"Crew training began on that day two months ago. We've received a great deal of praise from Victor Nakasone, the Nergal liaison. Now that two months of training has passed us by this quickly, we're nearing the time in which we join the war. Even as we train, we are fighting a silent war with Nergal, who on the outside appear to be following the agreement they had made with the UEAF, but are obviously up to something. I know I speak for the rest of the crew when I say I want to find out what in the solar system they're up to."
Lieutenant Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, Science Officer of the Samayahita
A Destiny Star
Episode 3: Pretending to be Like Those Who Came Before
Victor Nakasone was sitting nervously across from his idol. The man in front of him had a great deal to do with what happened in the commercial world. Victor would have done anything to put himself in that man's good graces. Not only that, but he would have done anything to be that man. The man looked up at him.
"Tomorrow is the day, Mr. Nakasone," he said. "Tomorrow is the day that the ND-002 Cosmos is launching to enter the war at last."
"Yes Mr. Chairman," Victor replied obediently. "And in about one week, the Samayahita will be completed and launched as well, right?"
The chairman of Nergal stood up. "That's right, but I'm not overly concerned about it. The UEAF is about to learn that just because they have a phase transition core battleship doesn't mean they can stop relying on us to keep them ahead of the Jovians. That battleship cannot win the war on its own. Even the Nadesico, the most powerful ship built thus far in this war, failed to reclaim Mars. Of course that was partly due to Captain Misumaru's incompetence, but we're not here to point fingers." The chairman grabbed a glass of water from the cooler and sat back down. He looked directly at Victor. "Nevertheless, we need to get Mars back. The secret at Mars's north pole is too big to let the Jovians get their hands on it. If they manage to locate it and claim it for themselves, this war will be over and we will have lost, and that cannot happen. That is why your job is so vital."
"And that is why you're outfitting the Samayahita with the most powerful gravity blast cannon in the solar system?" Victor asked. The chairman laughed obnoxiously.
"The Gravity Blast Cannon II wasn't put in there for that reason only. The UEAF wanted some extra distortion field cracking power in there, so we gave it to them."
"But the firing rate for the Gravity Blast Cannon II is lower than the original, isn't it?" Victor asked.
"That's why the ship has the foils," the chairman explained. "When the foils are retracted, the gravity blast cannon is normal. When the foils are released, however, the deadly Gravity Blast Cannon II is active. It's nothing short of ingenious." Victor nodded his head in agreement. "At any rate," the chairman continued, "you're free to go. Today will be the final and most important test in the training regiment. Be sure they don't fail." Victor rose and bowed. He then turned and left the room.
"The chairman sure is confident that the crew will be able to pass this test," Victor thought to himself. "They've passed 35 out of the 39 tests they've done so far. Maybe he's right." Victor walked into the lobby of the Nergal building just as he had done on the first day. This time, though, everyone was there on time, as they had been every day after the first. And this time, there weren't any small fires or broken glass as a result of Dr. Ara's antics. Victor took this as a good sign. "Good morning everyone!" he called to the crew. Hitoshi and Shin looked up from their card game.
"You're late today Victor," Shin laughed. Victor smiled at the reversal of fortune on the last day of training. On the first day of training, the others were late. On the last day, he was the one who was late.
"Today is the most challenging test you will face. This test is not designed for you to pass. It is an endurance test in Mars space," Victor explained. The admiral turned to look at him, but Victor ignored him. He was about to continue explaining the test when the admiral interrupted.
"Nergal will not be going back to Mars until the UEAF is able to take it back," the admiral said sternly. "That was part of the agreement."
Victor waved his hand innocently. "Don't worry admiral. We're just putting the crew to the test with the most difficult situation we could devise. Since we don't know anything about the Jovians forces around Jupiter, it would have been silly to build a simulation around that. We built this test around the Martian Jovian force because it's the biggest known concentration of Jovians around." The admiral seemed satisfied enough and Victor was able to continue with his briefing. "As I said, this is an endurance test. You aren't actually expected to win this test, but it is timed. You need to survive a certain amount of time in order for this to be counted as a successful run."
"Exactly how long are we supposed to survive?" Neji asked.
"If you live for thirty minutes then you pass. If you enter Mars's atmosphere, you get bonus points," Victor informed them. The admiral just stared at him. Victor pretended he didn't see him.
The group filed into the simulation room as they had done many times before, and the pilots went past the bridge and into the robot simulation room. Victor was about to leave when he turned around. "I almost forgot," he said, "you have a new weapon to play with. As you know, the ship has a gravity blast cannon, along with two graviton wave cannons on each side, and two more on the front. Also, there is a missile launcher on each side, and the missiles in the tubes on the front of the vessel. Well, Nergal has developed an upgraded version of the gravity blast cannon and it will be installed on the Samayahita. The Gravity Blast Cannon II will be integrated directly into the gravity blast cannon. You will be able to switch between modes by extending a pair of foils. It's more powerful, but has a slower recharge rate. When the foils are closed, the gravity blast cannon functions normally. Hitoshi should have no problem switching between modes using the computer." Victor bowed and left the bridge crew to file into their positions.
