Original A/N:

"This entry, is just exposition porn.

Notes: If you were here for that little chat in the shout box... It originated from this.
I calculated this from the final mission where the Sunrider has to travel 900,000 kilometers to close the gap. When the mission ends, it is stated there is still 100,000 more kilometers. Thus a map is estimated to be 800,000 kilometers wide, making 1 tile approximately 44,444 kilometers. I know, I wish they'd make the distance 1,000,000 kilometers so 1 tile'd be a nice even 50,000 kilometers.
In game mechanics perspective. The Yamato has an effective range of 7 tiles. Battleships would be at 100% to hit, cruisers and fast cruisers at 90%, destroyers at 75%, and etc.

Deleted Scene: "with a muzzle velocity of 19,656 kilometers per hour when firing AP shells and 20,286 kilometers per hour when firing HE shells."

You know… When they say, realistic space battles would be very boring. It probably is… Because even when shells are traveling at speeds of 20,000 kilometers an hour, it would still take 15.75 hours to hit something 7 tiles away…
Kayto: "Target the enemy cruiser."
Ava: "Fire saviors!"
Kayto: "Alright folks, break! Let's head on over to the mess hall for breakfast and the rest of the day is yours. Meet back here at 2100 hours. Don't make a mess of the cafeteria again, that food fight last time had the janitors working overtime. I don't want it to happen again."

So, for the sake of… Er… Game mechanics? Let's say it takes only 2 seconds to fly 315,000 kilometers (roughly 7 tiles). Shells would be traveling at 283,500,000 kilometers per hour or you know… A bit over a quarter of the speed of light. 78,750,000 meters/sec Oh and while we're here (I'm assuming the length of a barrel is 88 meters calculated from a screenshot of the Sunrider) (F=ma, m = 907.185kg, a = 31965707253196022.727272727272727, F = 31,965,707,253,196,022 newtons or 31.965 petajoules… In perspective, the nuclear citybuster dropped on Hiroshima is only 63 TJ. So, a 1 ton shell fired from the Sunrider's Saviors impacts with the force of 507 times Hiroshima.

Edit: Changed to the original 140 km because in the end 315,000 km seems a little 'out there'. "

Battleship Yamato, Ryder Hanger

Hongxi and his entourage was inspecting the new ryders being brought in. These were indigenous designed ryders used by the inhabitants of Tianxia long before the Alliance's arrival. They were decommissioned for the large part of a decade when Tianxia joined the Alliance and started having their pilots train in Alliance infantry ryders. However with orders from above, these relics of a war were being reawakened and placed back into the line of duty. Yamato herself was docked with Tianshang Shipyard as final adjustments were made and supplies loaded in. Being that Yamato was the only other battleship Tianxia had, high command did not want the ship leaving without having everything covered.

Hongxi: "Hm. Sun-Sin!"

Sun-Sin: "Yes sir!"

Hongxi stared at the white colored ryders being secured in hanger by #4.

Hongxi: "Brief me about our new ryders."

Sun-Sin: "Yes sir. Upon seeing the effectiveness of the Sunrider, the Council of the Three Elders have ordered that a small ryder hanger to be included during the retrofitting of the Yamato.

The six ryders that will be joining us are Qiang, Pai, Katana, Tanegashima, Pyeonjeon, and Hwacha. First are the two ryders from Tianchao, Qiang and Pai.

Qiang is a melee, spear type ryder. It is armed with a non-crystalline diamond tipped spear as a primary weapon, capable of penetrating the thick cockpit armor of any standard ryder. It is lightly armored, however it has powerful thrusters giving it a great deal of movement and evasion. It is highly recommended that any ryders disabled by Qiang be taken in to be recycled for material.

Pai is a support type ryder unique to Tianxia. It provides an assortment of abilities that are useful on the field. Instead of generating an energy shield field, it instead deploys stationary ryder-size shields capable of completely nullifying energy weapons. It does not possess any offensive capabilities, and instead carries a launcher that is above to set up 6 different shields at a distance.

Pai's massive computing power can also provide targeting support by sharing its processing power with allied units, thereby improving accuracy and or the chance to critically damage the enemy. Pai comes in two loadouts, light and heavy. While light, Pai carries only the launcher to maximize mobility. While traveling heavy, Pai's armor is significantly increased and it now also has the ability to carry out emergency field repairs.

