BSBxKc Chpt 5

==Blue Squadron (Battletech x KanColle(ish) crossover) - Chapter 5 -==
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===Return Trip Home===
Jan Mayen System, Deep Periphery
Each of the three fleetmaidens felt a distinct sense of relief. Having successfully jumped back to their system of origin, they could see for themselves that everything was fine there.
 
They had taken an approach vector to Waystation 135 again, when the same traffic controller as last time hailed them.
 
"This is traffic control to new arrivals, please identify yourselves." Judging by how enthusiastic the man sounded, he probably knew for certain who had just jumped in, yet protocol had to be followed.
 
The smile in his voice was audible, and despite having slight misgivings, Swift Justice was affected. She responded in a tone more lively than usual. "This is Blue Squadron, on approach to Waystation 135."
 
"Copy that Blue. Welcome back. We have been expecting your return."
Swift deflected with a diplomatic answer. "I am sorry it took so long. We were as quick as we could. Swift Justice out."
 
The three warships shared a look, yet none of them spoke. They all knew what was on the others' minds. The reminder that they had been too late to save the people on another station was unpleasant.
 
Continuing on their way, silence stretched for a while, until Amber Lotus spoke up. "I'm glad that is over and we are back here. Not that hungry, but i feel tired. Weary really, nanodesu."
 
"Same. I think i need a little break." Brest did sound less enthusiastic than usual.
 
With a nod the Aegis gave both of them an understanding look. "I am starved myself. We will get the rest we need while recharging our drives." And the cruiser would use the time to get Zheng to bring her up to speed with how the situation had developed in their absence.
 
Peering at their destination in the distance with a wistful look in her dark eyes, Amber said, more to herself than her companions. "I hope we can have some mochi again, nanodesu."
 
"Yeah. That was really good. I wouldn't mind having more." The brunette agreed.
 
"It's supposed to be much better actually. Space boiled away much of its water content, and ruined it for the eye too." The dark-haired girl replied with conviction. "I wish there was a way around that, nanodesu."
 
It was a minor discomfort, all things considered, yet the ComStar cruiser hummed in agreement.
 
Both corvettes were less inclined to overlook it though, their weariness forgotten for the moment.
 
"Those vacuum-dried ration packs we had are good at restoring our fuel, ammunition and lost fighters." The dark-haired girl was getting into it. "Their taste and texture though... My crew's memories tell me how they are supposed to taste. Having them right out of the pack, instead of properly adding water and warming them up? Doesn't make them enjoyable to eat, nanodesu."
 
"Yeah, especially the beef ones. I don't like those. There's no actual beef in them!" The Fox-class added her own opinion.
 
Swift turned her gaze towards Jan Mayen system to hide her smile. The two corvettes sounded exactly like one would expect, judging by their teenage appearance alone. She let them vent their gripes without comment. It would keep their minds off of less pleasant thoughts, like destroyed space stations and dead crewmen. Though she did make a mental note to try and find a way to improve their food-situation. An army marched on its stomach, after all. And maybe, in this new age of warships in the shape of people, morale might be more important than ever.
 
After a while the two had gotten it out of their systems, and the icy planet loomed ahead.
 
As they maneuvered themselves into their customary parking position next to the Waystation, the ash-haired woman gave it a once-over and hummed to herself in approval. Its crew had been busy, and the damage their unwelcome guests had caused during their visit had been repaired. It did feel reassuring to the woman, considering they had only recently left behind a station that had no living soul on it any more.
 
Having reached their anchoring spot, the fleetmaidens disengaged their propulsion systems and turned to face the station. Again a lot of people had gathered at the portholes, and were waving at them excitedly.
 
"They don't get tired of looking at us, do they?" Amber asked rhetorically and returned the enthusiastic waves with a small smile.
 
"I would be too if i were in their place, even disregarding what we know now." Swift lifted a hand to her ear and attempted to raise Zheng on their net. There was no response though, so she assumed their liaison was busy with something. That was alright with her. She knew he would get into contact with them as soon as he could.
 
"Really? I can't imagine you looking at anyone with such an adoring expression. You seem too stoic for that." Brest's smile was broad, and her blue eyes were all but sparkling with mischief.
 
