Naval Operations Headquarters [Message Dump]

[Yngen]

Under the baleful gaze of the Tau-31 star, a Kusari strike force assembles at the Leeds Jump gate.

The Battleship Tawakemono secures the assembly area while the assault is staged:



"Strikeforce commander, this is Taskforce control, your operation is go, repeat, you are go."

Comms officer onboard the Destroyer Osaka: "Acknowledged Tawakemono, beginning jump preperations."

"Draw swords fellow warriors, we will await you where the blue clouds caress our homes. Tawakemono out."

On board ~Osaka~

"Captain, we have execution authorization from Fleet command."

"Thank you Lieutenant, let us account for all our samurai."

"Yes sir." (changes to operation frequency and encrypts)

"Strike force Kagi, rotate frequency and report."

"Hayase on station and standing by."

"Hotaru ready and waiting."

"Osaka, this is Chijin control, we await the your command."

On signal from Osaka, the small but potent force transmitted its pirate gate code signal and entered the jump gate to Leeds. From the bridge of the Tawakemono, an admiral silently calculated the odds of ever seeing those proud warriors again.

16 hours later, Cambridge

Strike force Kagi had made its way through Leeds undetected. Either that or their enemies where lying in ambush.

As they made the preperations for the jump into Cambridge, Captain Seiji Nebotuda went over in his mind the objectives they faced. Planning for this operation began 3 weeks before when Kusari signals intelligence had intercepted transmissions implying a weapons development facility on Cambridge research station. Analysts suspected a large scale reverse engineering effort dealing with Nomad technology, possibly even corsair weaponry. Imperial command had charged Nebotuda to lead a lightning raid on the facility to aquire research information and disrupt Bretonian weapons research. Kishiro was spending high amounts of R&D funding with a twin program to the Bretonians, but the Brets obviously had progressed further. A raid of the Bretonian research programs would prove too useful to the Imperial fleet to pass this opportunity up.

Nebotuda was honored such an important mission would be assigned to him and he had impressed the gravity of this assignment to his force members. Both the captain of the Chijin and young Hayase were veterans in the war, having seen service behind enemy lines before. Young Kitsune Hotaru had shown brash zeal when told of his mission. Nebotuda wondered if the cocky Chimaera pilot had fully understood the danger he was about to be in.

As for the crew of the Osaka...the captain smiled to himself. They had been through much together and each knew the other's moods as they would their own children. Never before had Nebotuda served with a more acutely honed set of samurai than those found on his ship. They would do their jobs when the time came. Even the friendly competition between his Naval crew and the Kusari Special Forces waiting in the forward airlock made the Junyo-born captain proud.

"Confirmed slave lock for the force, we are ready for Cambridge insertion."

"Hai, execute now."

As the mottled light of jump space enveloped the Gunboat Chijin, her commander reflected on the audacity of such a deep invasion. Having followed the ~Osaka~ into battle before, he felt confidence to a degree, but then they had never traveled so far from Kusari supply depots. So much enemy territory seperated the small force from their objective that if luck swung against them their would be little grace in the stars to save them.

To himself: "Nebo, you take us far from the Lagoon in search of answers..."

Strike force kagi materializes on the edge of the Cardiff belt and begins its approach into Cambridge. The first hurdle on their trip will be the Battleship Norfolk near the Ross Planetoid. Hayase and Hotaru deploy out to a standard screen for the 2 larger ships and cruise engines are engaged.

Watching long range scans for trade traffic between the IMG base at Cardiff and the Planetoid, the group make its way to their first way point. At a distance of 20 kilometers the group bears into the Norfolk with the sun at their backs.

"Contact sensei, looks like a local police patrol."

"Eliminate them, tell Chijin to begin jamming now."

Hotaru and Hayase peel off from the group to close on the police fighters. Surprise is on their side and the fighters are nuetralized before any transmissions get out.

On board the Chijin, orders are given to activate the large piece of equipment sitting in its hold. A wide-band transmitter connected directly to the gunboats power supply. The transmitter begins its blanketing call, canceling out all wave form transmissions within 50 Km.

"Now they will come for us," Nebotuda says to his crew.

Jamming does two things. It closes down all communication, and it tells the enemy you are nearby. Thus, the Norfolk new it was under attack before detecting the Kusari strike force, but it didn't know from what direction. Similar conclusions were reached throughout the system. At planet Cambridge the Battleship Norwich was alerted and scans throughout the system revealed a circular dead zone 50 kilometers across centered around a point in between the Cambridge sun and the Ross Planetoid. It was obvious Norfolk was under attack, but there was little they could do to assist her. Norfolk was to have this fight by herself.



15 minutes later, the Norfolk adrift and suffering structural damage on multiple decks, Strike force Kagi turns towards Cambridge and makes way for their objective. The jamming device on board Chijin fails, but no matter, it has done its part. Surprise is no longer necessary, only initiative. Reassembling its fighter screen, the Osaka sets course for Cambridge and the solitary station orbiting above it.

"Status in Airlock 1?"

"Our teams report full readiness."

"Begin Planetary defence suppression."

As the Kusari strike force nears Cambridge a large planetary defense field is detected. Thinking the invading fleet is a planetary invasion force, the Bretonians activate their most powerful defensive tool. The Kusari's objective however is not the planet, but the research station in orbit to which the Osaka is approaching. While the Chijin and their fighter escorts engage the planetary defence fighters, Osaka achieves hard-seal with the CRI main mooring collar.


"Begin insertion."

While the special forces troops do their work in the station, Nebotuda monitors the fight raging around the Osaka and its temporary marriage to the station. Odd that a larger responce wasn't mustered from the Bretonians yet. With no major threat to the operation, every second in relative peace is a blessing to the Emperor.

"Beginning download."

Seconds pass by as data is transferred directly into Osaka's main computer bank. Still no counter attack.
By now, there is a large line of civilian trading vessels bound for CRI holding near the station. Station administrators have told the traders to stay clear of the battlezone.

"Download complete."

And none too soon. Coming over the terminator line from Cambridge's dark side is the Battleship Norwich. Unescorted, apparently sent with no intelligence against an unknown enemy force."

"All personel accounted for."

"Disengage the mooring clamps and come about, recall Chijin and the fighters to close support."

Outgunned, the Norwich gave a valiant but inevitably hopeless fight.



Having eliminated that only threat in the system, Strike force Kagi makes it's retreat back to Kusari. The stolen information would be presented to the Scientists at Nansei within the week.

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[AU]Anton_Blix
-Signature by Doom