Next are the two ryders from Wa, Katana and Tanegashima.

Katana is a heavily armored melee, saber type ryder. The Katana is armed with a saber as a primary weapon and a short saber as an offhand. Its pilot is rumored to be even able to block and parry with this combination. Katana's mobility is quite high, allowing it to launch devastating charges against enemy ryders. However it is lacking in side thrusters, meaning its evasion rather poor. It also does not carry any assault weapons, making it suitable only for ryder to ryder engagements.

Tanegashima is a heavily armored, long range kinetic type ryder. It essentially is the same ryder as the Katana, but with a different loadout. Instead of a saber and short saber it is armed with the Tanegashima rifle, a long range accurate kinetic rifle that is able to penetrate even ship armor.

The last two ryders are from Han, the Pyeonjeon and Hwacha.

Pyeonjeon is a lightly armored, long range energy type ryder. It is armed with the Pyeonjeon guided plasma bow. It's quite an interesting design. The ryder first places a capsule of volatile gas between the two ends of the bow and fixates it with a string of electromagnetic tidal force. It is then superheated with super accelerated electrons before being launched towards the enemy at hypersonic speeds. The effect is quite devastating and accurate too, capable of melting away the toughest battleship armor or tearing apart the agilest ryder. However it is mitigated by shields.

Last of all is the Hwacha, a lightly armored rocket artillery type ryder. The Hwacha MLRS is capable of firing hundreds of low yield rockets at the enemy in a single volley with adjustable dispersion from 1 kilometer to 100 kilometers. Due to the amount fired, flak and other anti-missile defense systems are almost completely ineffective against it."

Hongxi: "Two melee anti-ryders, two snipers, one support, and one artillery. Tell me, why so many melee ryders?"

Sun-Sin: "That would be to cover the Yamato's integral weakness sir. Despite being outfitted with over eighty-four hundred 8.8cm flak guns in twenty-eight hundred triple mounts, twelve hundred 127mm dual purpose guns in four hundred triple mounts and four hundred 15.5cm dual purpose guns in two hundred double mounts, Yamato's biggest threat is still ryders.

Yamato was built for ship to ship combat, and it was built to take on multiple of the heaviest ships our adversaries could throw at us. The thirty-six Type Jiu Shi Si spread over twelve triple mount turrets is proof of that. A full salvo from the 322cm cannons lobbing 10,220 kilograms of armor piercing rounds will decimate any ship. If acting as orbital bombardment, a single 9,520 kg high explosive shell will obliterate any soft and medium targets within a 500 meter radius."

Hongxi: "Couldn't just say we had a lot of guns huh? You military otaku.
Look at us, we're probably the only ones who puts a significant amount of resources into grand warfare at this point. All the others have fled into space, and have not looked back."

Sun-Sin: "That is because there is no major drive behind other spacefaring nations to pursue ground warfare. Up until now, a fleet is more than capable of laying siege to a planet and forcing negotiations."

Hongxi: "And what makes us different, Sun-Sin?"

Sun-Sin: "It is to my understanding, a direct order passed down from the Council of the Three Elders to continue to make advances in this sector. In fact, approximately only a third of our project went into the space program as we had stopped indigenous development and merely manufactured and used Alliance ships."

Hongxi: "Aah, but do you know why?"

Sun-Sin: "… No, sir."

Hongxi: "Conventional combat is too one-dimensional. I trust you have studied countless holos about warfare back at the Academy yes?"

Sun-Sin: "Yes sir, I graduated 22nd of my class."

Hongxi: "Forget them."

Sun-Sin: "S-sir?!"

Hongxi: "Well, not really forget them. But empty your cup and be ready to refill it. Sun-Sin, tell me. When was the last time Yamato went into battle?"

Sun-Sin: "I believe it was the final battle ending the World War, when 400 ryders bombarded and sank the Yamato."

Hongxi: "And how many direct battles has the Yamato fought in?"

Sun-Sin: "None sir… She mostly acted as fire support, and never actually fought in a direct engagement."

Hongxi: "Thus, prepare to write a new military treatise on the ways of combat Sun-Sin. I'm putting you in charge of recording battles and analyzing them."

Sun-Sin: "Haa… Yes, sir."

As they chatted, the crewman around them worked tirelessly to retrofit the ryder hanger. The two walked toward the control room tucked away in the corner of the hanger. The door slid shut behind them, canceling out the noise from the outside.
Hongxi sat down in one of the spinnable chair and gestured for Sun-Sin to do the same.