Surprised by her young charge's teasing, the woman responded after a moment's contemplation with a slight smile. "I will have you know that i am different when I am around my old fleetmates, or my sisters. And do not have to babysit two green corvettes." Her smile grew as she spoke. "Besides, I want to see you once you are as old as i am."
 
The brunette attempted to hide her, by now, broad smile behind her hand, and giggled cutely..
 
Swift recognized what the girl had been trying to do, and appreciated her trying to lift the mood. Maybe Brest was right, and she was a little too up-tight. The burden of command, worry about their supernatural adversary, as well as what weighed on her personally did not help appearances. The cruiser made a mental note to try and be more outgoing at times. Having her young charges think she was too much of a no-nonsense superior officer would not be good in the long run.
 
A low laugh drew the two's attention to Amber Lotus. The draconian was still chuckling, involved in a sign-language conversation again. Following the girl's gaze, Swift spotted the familiar red-haired woman again.
 
She was in the process of activating the airlock closest to their parking position again, and responded to Amber with a broad smile.
 
Amber's smile got wider in response. She motioned back, and breathed a "thank you" as she floated towards the chamber's opening door. It revealed a grey rectangular box.
 
"What have you got there Amber?" The grey-haired woman queried, unknowingly using the same words she had last time.
 
"Food." Grasping the box, the dark-haired girl opened its lid. After a moment of contemplation she took two containers out of it. "Greater selection this time. And not just ration packs either, nanodesu." She pushed the box in the cruiser's direction and sent a broad smile, and a wave, at their benefactor.
 
The Aegis caught the box when it reached her. In it were 8 more containers with transparent lids, along with the ration packs they had resorted to last time.
 
"Huh." Brest remarked as she peered into the box, having sidled up to Swift. The girl reached into it and took out two containers as well. "They learned from our oopsie. This was frozen ahead of time, so the food didn't turn into a half-exploded mess."
 
Out of the half dozen containers with food that remained, one stood out to the ash-haired woman. It appeared to have something akin to swedish meatballs in it. Opting for that one, she reached for it and popped it open, to get started on replenishing the fuel she spent on the latest mission.
 
Thoughtful as they were, the people of Waystation 135 had provided cutlery to the fleetmaidens, along with the food. Swift appreciated it. Picking up a fork, the cruiser attempted to jab it into her food. The frozen substance did not cooperate. All she achieved was to push it around.
 
With her brow set in a slight frown of concentration, she tried another approach. Pushing a single meatball into the container's corner, she carefully applied force to skewer it. Just when the cruiser thought the frozen morsel of food would give in, it rolled and went flying out of its container, away from her.
 
She huffed in annoyance, left the cutlery floating next to her, and resorted to the same thing her younger companions did. Using her hands appeared to be the easiest way to go about eating.
 
A companionable silence settled over the fleetmaidens as they ate their meals.
 
There were still many people watching them. It was not new to her any more, yet it still made the cruiser a bit uncomfortable, even disregarding the open adoration in those people's expressions.
 
By the time Swift opened the next box, the corvettes had started into their second ones as well. Both had picked mochi again, and this time it looked like it was supposed to.
 
"You were right. This is better than last time. I like it." Brest gave her dessert an appreciative look and took another bite.
 
"Told you so, nanodesu." Amber had finished her own in record time, and gathered up her empty containers to put them back into the large box. She made more hand-signs at the red-haired woman at the airlock, who was still watching the three of them with a pleased expression.
 
This time Swift could see what Amber said. 'Thank you very much. It was delicious.' The redhead smiled broadly and floated out of sight.
 
Silence stretched again briefly. The two corvettes watched their flagship eat for a while, then looked at each other at the same time.
 
"I'm glad that the people here are alright, nanodesu." The draconian turned her gaze at "their" airlock, where her red-haired acquaintance had been a short while ago.
 
"Yeah. That last mission really showed me what could happen every time we leave to go on a mission." Brest's voice trailed off, her expression pained.
 
"To think that the people here might suffer the same fate as the crew of Vespucci..." Amber looked past the station, her jaw clenched and hands balled into fists. She abruptly turned towards her flagship, gaze intense. "I don't want to leave this station undefended anymore. Not after what we have seen at Vespucci, nanodesu."
 
