What a hectic day. Invaders left right and center. Golden Chrysanthemums of all persuasions joining in on the fun, and a Cardimine trader all on the same day? All on the same work shift? My luck can't be that bad!
Evidently, it wasn't as I wasn't shot down!
The first engagement I participated in was a few kilometers, out of range of the battleship Nagumo. The BAF invaders, who consisted of a badly organized one gunboat and, eventually about 5 or so support ships faced off against myself and Akamoto, both in Chimaera fighters.
It wasn't long before they were feeling the burn of our guns whilst landing a scarce few hits on us, that they called in the Golden Chrysanthemums to help them out. Bringing a gunboat and a bomber, we now faced overwhelming odds and decided to head, using our thrusters, to the Nagumo.
During the flight to the Nagumo, I doubled back behind Akamoto twice, dropping the shields and inflicting light damage to the [GC] bomber first, and Samantha Windsor's Templar second. When we arrived at the Nagumo, the enemy stayed at range for some time, afraid of the Nagumo's guns.
They moved on, soon enough, to Tsushima Depot in orbit around planet Aso, unwilling to face off against two fighters without overwhelming firepower, which they lost to the addition of the Nagumo.
I am unaware of the state of Tsushima depot at this time, though I am aware that it has likely suffered heavy damage while Akamoto tried to gather our forces. Unfortunately, Akamoto's ship systems had a catastrophic failure outside of combat in the middle of space, so he was unable to give me directions on how the battle should proceed.
I will admit now that I panicked, and ordered our reinforcements not to engage. Of course, the onus wasn't on them to choose the place of the battle, and one of our reinforcements, an [AFA] fighter, fell to the Bretonian fleet. However, our local forces managed to inflict some damage too, causing one of their pilots to suicide into, I assume, planet Aso.
A small Kiretsu attack group then entered kyushu, but surprisingly ordered the Bretonians to leave. Even more surprisingly, the Bretonians obliged and began to leave. At this time, I was waiting having manually distrupted the trade lane as close to Tsushima as I dared, which was about 20 kilometers off from the station. I caught Samantha and a bomber pilot whose name I cannot recall unawares, but they quickly regained their composure. I made an error in timing, hesitating with the trigger, and they used the trade lane to make good their escape, or so I had thought.
News of the temporary occupation of Tsushima by the invading scum spread quickly, and there was of course a massive backlog of traffic desperately trying to jump to Tau 29. Samantha forced her way through the queues, but the bomber pilot was very unlucky.
A Golden Chrysanthemum, the one from earlier, came to cover the pilot as he tried to force his way through the queues. However, she was not successful, and the bomber pilot lost his ship before he could jump. The hostile gunboat proceeded to shoot me even more vigorously, but his shields were dropped by the Nagumo. I inflicted medium damage with the Nagumo, before he retreated from the area, calling me a coward for not following him. What stupid fool would try to take a gunboat alone with a fighter?
I thought the engagement was over, but more reinforcements had come to my aid and had the Kiretsu forces engaged. Being of Hogosha persuasion, I could understand why they would attack the Kiretsu, but since they saved our system and undoubtedly some damages to Kusari property, I am not sure that engaging them over the [QCRF] and [GC] tagged forces was the best option.
However, I proceeded to the location of this secondary battle. Not quick enough, as one of the Kusari gunboats was downed. However, I arrived in time to save the second one and provide cover. Immediately, I went for the bomber, [Kiretsu]Kakujin. However, she seemed depeleted from the battle's progression, and my distraction was enough for the hogosha gunboat to go back on the offensive, finishing off the [GC] gunboat from my last engagement around Nagumo, and the [Kiretsu] bomber. Said bomber made an impressive run for safety, but got caught by my 6 disinfectors as she tried to flee.
It was at this time that a [GC] tagged bomber, also from my previous engagements, arrived on the scene. However, her piloting was substandard compared to the [Kiretsu] bomber, and she was mercilessly gunned down by my mini razor and the Hogosha gunboat's guns.
All that was left was the [Kiretsu] Blood Dragon fighter, which immediately began to flee. He also seemed depleted from the battle but the maneuverability of the fighter allowed it to completely evade all of my shots and that of the gunboat. Despite this, I landed an arguably lucky mini razor shot after predicting his flight path manually, and the gunboat launched all of its cruise distruptors in quick sucession. The damage on the CDs, while low, was enough to cause a structural failure within the craft and he was downed.
I returned to the Nagumo shortly after and inspected my craft, which was almost scratchless. I used two nanobots and a full shields worth of shield batteries during the entire period of hostility, which were replaced as the BAF forces mercilessly gunned down our regulars to extend the lifespan of their bomber with the salvaged nanobots and shield batteries.
I had a few dents and a plasma burn or two cleaned and repaired, and then launched. I found myself confronted with three of my comrades in the Kusari Naval Forces, and at the same time found myself almost speechless at their ridiculously late timing, missing all of the main battle and failing to provide support entirely.
My comrades did however, stop and dispose of 4999 units of cardimine going through Kyushu. A Hogosha gunboat decided it also needed compensation for assisting. Unfortunately, my memory of what happens at this point seems to have failed, I only remember jumping to New Tokyo and on to Shikoku, to pursue an Outcast Destroyer, which escaped before I could get there.
It was indeed a hectic day today, so much so that I think I am going to touch sake again for the first time in four years.