"Are we ready to begin?" Dan asked before cueing the start of the simulation. Everyone called his or her affirmatives, and the captain allowed the simulation to commence. The simulated windows became black with the color of space. Near the bottom of the window, the red disk of the planet Mars shown brightly.
"It's Mars," Hitoshi said quietly. Sosuke looked over to him.
"That's right. You told me you were born on Mars," he said to Hitoshi.
Hitoshi turned to him sadly. "I don't remember much about it. After Nergal finished modifying my body, I was sent to Earth for my education. And then the Jovians invaded..." He trailed off and turned back to his console. "I'm sure Kadin and Theo feel the same way." He turned around and looked at Kadin, who was also just staring out of the window. "At any rate," Hitoshi said, "I don't want to spread my depression around the bridge." He smiled. "Let's give them a good show for our final trial performance."
As Hitoshi was about to analyze the situation outside, Kadin dropped down in front of him, scaring him badly. "High five for the Martians!" Kadin shouted, holding his hand up in the air for a high five. Hitoshi laughed weakly and gave him a forced high five. Kadin jumped back up to the upper tier of the bridge and everyone on the bridge began to laugh.
"Okay, let's just see what's going on out there," Hitoshi said at last. "Very interesting. There are a few hundred Jovian battleships in high orbit above Mars. Evidently we're supposed to break through them and enter the atmosphere safely. Fortunately, the gravity blast cannons of these Jovians are far weaker than the ones we've been fighting. As far as the strength of the Jovian battleship gravity blast cannons is concerned, this simulation will be the most accurate one yet. In the past, it seems as though we've only been fighting Nadesico-class vessels that were dressed up as Jovians. I guess we were fortunate that they were training us to overestimate our opponents. Leave it to Nergal to raise the power of the enemy to make sure we don't think they are weak."
"All the better, since it's far better to overestimate an enemy than it is to underestimate one," Dan said. "The zero-G Aestivalis have fields on them, and our Delphinium have long range anti-ship missiles. Not only that, but we also have the Gravity Blast Cannon II on board this time. I'd say we stand a fairly good chance of winning."
"So basically we're pretending to be the Nadesico?" Kato asked. "After all, they ran this exact same mission in real life only about four months ago. Only for them, it was real."
"It doesn't matter," Dan said. "If the Nadesico was able to reach the surface, then we should be able to as well." Dan opened a window displaying Saito Hajime. "You can now launch. Once you're into position, the Delphiniums will fire their anti-ship missiles. Those will create Aestivalis-sized holes in the enemy's distortion field that will allow you to fly through and damage the vessel directly."
"No problem Captain, we're on it," Saito Hajime replied, closing the window.
A window opened in front of Sosuke. "All seven pilots have taken off. The Aestivalis are on point and will be followed by eight anti-ship missiles from the Delphiniums."
Dan looked down at Hitoshi. "Okay, fire the Gravity Blast Cannon II straight into their front line." He turned towards Hana. "Miss Hana, please swing the ship in a 12.5-degree arc in order to inflict more damage on the enemy's line." Both crewmembers quickly began their tasks.
Two windows popped up in front of Hitoshi. "Gravity Blast Cannon II online. The foils are now expanding. Let's see how well our new toy works." Hitoshi smiled as the nano-implants on his hands began to glow. From the "bridge," the crew could see the simulated motion of the foils expanding beneath the main body of the battleship.
"They even pay attention to details like that," Hana commented. "Nergal has more money to waste on these simulations then I thought."
The sound of the Gravity Blast Cannon II charging up filled the bridge. Just before the main shot was fired, two green beams were fired from each foil. The black beam of the Gravity Blast Cannon II followed only a second later. It impacted the line of Jovian battleships, and then began to sweep across them, destroying a great deal of enemies.
Kato was gaping at the scene. "That's the most powerful weapon I've ever seen!" he said. "How long until it's charged up again?"
"About 10 minutes," Hitoshi replied. "If we were in an atmosphere, it would probably take twice as long. Of course, we can fire the regular gravity blast cannon in about five minutes. Not only that, but we still have the smaller turrets and the missiles, so we'll be able to shoot down anything our Aestivalis miss. And our distortion field is at 98, so we're in good shape."
Dan was glad to hear this. "Please tell our Aestivalis to advance while we lay down a cover fire. The Delphiniums will know when to fire their anti-ship missiles."
The Aestivalis finally encountered the front line. Space lit up as the Aestivalis shredded the cloud of grasshoppers. The Jovian battleships began to fire their gravity blast cannons at the Samayahita, but the distortion field was holding steady.