Surprised with how upset the usually reserved girl seemed to be, the Aegis stopped chewing for a moment. She swallowed and spoke in her best soothing voice. "I agree. Neither do i. We will talk with Mr. Zheng about it. I think once our mission-reports go up the chain of command, it will have an effect. Proof that our enemy is truly organized might get them to change their stance on how to conduct our campaign."
 
Amber huffed out a breath, tense still.
 
Swift let go of her food for the moment, and maneuvered herself in front of the girl. She placed both hands on the corvette's shoulders and looked down into her eyes. "We will figure something out, alright?"
 
Holding the cruiser's grey gaze for several moments, the girl's shoulders sagged. "Yeah." Swift could feel the tension draining out of the corvette's thin frame.
 
"Good. Now try to take your mind off of things for a bit. We have no pressing concerns for now." The Aegis suggested. Same as with Brest before, she could not keep the impulse in check, and her hand reached out to tussle Amber's hair. The girl ducked out of reach quickly, yet the smile she tried to hide let Swift know that it had the desired effect.
 
While Swift returned to her hearty meal, the draconian straightened. She reached up and pulled out the pins, which held her hair in a bun. When freed, the ebon tresses cascaded down the girl's shoulders and back. Taking a comb out of her uniform's pocket, Amber swung her locks over her shoulder in one smooth motion and began running the instrument through her hair's length.
 
"I need to think of something other than monsters straight out of a horror trivid." Brest spoke up after a while. "Wonder if there are any books on Jan Mayen i do not know yet." The brunette cupped her chin in contemplation. "Knowing everything my crew did has its disadvantages."
 
"If that's what you want. I'll doze instead, nanodesu." Amber was in the process of gathering up her hair and fastening it into her customary bun again.
 
Brest gave her fellow corvette a dubious look. "Why would you do that? We are warships. We do not need to sleep."
 
"Neither do we need to read books." The dark-haired girl was finished with her hair, and was in the process of raising her jumpsail. "It seems like the natural thing to do when i am weary, nanodesu."
 
"But that's not the same. Reading takes the mind to places far away, while you don't even know if you can sleep in the first place. You might end up just staring into space."
 
"I won't know until I try, nanodesu." The draconian yawned and stretched her entire frame. She turned away from the station, in a manner someone would roll over in bed, put her hands "under" her head, and closed her eyes.
 
Brest watched her fellow's antics with a thoughtful expression and shrugged when the former turned the other way. The brunette obviously did not understand the appeal, but did not deem it worthy of further argument. Instead she raised her own jumpsail, and began charging her drive and battery.
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===Shadows of War and Reluctant Actions===
Jan Mayen System, Deep Periphery - Waystation 135
Quite a while later Swift Justice was observing a small mock-battle, which the three fleetmaidens had decided on conducting between their dropships and aerospace fighters. Although Amber had neither moved nor responded when contacted, her units had moved into position for it regardless.
 
The exercise was going as expected, and the cruiser was satisfied with the performance shown. Just then a voice sounded in her ear. "Swift Justice, do you read me?"
 
The ash-haired woman blinked the far-away look from her eyes. "I hear you, Mr. Zheng." Shoving the printouts she had in her hands into one of her uniform's pockets, she raised her arms above her head and stretched. She then dropped them again with a groan, and rolled her shoulders.
 
Still adjusting his headset, the intelligence officer came floating into view, with his customary noteputer in hand. "Good day ladies" He greeted with an incline of his head when he reached his usual spot, next to their airlock.
 
Looking away from the intricate war-dance of aerospace assets, the brunette Fox-class gave the man a polite smile. Amber, on the other hand, still did not move from her half curled-up position. The girl either was actually asleep or determined to succeed at it.
 
Swift approached the porthole next to the airlock, so she could have a proper conversation with their liaison, even if it happened over radio.
 
Having reached the other side, Zheng queried. "I am hesitant to ask, since you did not call for aid. What is the situation at Vespucci?"
 