Hongxi: "Military otaku, time for an exposition. Tell me all you know about the Yamato."

Sun-Sin blinked a couple times and wondered to himself if this was some kind of test.

Sun-Sin: "Yes sir.

The Yamato is an eight sided battleship 1.8 kilometers long, 160 meters tall, and 550 meters wide. If looked at from the front or rear, it follows the p4 symmetric pattern of an octagon. Each of the ship's side is symmetrical in almost every aspect except for the pagoda rising from the "top" of the ship. The front of the ship narrowed into a cone with an opening for the Macross Cannon and 6 smaller torpedo tubes encircling it.

From the z axis, the ship is shaped in a stretched out triangle, wider at the base and narrow at the tip. From the rear of the ship where it is widest, the upper and lower sides are 75 meters across while the right and left sides are 60 meters thick. This slanted side armor ascends at a rate of 11.89 degrees. From the nose the sloping frontal armor ascends in a 1.59 degree angle, minimalizing the targetable surface area and maximizing the possibility for deflecting incoming kinetic weaponry. Thus it is highly recommended to always engage with the nose or sides of the ship directly facing the enemy.

The Yamato carries an assortment of weaponry. Her 12 turrets are grouped in 4 groups of 3, located on each side of the slanted side armor. Each turret is 210 meters in circumference with a gun barrel approximately 300 meters long, weighing at 11,152,578 kilograms or 1270.5 tons. The Type Jiu Shi Si gun fires a 10,220 kilogram or 11.2665 ton armor piercing shell or a 9,520 kilogram or 10.493 ton high explosive shell at a rate of .25 rounds a minute, or 1 round every four minutes.
The Yamato's guns have an effective range of 140 kilometers. After 140 kilometers the shell's dispersion exceeds 500 meters and the chances of hitting cruiser size ships falls below the assured hit levels of 90%.
Seven hundred 8.8cm flak guns, one hundred 12.7cm DP guns, and fifty 15.5cm guns run down each of the four slanted side armors from the rear of the ship to the front. One hundred and twenty 2 meter concealed broadside guns run down each of the Yamato's sides, capable of firing standard Alliance AP shells.

The ship's gravity generation does not follow the conventional method. Instead, the ship is divided into a northern and southern hemisphere. Instead of having gravity draw everyone towards the bottom like most ships, gravity draws everyone towards a central plane. People in the southern hemisphere is pulled "up" while people in the northern hemisphere is pulled "down".

The Yamato has 4 main thrusters accompanied by 24 secondary thrusters. Located in the center of the 4 main thrusters is the launch bay for the ship's complement of ryders. Aside from the ryder hanger, there are two main hangers located in the middle of the northern and southern hemispheres. Each of these hangers are connected to the central deployment area located towards the interior, center of the ship. The ryder hanger is a separately connected section and is instead a part of the detachable section of the ship.

Likewise, the central deployment area is also divided into a northern and southern hemisphere. Yamato's main contingent of troops was divided into two regiments, making up a total of one brigade. However these troops were not evenly divided. The northern regiment contained mostly S.A. or Space Adapted vehicles and troop transports specialized for invasive boarding. S.A. vehicles are vehicles adapted to operate in the harshness of space. They are airtight and are equipped with electromagnetic that will secure them to asteroids or even the hulls of ships. The southern regiment on the other hand contained G.A. or Ground Assault vehicles and troop transports. These troop transports are swift and heavily armored landing crafts without "bottoms". Instead of a floor, they had a shield in which the marines would stand on. Upon landing the shields would deactivate and the landing craft would lift off, leaving the marines behind for immediate and rapid deployment.
The detachable section of the ship is a small 300 meter long by 80 meters wide by 40 meters thick atmospheric "aircraft" carrier named Ding Yuan. It is the Yamato's primary planetary air support, capable of atmospheric reentry and even landing. It detaches itself and leaves through the rear of the Yamato, carrying with it the Ryder bay as well. It can at times also serve as a mobile HQ for carrying the ryders into areas too small for the Yamato. The Ding Yuan possesses little armaments, sporting a CIWS composing of four dozen 25mm triple turrets along the side and half a dozen missile racks at the rear and front for offense. While it is capable of operating in space, the incapability of atmospheric jets to operate in vacuum coupled with the carrier's light armor means it should not be deployed in dangerous hostile situations. It carries below deck a full group of atmospheric interceptors and one wing of heavy bombers for a total of 150 aircraft…

Sir?