A communications window opened up in front of the bridge crew. "This is Theo. I'm firing my anti-ship missiles now. Make sure the Aestivalis are aware of this so they can be ready to slip under the Jovians' distortion field."
"We've got it under control Theo," Kato said. "Go ahead and fire now." The communications window closed and a Delphinium flew up in front of the battleship. The four missiles that were mounted on the giant robot fired and headed for the Jovian line. In the distance, four small lights flew towards four battleships. The missiles hit the battleships and the small lights flew under the distortion fields of the Jovian ships. Seconds later, the four small lights flew away from the ships and the four Jovian vessels exploded, lighting up the entire bridge with their radiance.
Another communications window popped up, this one with Shin. "How was that for kick-ass robot action?" he shouted.
"Not bad at all," Dan said. "Of course, you really shouldn't be wasting your time telling us something we already know. Actually, Nicole is under enemy fire right now. Why don't you go help her?"
Shin sighed. "Fine, I'm on it." The window closed and the brightest of the five Aestivalis lights boosted rapidly towards the faintest.
Hitoshi smiled. "Uh-oh." It was common knowledge among the crew of the Samayahita that whenever Hitoshi said "Uh-oh" it meant that a Chulip was approaching. It had become somewhat of a joke among the bridge crew, which is why Hitoshi smiled. Dan cracked a smile too.
"Where's it coming from?" he asked the science officer.
"From eight-o-clock, captain," he replied. "It's rapidly decelerating in order to keep from plunging to Mars's surface. I suppose in theory it's possible to somehow speed it up and cause it to pass us up completely. That's probably the best option, since our main gravity blast cannon won't be charged for about two minutes, and the Chulip will be here long before that."
Neji's face appeared on a communications window in front of the bridge crew. "What can I do to keep it moving?" he asked.
"I'm working on that right now," Hitoshi replied. Three windows opened up in front of him. "This should work," he said uncertainly. "I'm sending it to you now." Neji nodded and the window with his face closed.
"What's he going to have to do?" Hana asked.
Hitoshi looked over to her. "If he can fly in front of the Chulip and grab on to it, he may be able to force the nose towards the planet's surface. Of course, there's no guarantee that he'll be able to get off of it in time. I guess that's all part of the fun though." Hana raised an eyebrow and turned her attention to the oncoming Chulip.
Everyone watched as Neji's Aestivalis headed towards the oncoming Chulip. He corrected himself with his verniers and braced himself for the impact. The Chulip crashed into him, and he managed to grab onto it. He ignited his thrusters and pushed the nose of the Chulip towards the large red planet. The Chulip slowly turned towards the surface of Mars, which in Neji's field of vision was becoming uncomfortably close.
"Ah damn it!" he shouted to himself. He opened a communications window to the bridge. "I can't get off the Chulip," he informed them. "We're going too fast for me to push myself off. Thank God this is a simulation or else I'd be screwed. See you after the game's over." He smiled and waved his hand in the air. The communications window closed and the bridge crew watched as the Chulip, Aestivalis and all, began to glow in the atmosphere of Mars. A tiny explosion symbolized the end of the Aestivalis. Everyone was silent.
"Fake or not, that was pretty noble," Hitoshi said quietly. Sosuke and Hana murmured agreement.
Kato stood up. "We're not doing very good. We're only about seven minutes into this thing and we've already lost a pilot. I think we may want to try something new."
Dan looked over to him. "What do you suggest then?"
"I think we should attempt landing."
Everyone looked at him. "How do you propose we do that with one ship. Not to mention the fact that we're severely outnumbered," Sosuke asked.
Kato looked down at him. "What I mean is that we should try to cut straight through their line and pass them all by completely, leaving most of them alive, but unable to catch us."
Hitoshi commented on this. "Is that even possible? They've still got a couple hundred ships facing us. We're only one vessel with four Aestivalis and two Delphiniums left. Not only that, but once we pass them we can't expect them to ignore us as we enter the atmosphere. Plus, once we start moving we're going to need to recall the robots or leave them behind, which wouldn't be very sporting of us."
Kato just looked out the view window. "Trust me," he smiled. Everyone sighed, but agreed to give the strategy a try.
Dan turned to the visage in front of them. "Hitoshi, is the gravity blast cannon almost done charging?"
Hitoshi looked back at him. "Well, the normal gravity blast cannon will be done in one minute, but if we're going to try to smash through their line in one go, we're probably going to want to fire a Gravity Blast Cannon II shot at them."
Dan looked down at the science officer sitting directly below him. "Point taken," he replied, "but what are we going to do in the meantime? We can't risk losing any more Aestivalis. The one we lost will already be a huge deduction from our score."
Hitoshi opened a window and slid it up to the captain. "If we fire all of our missiles and aim them indiscriminately at the Jovian front line, we should be able to collapse a few of their distortion fields and allow our Aestivalis to dissect their ships. Of course, then we'd be out of missiles, but we'll still have the graviton turrets, which should do for now."
