He was the Captain, this was his ship! Captain Karuda Takao... had a sort of ring to it.

The engineering decks were still a few corridors away, he traversed the corridors as best he could, swaying as the ship did, steadying himself each time. Arriving at engineering, he approached the side of a large observation platform, looking down on the chaos below him.

The chief engineer was yelling orders and tightening the bolts on the coolant system, attempting to stabilize the main reactor. Several of his technicians were working together to replace some of the fuel rods in the backup, hoping to get that generator kicked in and stable aswell.

A few of junior engineers were scattered about doing odd tasks around the deck, pulling levers and checking gas levels, announcing their readings in panic and confusion.

"Status report" Takao practically demanded, eying the chaos below,

"We're pushing it sir, you have to throttle it down!"

"No, we're not getting stranded here!"

"Either you slow down, or this baby fails, or worse, explodes"


Takao's voice buzzed through to the bridge,

"Slow us down to a stop, switch off everything that isn't the lights and life support"

"Yessir, and the Captain"

"First casualty... gather everyone and get them down here to engineering" Takao's voice was strained and tired,

"On it" the navigations officer replied, switching off the comms, "You heard the man, everyone down to engineering"


The trip out to the unmapped nebula was a disaster, everything that could go wrong had gone wrong, and now they were stranded. The crew was relitively small for a ship of it's size, as most of the equipment was automated and they lacked a powerful weapons battery.

Within a few minutes, the ship came to a grinding halt next to a large jagged chunk of rock, powering down scanners and engines. The crew slowly made their way to the large engineering deck, piling onto the platforms as best they could.

"Generators, how much longer till the main one fails?" Takao sighed, looking across at each man's face, seeing the fear and confusion,

"Perhaps another four hours like this, one hour if we try to move again, with the risk of failure of course" the head engineer explained, "The backup won't be functional for a while, trying to bring it online earlier fried some pretty important pieces of tech"

"Shields, what of those?"

"The main reflector was damaged by the rocks, we have a backup, but someone has to leave the ship to refit it" the technician shivered, "Most of these rocks are pretty still, but if a single rock in motion hits us, it'll hit us hard, we're sitting ducks"

"So we have four hours till we suffocate, do you think you could have the backup online by then?"

"Yes sir, if we get a move on..."

"Do it, lets get us home boys" Takao ordered with a heavy feeling of dread.

A young engineer, no older than the age of eighteen, gawked at the captain. Outside? Was he nuts? Made it even worse was that Ensign Chira Junya was the most experienced in EVA training. That would mean he'd head outside into an asteroid field, without shields, and fix the damn thing.

"Ensign Junya, you're on refit duty," The Chief Engineer said grimly. He knew the odds of the young man's survival. There was no hiding that.

"H-hai..." He replied, his head turning down sadly. The Captain was looking at him, a somewhat insensitive look on his face. Was that a hint of a smile...?

With great despair, he shuffled off to the airlock, collecting a toolbox as he went along. The first trip was the locker room. Slowly he sat on the bench and opened the locker with his name printed on it, withdrawing the components to his space suit. It seemed like an eternity as he quickly pulled it on. Is this my last few hours? Am I really going to die out there?

Suddenly, his thoughts were silenced as his eyes connected with a picture. A miniature version of himself, only wearing a dress uniform, looked back at him, a smile on his tiny face. Clinging to his right arm was a woman a head shorter, a similar smile on her face. Through her kimono a visible bulge could be made out in her midriff. Don't cry. Don't cry.

Before he could, the Chief Engineer walked in, a large component in his hands. He set it down on the bench and quickly opened his own locker, pulling his suit from within and pulling it on without emotion.

This was it. They were going to die. They were going to die out in this God-forsaken system. Damn Takao...

The airlock hissed as the atmospheric cycling began. An inert gas was pumped into the small chamber where the two men stood, surrounding them in a ghostly mist. It then vanished as quickly as it appeared; drawn out with the air and into space. They both took a step towards the hatch as it opened, their heads turning up to gaze at the space beyond.

They quickly jumped back as a rock hurtled past the airlock. The Chief Engineer audibly swore over the comms channel before taking a step forward yet again to peer outside. This time he used more caution. Convinced there were no more deadly asteroids ready to smash him into bits, he hauled himself out and onto the hull, his magnetic boots making contact and adhering to metal below his feet.

Reluctantly, Junya followed after him. The toolbox in his hands threatened to float away as he began moving. It made his steps awkward and hard to calculate as his focus was placed on dodging rocks and ducking this way and thought as his eyes played tricks on him.

The Chief Engineer was already at ground zero, kneeling down to set the piece against the hull and figure out how to fix it. In a clumsy jog, Junya came to a skidding halt besides him, kneeling down and placing the toolbox's magnetic bottom against the hull and activating the clamps. Satisfied it wouldn't float off, he opened it up and delicately selected his tools.

That's when it all went so very wrong.