The end of a story...

[Xing]

Isabelle looked back at Jimmy, her cyan eyes sparkling with that confidence she so often knew to give to her men when they were in hard times.
"Do not worry my love, everything will be fine, I promise you. In the end, the Kusari people will accept us just like you've managed your way in the liberty military despite having familial ties to the bretonian military. Or just like I managed to achieve the command of a unit composed of my own people. Nothing is impossible, there's always a weakness in the invincible armor of an enemy. No human-created concept is without imperfection."
She smiled warmly,
"It is just our job to find out where is that weakness."

--

The next few days were passed aboard between the Akamatsu and the Yamato, visiting their new working environment and getting to know the crew. As Jimmy predicted, a medical test went by but nothing went wrong; merely a health check to make sure of everything. Both received a temporary uniform that had no ranking and was in a white and grey colour scheme; the uniform of the "outsider evaluators". Because "outsider evaluator" (or, supervisors) were usually top of the line rheinland militar academy officers with an impressive amount of experience and much more knowledge than the kusari own people on star warfare, the Kusari soldiers held a great deal of respect for these men. However, two obvious problem appeared; first, Isabelle looked incredibly too young to be even a commodore, and, well she was a woman. Even more mysterious.
Although young admiral prodige existed by the past (Mitsurugi being a prime exemple in the Kusari history), it was barely heard of any woman achieving such rank at all.

"Well, they'd have to treat the two of you just like they treated every of the previous supervisors! Merkatz, Blittenfeld... bah, if they managed to endure the bad temperament of Blittenfeld they can endure their aching pride at seeing you occupying this post, by the Empire!"
And Mitsurugi having said so with the commodore Kaito present next to them, that solved the problem rather quickly.

And it was wearing these new uniforms of Supervisor for the Empire that Isabelle and Jimmy departed as fast as a week later aboard the newest 7th konoe shidan fleet' flagship, the KNF Amaterasu. The small group of 12 vessels, ranging from battleship to gunship, departed from the Yukawa shipyards for the sigma borders...

--

The clouds of Kusari were reputed to be the most beautiful of Sirius, rivalised only by the gigantic golden Walker Nebula within the Rheinland border. They were also known to be the home of the pirate scourge. Only one entity knew these death traps as well, and it was the GMG.
But even the GMG would be scratching their head, wondering how the Kusari fleet would move within a nebula without being seen. It was at best reckless, at worst, a catastrophe to become.

Isabelle frowned slightly, as she walked up to the command deck where commodore Kaito was standing.
"Commodore Kaito, your men are unexperienced in nebula warfare. Fleet Admiral Mitsurugi only ordered us to check around them for pirate presence, not to go within to seek them."

"Mistress Kaitlynn, with all due respect, but no pirate will come out if we circle around with such massive vessels. And our goal isn't just about wasting fuel to accumulate no kills."

Isabelle looked on the crew working down at their post. Yes, they were disciplined men, much more disciplined than the libertonian soldiers she was used to work with on the Citadelle. But they were in their first true assignment...

"Commodore Kaito, with all due respect, but if the GMG managed to ambush the mighty war juggernaught that was the Rheinland Reichsflotte a few decades ago, a bunch of pirates in large number enough can pull out the trick as well. Might I remember, that due to our size, our shadow are easier to detect than the smaller sized pirate crafts, which puts us at a disadvantage."

"Nonsense. Mistress Kaitlynn, I hold great respect for your competence; you must be a highly decorated officer in your nation and be worth every single medals you've won with your service, but here is Kusari, and we have different method of strategy and warfare, in a different environment, different ships, different philosophy and different enemies."

You'd be a fool to think these are so important differences, commodore... Isabelle thought, as she stepped back next to Jimmy.

Stupid, blind pride... you hope to catch a bunch of careless pirates with that fleet of your's... but pirates aren't the idiotic, disorganised low lifes we used to know by the past... ever since the strenghtening of their alliance with their respective side, they have learnt to act as strictly as a military organisation despite the apparent confusion their language on open channel tend to suggests...
By now, any number of pirate scouts should have spotted our shadow. They will ask for reinforcement from their nearest bastion or waypoint; the dragons have chugoku not so far away, the corsairs or outcasts often use the Yanagi station to launch strike groups. We should be ambushed soon enough... in large enough numbers, they can blast this fleet to nothingness quite easily, the gunners being blind by this thick cloud of gas... thanks god we are not in the explosive pockets area yet.

Just as her reflection finished, the ship shook violently as a gunboat flying very close to them exploded suddenly without apparent explanation. Commodore Kaito backed from the surprising blast, bewildered...
"It's the Corsair! 5 entire wings of corsair combat crafts!!" a radar operator from below yelled over the confusion. But they already noticed that as they saw the unmistackable shape of a feared Titan fighter fly by the bridge, crippling the shield with high powered laser blast.

Commodore Kaito reseized himself and tried to make himself imposing, standing straightly and making gestures with his arms as he gave his orders;
"All ships, open fire at will! Shoot only when certain to hit, we don't want friendly fire! Destroy them at close range if necesary, but blast these scums to the ashes where they come from!!"
Isabelle ran forward,
"No its too late! Retreat immediately out of the nebula and blast them from point blank range if they try to pursue, this is useless for the fleet to die here!"
Kaito looked at her, obviously annoyed, and ignored her, watching the combat display screen with intensity, obviously in his little world...
Isabelle growlered in desperation as she rushed toward the crew command stations;
"Starfighter command, deploy all fighter squadrons for interception immediately!"
"B... but mistress Kaitlynn, we have no authoris..."
"I take full responsibility for everything. Your commodore is acting recklessly, so if you still want to live to accomplish some honourable deeds instead of dying immediately in a dishonourable trap, do as I say!"
And there was no more question asked as the man immediately gave orders to the fighter wings to deploy. His example pushed the other to do same, as Isabelle pulled out more orders;
"Main guns cease fire, switch to fast firing interception fire, missiles ports, fire at the larger combat freighter, they seems to be looters but might as well be landers, knock them unconscious, then we'll turn our attention on the flies! Helm, back away out of her..."
"Helm, do NOT move our position, is that clear?! Mistress Kaitlynn, you may issue combat details to my men, but don't overstep the bound of your authority!"
Kaito didn't finished, that he was thrown violently against a wall as the ship shook once again.
"one of the freighter went right on a blind spot to our turrets of our ship and has attacked itself on it! They... they seems to be cutting directly on the hull!"

Isabelle widened her eyes in surprise. So fast? The corsairs were attempting an invasion already...!
"Jimmy, take care of them, they are near the engine block, don't let them near it!"....

---