Dan shrugged. "If you think that will work. Try to aim them towards the center of their line, though, so we can punch through it when we're ready. Also, make sure you don't blow any friendlies up." Dan began to laugh. Hitoshi opened some windows and began to make the calculations.
"Oh damn, there are so many Jovian battleships that it's hard to focus all of the lock-on signals in the center of their line," Hitoshi said as he continued to talk to the computer.
"Just do your best," Kato encouraged. "As long as the majority of the missiles head there, it's fine."
A new window popped up in front of Hitoshi. "Okay, here go the missiles."
Everyone watched as the missiles flew from their tubes towards the front of the ship. The Aestivalis pilots dodged the missiles as they flew past them. The swarm of missiles finally hit its mark, and the sky lit up with a huge field of explosions.
"All Aestivalis pilots, go and finish off the remains of the Jovians that were within the explosion range," Kato called. The four Aestivalis flew into the area that had second before been a huge ball of fire. Jovian battleships that had had their distortion fields compromised were being destroyed quickly, and ones that had had their fields weakened were also beginning to join those among the destroyed.
Dan called out, "Begin advancing forward. By the time we arrive at the Jovian line, there should be a fair sized hole in it, or at least we hope so." Hana began to enter the necessary information for this maneuver. The ship slowly began to move forward, and the star field began to slide past the window. Dan said, "Continue to fire the gravity wave turrets at their line. How long until the Gravity Blast Cannon II is charged?"
Hitoshi opened a window. "Two minutes, Captain. Jonathan Yergan is now firing his anti-ship missiles. If the Aestivalis successfully destroy all four battleships that will be hit, there will be enough space for us to pass through the Jovian line with minimal success. Doing this is most certainly not recommended, as we will likely be damaged beyond repair or destroyed. We should not move past the Jovians until we've carved their line open with the Gravity Blast Cannon II."
"Acknowledged," Dan said quickly. Are the Aestivalis fairing well as far as Yergan's missiles are concerned?"
Sosuke looked up at him. "Each Aestivalis has reported that they have successfully infiltrated a Jovian battleship's distortion field. It won't be long before those ships are destroyed."
Just as Hitoshi finished his sentence, four battleships exploded in the center of the line. The four bright lights that were the Aestivalis flew away from the explosions, leaving a trail of smaller explosions in their wake as they cut through the cloud of grasshoppers.
A window with Shin's face appeared in front of the bridge. "There's a second wave of grasshoppers coming in from a battalion near the terminator. We're going to be overwhelmed before long. I hope you have a plan somewhere in there!"
Hitoshi opened a few windows. "He's right, this isn't good. Once this second wave arrives, there will be two hundred grasshoppers for every one Aesti and Delphinium out there. Fortunately, there's only one minute until the Gravity Blast Cannon II is fully charged, so we'll be able to blow a hole in their line and run like hell."
Dan looked concerned. "How's the distortion field holding up?"
Hitoshi looked up at him. "It's at 70, but once we fly through the hole we're going to make, they're going to pelt us with everything they have. I really don't want to sound pessimistic, but 70 probably won't be enough for this situation. "
Kato looked down at him. "It'll be plenty, at least as long as we're moving at full speed. How's that coming along anyway, Hana?"
Hana looked up at him. "We're all set. As soon as the Gravity Blast Cannon II fires, we'll begin moving at maximum speed. I hope you know what you're doing." Dan looked over at Kato, who was smiling confidently.
A new window appeared in front of the bridge, squashing the one with Shin out of the way. The new window had the face of Nicole Viray on it. "Are you almost ready?" she asked. "I've got a visual on the next wave of Jovians, and it's not looking good." Dan shot a look down to the science officer on the tier below him.
Hitoshi looked up. "Yes, it's ready. Should I fire now?" Dan nodded, and Hitoshi began the firing sequence. Just like before, two green blasts fired from each foil. Then, the main gravity blast shot fired from the emitter beneath the ship. It impacted the Jovian fleet and destroyed a huge number of them who were both in and around the actual beam of the cannon. The beam dispersed quickly, but battleships that were merely damaged began to explode.
Dan looked down at Sosuke. "Recall the Aestivalis and Delphinium. We're going to Mars." Sosuke followed the orders and the four Aestivalis and two Delphiniums flew to the hangar entry bay in the rear of the ship.
Hana spoke up. "T-minus 10 seconds until phase transition engine burn."
Dan looked at the admiral. "Sir, wouldn't you say it would be a good idea to divert power away from other less necessary systems to the distortion field?" The admiral nodded and Dan turned to Hitoshi. "Where can we suck power from?"