Sir!"

Sun-Sin cleared his throat, waking up the half-asleep Hongxi.

Hongxi: "Hm? Ahem. Yes, I was listening. Our little atmospheric carrier has a detachment of 150 aircraft you say."

Sun-Sin: "Yes sir."

Hongxi: "Well that is simply splendid. I wonder how well it will fair during the occupation of Cera."

Sun-Sin grew quiet at this remark. Hesitantly, he asked.

Sun-Sin: "Sir, what are our chances of breaking through the Pact lines? What are you really planning, captain?"

Before Hongxi could answer him, there came a sharp knock on the door.

Hongxi: "Come in."

Yayoi: "Sir!"

The door slid open and in marched Yayoi, looking proud and regal as ever. Sun-Sin arced an eyebrow and gave Yayoi a look, as if asking what was the matter.

Yayoi: "The retrofitting of the Yamato is going smoothly sir! Last minute crew transfers are complete and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Armored Divisions have finally arrived and are awaiting transfer."

Hongxi: "Good, good. Yayoi-san, won't you sit down and join us?"

Yayoi: "Haai!"

She plopped down into one of the open seats and beamed happily at them. Hongxi took this chance to silently watch the two, to see if anything had changed since the days of the Academy.

Sun-Sin had probably changed the most. Back during the Academy, he was a frail little thing who would hole himself up in the library for hours on end. He has since then become a handsome young man. Standing at 187cm tall, Sun-Sin was a good 8 centimeters taller than himself. A lean build with broad, square-like shoulders, long arms, fair skin and a strong jawline, Hongxi wondered why more of the female crewmen weren't approaching him. Sun-Sin's eyes were black, making it slightly difficult to tell just what he was looking at at times. He kept his hair cut short and his face cleanly shaven, or perhaps he was simply one to not grow facial hair? Thinking about this, Hongxi suddenly came up with the question why didn't Sun-Sin dye his hair blonde or brown like most other Hangul young adults. It was the latest in fashion if he remembered correctly.

Yayoi on the other hand was just as he had remembered. Standing at 169cm, she was exactly 10 centimeters shorter than himself. However she was considered taller than average for Wa females. She would carry herself with elegance and dignity, turning heads whenever she walked down the halls of the Academy. Her silky black hair was quite long, falling down to her waist. She had Hongxi's ideal body type in a woman, a slender body with a modest chest. Whenever he walked past her, he could always catch the faint scent of sakura flowers. She had an even fairer complexion than Sun-Sin with deep brown eyes that one could lose themselves in.

Hongxi shook his head, clearing it of any weird thoughts and replacing it with an image of himself being decapitated. After a few moments, any lingering thoughts had left him.

Hongxi: "There… That's better."

Yayoi: "Hm? Is something wrong, captain~?"

Hongxi: "No, nothing's wrong. Whatever happened to the traditional and conservative Yayoi back in the Academy? She looked the most beautiful in that kimono of hers when she attends Tea Ceremony. Well, I guess a cutesy version isn't too bad."

Yayoi: "Hmmm? Are you falling in love with me?"

Hearing this, Sun-Sin scoffed.

Sun-Sin: "As if, a man like the captain wouldn't fall for your type."

Yayoi: "That's not true! I heard cutesy type are reaaaally popular over in Huaxia right now, especially amongst the Southerners!"

Sun-Sin: "The captain's ancestors came from the north."

Yayoi: "Eeeeh? But wasn't the captain born in the south?"

Sun-Sin: "Yes, but he was raised at the Academy. He probably prefers foreigners, the wavy blonde type with large bosoms."

Yayoi looked down at her modest chest and black hair.

Yayoi: "I could probably dye this, and maybe implants?"

Sun-Sin: "That was a joke nee-san, geez. You're always like this."

Hongxi silently chuckled to himself as he watched the back and forth between the two half siblings. He smiled to himself and stroked the light beard he was growing.

Hongxi: "Ahh… Maybe I should shave too."

Yayoi: "I'll just ask the captain myself! Captain!"

Sun-Sin: "Captain!"

Hongxi was wretched back into reality by the quarreling. Never breaking his smile, he entered the conversation.