Melancholy !3GqYIJ3Obs 2008/07/15 (Tue) 06:31 No. 3750 ▼ File 121612868780.jpg - (80.38KB, 640x448 , insane.jpg)
[x] Caution, its a trap! (Probably)
[X] "Weapons Officer, roll full ECM, I don't like this."
[X] "Maximum power to forward hull."
Please know that sometimes bad choices may actually yield good results, one bad choice won't result in bad ends, rather it is the accumulation of choices over the grand strategy of things which leads to glorious victory, or crushing defeat.
Thanks for sticking with me, and do pardon the picture.
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You begin to order an all out assault, but the words die in your mouth as your common sense kicks in, killing the impulse. You have not yet accumulated as much experience at command as yet to have what the senior staff in the Imperial Navy call a “palm tingling instinct,” but you have not gotten as far as you have by mindlessly charging forward either.
Yes, the loss of your troop ships would mean that effectively a tenth of the ground attack force would have eliminated, including several of the experimental “Perception Engines” which would theoretically, weaken the barrier separating the superimposed “dead moon” and the Lunar Empire , by allowing your soldiers to perceive, and thus interact with something which would otherwise be unperceivable, and thus inviolate
This physics babble makes your head hurt though, as you regain command of the situation, but you do suspect that Miss Yukari had something with this breakthrough.
“Stepping forward, you address all thirteen of the ships under your command.
“All ships, decrease forward velocity at once; we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.” A stab of disappointment is felt though; this could have been your chance. A chance to distinguish yourself from the other admirals and staff, a chance to earn the glory you deserve.
But you stop your inner monologue. Such thoughts are unbecoming of one such as you. Your priorities would be first, your men and the people you are defending, then the mission. Personal shouldn’t even come into the equation. If you are deserving of it, you will get it.
Slowly, but surely, all thirteen ships fire their reverse thrusters, slowing their massive bulks, the troop ships wisely keep behind , as the larger combat oriented ships maintain a shield line of sorts.
You gaze warily at the zoomed image of the Lunarian rearguard, as your ships fall back in line with the rest of the human fleet. They don’t do anything, and just float around, as if they are waiting for something.
Suspicious indeed.
“…Electronics Officer, full Electronic Countermeasures, the works. I don’t like this one bit” You order. The young man nods, and gets to work. It is very suspicious indeed. Though the Lunarian’s capability for electronic warfare is limited in comparison the humans, you cannot discount the possibility that with their superior firepower and mystic alchemy, they could spring a nasty surprise. Script fills your screen as every firewall on board goes online.
Sensor modules hum to life as they scan the surroundings for any possibility of an ambush, even a flicker of ionised gas where the immaterial barrier opened slicing what few molecules it caught could mean a full scale counter attack in a place you couldn’t expect.
The fleet as a whole draws closer, having smashed the remaining Lunarian vessels too slow to pull back, but the rearguard does not respond. They drift almost aimlessly and do ot respond to any attempts at communication.
The fleet commander gives his order and a wing of seven assault ships accelerate, along with their escorting fighters. They drive ahead of the combined fleet and approached the rearguard.
As they near the rearguard, Miss Yukari gasps as if sensing something you do not and throws you aside, grabbing your command module. You are stunned for a moment as she opens a channel directly to the fleet commander, and speaks hurriedly.
As you rise to your feet and begin to draw your sword, the feet commander’s eye widen,
“Are you sure?” he asks.
Yukari nods, puffy ribboned hat discarded on the deck in her haste.
“Do it,” the fleet commander orders, and begins addressing all ships. “Pull those assault ships back!” He roars.
The crew of our ship rushes into action, and suddenly, the ship’s humming intensifies and begins to form a sort of symphony of beeps, whistles and hums, which increases in volume until it is almost unbearable.
“Launch torpedos! Detonate them just outside their blast radius!” Yuakari yells.
You are about to grasp her shoulders when she turns and shoves you down once more.
“EVERYONE! GET DOWN AND COVER YOUR EARS!!!” she yells.
You comply.
The torpedo’s detonate, too close, and the thunderous roar forces you to the ground, along with the blasts of unnatural music, courtesy of the ship’s systems, you almost feel part of your mind caving in.
Then it comes.
Even through the tremendous roar of the torpedoes, and even the electronic fantasy of the systems, something unnatural filters through, the mighty explosion unable to drown it out.
It is a discordant scream, somewhere between a choir of cats and worse, and it rises in intensity, otherworldly, discordant and utterly overpowering everything. The torpedo’s aftershock fades to nothingness, along with the beeps and whistles and the rattleing of the hip as it shakes itself to pieces. Your mind fails you for a second and you see yourself tipping forward into the abyss, but unexpectedly a hand catches you and you are drawn into a gap of nothing.
You awake, a second later, face down, on the deck, with Yukari pressing you down except for the maddened screaming over the communications channels, all is back to normal or so it seems.
You pull yourself up, aware of a trickle of liquid from your ears. They are bleeding, but you ignore that. You pull Yukari up.
“What was that, explain, this isn’t the time to hide it.”
She stared back at you, and nods.
“You know of the Lunarian’s curious ability over wavelengths?”
This time, you nod.
“That was the artefact known to the Lunarians as (泣き味噌な) nakimiso, they had dubbed it, the crybaby, which was rather endearing for a such a weapon.” She says
“That isn’t important. What did it do? I’ve never felt anything like that before…”
”And I’d be surprised if you had.” She mutters. “It’s a powerful bomb of sorts that is strong enough to blast sound waves over thousands of kilometers, even in a vacuum. Trillions of conflicting frequencies designed to drive the unguarded mind insane.” She pauses for effect. “They consider it holy or something since they’re reluctant to use it unless pressed under dire circumstances.”
Her eyes seem faraway, as she remembers some long forgotten time.
The last time they used it was 5000 years ago, when I tried to-“
She is interrupted by the screen flickering to life, apparently someone had established contact and some semblance of order within the fleet. The fleet commander’s face appears, he is sweating and his eyes have a haunted cast to them. You are not too sure what Miss Yukai has done, but it seems like her hurried orders to nullify the enemy’s sound barrage with your own conflicting sound waves have saved your mind from cracking.
”What, in ZUN’s name was that?” he asks weakly. “All ships…status report!”