Hitoshi opened a few windows. "Uh, let's see..." He closed those windows and opened several more. It became hard to see him through the swarm of windows. They all closed simultaneously. "If we refrain from sending any more power to the gravity blast cannon, stop firing the graviton cannons, and divert electrical energy from every light in the ship, we can raise the distortion fields from 65 to 85. That's about the best I can do. Any ideas Mr. Ara?"
Kadin stared out the window blankly. After thirty seconds he looked up. "Damned if I know," he shouted. He laughed crazily, and everyone sighed.
"Thirty seconds until we enter the Jovian battle line," Hana announced. The number of yellow beams bouncing off of the distortion field was increasing.
"If this were a real ship, the impact of all of those beams would probably shake the bridge so badly that we couldn't stand," Kato sighed.
The Jovian vessels continued to grow larger in the screen. Less than a minute later, the first Jovian battleship slid out of the left side of the view window. Fewer and fewer Jovian beams were deflecting off of the front of the distortion field as most of the enemy were now behind the fast moving simulated Samayahita.
"It actually looks like we're going to pull this off!" Sosuke exclaimed. Everyone held his or her breath as the last Jovian battleship slid out of the view screen.
"Distortion fields at 50," Hitoshi called out. He opened a window. "I almost forgot. Hana, you'll need this." He slid the window over to her.
"Atmospheric re-entry coordinates?" Hana said out loud. She read them over and began entering them into the console. The ship's nose pointed straight down towards the red planet.
Kato looked down to the second tier and Hitoshi's windows. "We need to hurry," he said. "The distortion fields are beginning to become unstable."
"We're a lot faster than the Jovians, Kato," Hana said, looking up to his level. "We're going to leave their graviton cannon range in about one minute. After that, they won't be able to catch up to us."
Dan looked forward towards the ever-growing planet in front of him. "I just hope the simulation doesn't include a huge force on the surface. Because we needed to use the extra power for the distortion field, our gravity blast cannon won't be ready for when we land. They might destroy us on the surface."
The number of beams hitting the distortion field slowly tapered off. "Now we can route power back to the gravity blast cannon and ease off with our distortion fields for awhile," Hitoshi said, relieved. Some windows popped up around him and he began to analyze them.
"How long until we reach the surface?" Kato asked.
"About six more minutes," Hana replied. "That is, barring any unforeseen surface battleships."
Dan looked over to Kato. "I really don't think Nergal is going to let us off easily. There will definitely be something down there that we're not going to like. You must be sick of hearing it by now, but I need to ask. Hitoshi, how long until the gravity blast cannon is charged?"
He looked over at one of his windows. "I can't really give an exact number since so many different systems are being switched on and off right now, but I can give you the satisfaction of knowing that it will be done before we encounter a surface Jovian fleet."
Seconds after Hitoshi completed his sentence, the window ahead was filled with thousands of tiny sparkling points of light. Kadin screamed, "Nano-machines! We're all going to die!" Everyone looked at him, confused, but chose to ignore him for now. Kadin just laughed at his own insanity.
The admiral turned to Dan and Kato. "We may need to re-launch the Aestivalis once we reach the surface."
Dan was about to say something, but then stopped. "That reminds me, how long into the simulation are we?"
Sosuke looked at his watch. "We're actually just over 30 minutes into it. Does that mean we can quit now?"
Dan looked at him. "Let's just keep going for now. I guess we aren't supposed to quit until we blow up or land safely."
"Speaking of landing safely," Hitoshi said, "there are about 30 Jovian battleships waiting for us in our landing area. The Chulip that ran Neji over is also in the area, but it didn't survive re-entry because of its odd angle of approach. Guess that makes us lucky, huh?"
"That's good news. When the gravity blast cannon is charged up, turn the bow of the ship towards the surface and shoot straight down at the Jovians. That should finish enough of them off that we can deal with the rest," Dan stated. Hana and Hitoshi acknowledged his commands.
Sosuke looked to the right. "If the situation were not so urgent, I bet re-entry through all of these nano-machines would be relatively peaceful." He met Hana's eyes and the two of them gazed deeply into each other's souls. Hitoshi sighed and tried to stay out of their line of sight.
"I can see these two are going to make things very uncomfortable for me," he said quietly. Dan looked down at them and chuckled.
Dan leaned over the top tier of the bridge and cupped his hand. "I think it's cute," he whispered to Hitoshi. Hitoshi sighed again, but couldn't withhold a smile.
"I heard that, but I have to agree with you," Hana said. She waved at Sosuke and turned back to the console in front of her. Sosuke smiled and also turned back to what he was doing.
"We're now in range of the enemy vessels. Should we blow them up with the gravity blast cannon now?" Hitoshi asked.
Dan looked forward out the window. "Miss Hana, please aim the bow of the ship towards the surface of Mars. Hitoshi, fire when the Jovian ships are in our range of fire."
The window in the front of the bridge showed the front of the ship turn down towards the surface. A cluster of purple Jovian battleships slowly came into view. The sound of the gravity blast cannon firing suddenly broke the silence. The black beam speeded towards the surface and crashed into it with tremendous force. An explosion ripped through the distortion fields of several Jovian vessels and a cloud of red dust followed soon after.
Dan looked around. "Well, that was as easy as apple pie. Status report please."
"I think we've destroyed about half of the vessels down there," Hitoshi informed him. "The rest of them are having problems because of the small dust storm we generated."
Kato walked to the front of the top tier. "Let's use that dust storm to our advantage. Fire all graviton cannons into the cloud of dust and hope for the best."
From the right and left sides of the ship, the graviton cannons began to hail fire into the red cloud. A few more explosions speckled the cloud of Martian dust. The explosions swept away the remaining dust and cleared the way for the Jovians' hail of fire.
"Raise the distortion fields immediately!" Dan shouted. Graviton beams were hitting the ship hard. The field slowly began to surround the ship, deflecting the beams at last. Unfortunately, the damage had been done.
"We're rapidly loosing power," Hitoshi called up. "One of our phase transition engines has been badly damaged and has shut itself off to prevent an explosion. We're slowly descending to the surface...towards the Jovians."
Dan looked down at the Jovian battleships firing up at their ship. "Well, we needed to land anyway. I guess I just hadn't planned on it being so soon."
Hitoshi opened a window. "We'll be on the ground in 60 seconds. At that time, the Jovians are going to plaster us with everything they have. We'll be ground into fine powder and used as an abrasive substance to clean their bathtubs." Hitoshi began to laugh at his unusual idea, and Sosuke raised an eyebrow and turned towards him.
"Yay, bathtubs!" Kadin called from above.
Kato turned to the captain. "Despite the unusual context it was placed in, he's definitely right. Maybe we should launch the Aestivalis."
Hitoshi looked up at the executive officer. "There are still ten Jovian battleships out there. We're going to get pasted before the Aestivalis can even take care of one of them. Our distortion field is at 35, and we're down one PT engine. It's looking more and more hopeless, and to top it all off, we don't have anything whatsoever that can pierce their distortion fields."
Dan looked to his left and then he realized what they needed to do. "I have a plan! Miss Hana, turn 30-degrees to port and accelerate forward as fast as possible with the remaining phase transition engine." She complied, and the view screen showed the landscape shift under them. The ship stopped turning and everyone saw what Dan had planned.
"You can't be serious!" Sosuke shouted. Everyone looked at Dan and found that the expression on his face was quite serious. Everyone turned towards the view screen and watched as the ship began to accelerate forwards.
"We're being pursued by the ten remaining battleships. Our distortion field is beginning to become unstable," Hitoshi called out over the noise of graviton wave blasts bouncing off of their ship.
"It's only ten kilometers away," Dan replied. "And then, one way or another, we will be done with this simulation."
The entire crew watched as the most important part of the captain's plan drew ever closer: the open Chulip nearly ten kilometers ahead of the simulated Samayahita.
Kadin Ara turned to the captain very seriously and said, "We're really going to try to boson jump?" Everyone looked at him slightly confused. Dan just continued to stare at the Chulip. "Whoa and stuff," Kadin replied loudly.
In the other room, Victor was laughing. "They should know that they aren't allowed to go through the Chulip. That wouldn't be fair, since humans can't boson jump anyway!" He laughed again, watching as the distortion fields on the ship were failing quickly. "This would be a whole hell of a lot more funny if I didn't know what I know about the future plans for this battleship." He began to type furiously on the console in front of him.
Meanwhile, back on the simulated battlefield, the Samayahita was nearing its destination. "There's a huge problem," Hitoshi said suddenly. "A battleship is coming through the Chulip. We aren't going to make it in time." Dan just kept staring straight ahead.
"How is the gravity blast cannon doing?" Dan asked.
Hitoshi opened a window. "I think it'll be charged up about thirty seconds after the Jovian battleship comes through the Chulip." Dan looked over at Hana.
"Hana," he said, "on my mark, make a hard left, as hard as you possibly can." She nodded her head without turning around.
"Here it comes!"
The Chulip's mouth expanded and a shadowy figure was beginning to form in the opening. Soon, the shadowy form took on the shape of a Jovian battleship. Seconds later, the battleship was all the way through and charging up its gravity blast cannon.
"Get ready Hana," Dan called out. She began to enter data into her console. The Jovian battleship that had just emerged from the Chulip was almost fully charged up. Dan waited a few seconds, and then said, "Do it now, Hana!" The ship's view screen showed the ship do a 180-degree turn from the opening of the Chulip. The gravity blast shot from the Jovian battleship that had just emerged from the Chulip missed them by only a few feet, and went on to destroy three out of the ten pursuing Jovian vessels that had been chasing the Samayahita.
"Gravity blast cannon?" Dan asked, looking at Hitoshi.
"Give me fifteen more seconds!" Hitoshi replied.
Dan looked forward. "All Aestivalis launch now! Your job is to keep the battleships from firing at us, and to take down as many as you can."
The four remaining Aestivalis launched from the hangar and flew past the ship. Shin's Aestivalis took the lead. It landed and then jumped into the air. He boosted forward and cut through the distortion field of one of the Jovian battleships. The ship's hull cracked, and the entire port side of the vessel exploded. The other three Aestivalis pilots destroyed yet another battleship.
"You never had any intention of going through that Chulip, did you?" Sosuke asked, looking up at the captain. He turned towards him.
"Of course not," he replied. "I was just counting on the fact that Victor wouldn't let us get through it. I know it's not fair to take advantage of the human strategy behind the simulation, but we were told to win, and I'm not about to let us do otherwise." Sosuke shrugged and smiled. Dan turned to Hitoshi. "Can we fire a gravity blast shot now?"
Hitoshi turned around. "We can fire one shot, but that'll be the last one we'll be firing today. Since the PT engines are so much less efficient in an atmosphere, and since we only have one left, we aren't going to be able to charge the gravity blast cannon again. It's really a miracle we had enough energy for this one shot. As it is, it's only going to be 73 effective."
Dan shrugged and pointed at the enemy vessels. "Fire at will, Hitoshi!" he shouted. The console beneath Hitoshi's hands lit up as he activated the gravity blast cannon. Just a short while later, the black beam fired from beneath the ship and hit the Jovian battleship formation dead center. The lead ship exploded, and a few of the nearby ships took minor damage from the shock wave.
"And that's the end of that," Hitoshi said casually. "The only thing keeping us from being destroyed are the distortion field, which is at 30 and very unstable, and the four Aestivalis out there."
Dan looked at the Aestivalis, who were currently cutting across the axis of another Jovian distortion field. "We'll just have to put our faith in them I suppose." The battleship that the Aestivalis were cutting into exploded, leaving only six enemies left.
A communications window appeared with Saito Hajime's face on it. "We're in deep trouble if they begin to launch grasshoppers. I hope you have some kind of backup plan."
Dan looked around. "Well, there was one thing I was thinking of." He turned to Hana. "Miss Hana, please ram the nearest Jovian vessel." The collective sound of "WHAT!?" filled the bridge. "Oh, don't worry about it," Dan said calmly. "Our distortion field will take the brunt of the collision. Since our vessel is more powerful than theirs are, we should be just fine."
Hitoshi raised an objection. "Captain Shroads, our distortion fields are about to bite the dust. If we slam them into another distortion field, it'll probably collapse and we'll be shot down and killed, so to speak."
"Our fields will be just fine," Dan replied. "You'll soon see what I mean. Miss Hana, please ram the nearest Jovian vessel," he repeated. Hana just shrugged and turned the ship to face the Jovian that had come out of the Chulip. The ship slowly began to pick up speed and move towards the enemy. To the right, another Jovian battleship exploded due to the Aestivalis wing's efforts.
"I'm routing as much power as I can into the distortion fields," Hitoshi called to the captain. "They're still at about 30, but they're much more stable now that the Jovians aren't constantly pummeling us with graviton beams."
Dan looked down at Hitoshi. "Can you open only one of the foils for the Gravity Blast Cannon II?" he asked. Hitoshi raised an eyebrow, but affirmed that he could. The foil on the left side of the Samayahita opened and pointed straight at the enemy vessel. After a few seconds, the two distortion fields of the two vessels collided. The distortion fields both collapsed instantly and the Samayahita continued to fly straight towards the enemy.
"Damn it, our field collapsed," Hitoshi cursed. Six windows were orbiting his head as he tried to assess the situation.
"Don't worry about it. That's what I wanted to have happen," Dan soothed. Hitoshi turned and gave him a questioning look, but then turned back to his windows. The front of the ship was about to strike when it stopped short. Or at least it appeared short. In reality, the left foil for the Gravity Blast Cannon II had been driven deeply into the side of the Jovian vessel like a shish kebob. "Jettison left foil," Dan commanded. Small explosive charges went off beneath the foil's mount to the hull, and the foil detached from the underside of the Samayahita. The two ships drifted apart, and the Jovian vessel dropped to the ground and exploded. Dan looked at the four remaining vessels. "I wish we could do that again, but now we're without a distortion field. We wouldn't survive long enough to get as close as we would have to in order to impale them."
Sosuke turned to look at Dan. "The Aestivalis pilots want us to pull back. They've obviously noticed that we just lost our distortion field, and they don't want us to be destroyed."
"They're probably right. Miss Hana, can you pull us back from the...wait a minute." Dan stopped. He looked directly at the open Chulip still sitting on the ground. "We need to close that Chulip, and what better way to do so than to impale it with a Gravity Blast Cannon II foil." Dan smiled and looked at Hana, who was already typing away on her console. The ship turned towards the Chulip and began to accelerate. Hitoshi opened the foil on the right hand side of the ship and prepared to jettison it once it was embedded in the Chulip. The plan worked flawlessly, and the Chulip caved in on itself as the Samayahita released its second foil and backed away from it.
"I can't detect any Jovian activity within sensor range besides the ones attacking us right now. Presently there are four...make that three vessels." Hitoshi pointed to the remaining four vessels, one of which was in the process of exploding.
"They certainly don't waste time out there in those Aestivalis," the admiral said quietly. Dan agreed with him by nodding his head.
"To be perfectly honest, I'm out of ideas," Dan said quickly. "I welcome any suggestions."
The XO stood up. "Why don't we shut down our engines and land? We aren't going to do any good floating here with one phase transition engine and no weapons. Besides, if we were on the ground we would be a little less vulnerable. Hana, could you set us down somewhere nearby?" Hana nodded and began to enter the data. The ship turned and faced the three battleships, which were now concentrating solely on the Aestivalis swarming around them. The ship was moving backwards along the surface and then slowly set down near the remains of the Chulip. The sound of the phase transition engines shutting down filled the bridge. The remains of the Chulip provided some protection from the imminent threat the Jovians posed. One more battleship exploded as the Aestivalis continued to carve into their distortion fields.
A communications window with Shin's face appeared. "This is great!" he shouted. "We're so small that they can't even lock on to us! They're wasting their energy trying to shoot at us while we continue to cut into their distortion fields. Either they're really stupid, or else Victor is controlling them."
In the other room, Victor slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair. "That idiot! I'll fix his wagon!" He began to type rapidly on his console.
Without warning, every graviton beam on the two remaining Jovian vessels began to fire on Shin's Aestivalis. "What the hell? Victor must have heard me," he laughed as he skidded away along the ground. "Nicole, you're up!" Nicole's Aestivalis approached from behind and leaped into the air. She boosted laterally along the ship and ran her knife along the hull.
"How's that?" she asked rhetorically. The battleship exploded behind her and she landed safely on the red Martian soil.
"That was wonderful, but now you need to catch that last one," Shin replied as he dodged the final Jovian vessel's fire. The ground around him was exploding, but he was able to steer through the mess safely.
"Leave this one to me," Saito called out. His Aestivalis jumped high into the air and gouged the Jovian's distortion field. The hull of the ship ruptured, and the entire ship slammed nose first into the ground. The enemy had been defeated and the simulation was over. The Aestivalis returned to the location where the Samayahita had set down.
On the mock-up of the bridge, the view screen shut off, showing only the gray monitors that they really were. Everyone rose from their seat and looked anxiously at the door that Victor would come out of. The door slowly opened to reveal a very impressed Nergal employee.
"You did an excellent job out here!" he shouted. "This simulation was much harder than the scenario the Nadesico faced four months ago, and you managed to actually descend to the planet's surface, and you did it with only one casualty. Although I must admit it was kind of funny watching Neji getting run over by a Chulip. At any rate, you definitely passed this test, and the real Samayahita will be launching in exactly one week. I will see you then. Until that time, have a great week off!" Everyone watched as he walked out of the room again. The pilots then entered the room. Everyone was in high spirits except for Neji.
"Cheer up," Shin said. "You got to get run over by a Chulip. That's such a funny sentence that I'm glad you did what you did." Neji looked at him, tilted his head, and then left it at that.
Dan shook everyone's hand in turn. "As your captain, I am very proud of your work today. That was definitely not an easy task, but we managed to survive the whole ordeal."
"All except Neji," Shin added. Neji hit Shin in the back of the head, but that didn't phase him at all.
"So I guess we'll see each other again in one week?" Hitoshi said.
Everyone said their farewells and walked out into the lobby together. From there, they left the building and went on their separate ways.
Meanwhile, Victor was reporting the day's events to the Chairman of Nergal. The chairman laughed. "You see?" he said, "I told you they'd do it. They work better together than the crew of the Nadesico will ever be able to. Together, there's nothing they can't do."
Victor rubbed his arm uncomfortably. "But if you'll look at the readouts sir, they just barely survived. At the end, they didn't have a distortion field, and one of their PT engines was damaged, not to mention the loss of the Gravity Blast Cannon II."
The chairman laughed all the more. "That's the beauty of the whole thing. There isn't a force that size anywhere in the universe! That simulation was deliberately made difficult to see how well they would do once they go to Mars." Victor still didn't understand, but he didn't want to press his luck. "At any rate, on Tuesday the Samayahita launches. Its designation is SM-001 and will be operated independently from Nergal. That's the only thing you have to remember until I give you the word, you got that?" Victor nodded and turned to leave the chairman in peace.
TO BE CONTINUED...