The grey-haired woman had to fight to keep a grimace from her face. Her expression hardened instead. "The station has been lost to the enemy. It is seriously damaged, and we did not encounter a living soul there."
 
"That is..." The man's jaw clenched. He swallowed and hesitated for several moments. "Bad news."
 
"Yeah. That's putting it lightly." Brest joined the conversation as she came to a halt next to Swift.
 
"There is more." Taking the interruption in stride, the grey-haired woman carried on. She took a noteputer out of her uniform and held it out to Brest. The girl took it and went about the process of sending it through the airlock. "We only discovered the mortal remains of 37 crewmen. And all of the escape pods and lifeboats were missing."
 
The man looked perplexed. "You are sure it was not pirates?"
 
"Positive. It certainly was our unwelcome guests. The readout from the station's computer core shows the same pattern as here. Emergence signature, followed by sensor ghosts, and then nothing out of the ordinary once they got close enough."
 
"Also there were dark patches on the station, like we saw on the enemy dropships." The corvette continued after a pause. "Most of them in an airlock they forced their entry through."
 
"What do they want with the crew? They do not seem like they would ransom prisoners." Zheng thought aloud, cupping his chin. The implications of what he had learned were visibly upsetting the man.
 
"You can say that again. Considering the condition some of the dead crew were in, and the claw marks on a bunch of surfaces...they must have used some kind of attack beast. Not the type to take prisoners."
 
"One would think." Swift inclined her head towards Brest in approval, and turned back to Zheng. "We need a crew-manifest. We have to know how many people are missing. Maybe we can start figuring out where those people might have been taken this way."
 
"I will see what i can do." The intelligence officer agreed and typed on his noteputer, before he looked up again, a question in his dark eyes. "How far along are you with recharging?"
 
Suspecting where the conversation was headed, the Aegis' tone was hesitant. "We are at around 20% on our drives, and our L-F batteries are empty. It will be a while until we can sortie."
 
"I thought so." He grasped his chin in thought. "We can work out the details until then, but we need you to check out system 1339 again."
 
"Are you implying that we did not do our duty properly?" Brest sounded indignant, with her hands on her hips. Even without the means to flatten a city in seconds, there was something in the girl's voice and expression that made her seem actually intimidating, Swift thought.
 
"No, that is not it." The officer had his hands raised in front of him in a placating gesture.
 
When the Fox-class relaxed after a moment he returned his gaze to Swift. "We have expanded our coverage of automated surveillance. And we have noticed an uptick of fax-messages from several systems, 2 jumps spinward from here. And there seems to be a pattern." He sent a stream of data from his noteputer to Swift.
 
He paused for a moment. "Data analysis believe that 1339 is a staging ground for the enemy."
 
The officer's voice became strained, and Swift did not envy him. He was in a position of needing to convince the three of them, the only known effective assets against their new enemy, to go on a sortie based on guesses from a bunch of higher-ups in the intelligence agencies. And, in the process, leave people they have come to know undefended.
 
"Hmm." The Aegis gave the annotated starmap she had received some thought. "1339 is the only system within one jump from here and the marked systems. And it would explain why the enemy had units there."
 
"Yes."
 
When Zheng said nothing more, Brest spoke up. "Why are they this interested in Jan Mayen though?" She turned a questioning look at her flagship. "There are enough targets out there, if their goal is to abduct people. So why?"
 
"The prevalent opinion among the SLIC, and the memberstate-agencies, is that our friends are trying to establish something like an invasion corridor, and Jan Mayen is in the middle of it. If that is the case, our task is to halt the enemy onslaught."
 
The grey-haired woman replied with a serious expression. "If so, i - we-"
 
She turned to Brest. The girl's blue eyes conveyed wordless agreement. "Are even more loathe to leave Jan Mayen undefended."
 
Swift turned back to Zheng. "The attack on Vespucci was doubtlessly carried out by a warship, and one that has an L-F battery as well. I know, because I calculated the pirate points there. The one they had to have gone in with would have disappeared in too short of a time to attack Vespucci. So they must have used another one to get out again, before we arrived."
 
She gave the man a few moments before she continued. "Which means that, if said warship is within two jumps from here, it might pop in here at any moment. And if we are not present to defend..." She trailed off and turned her gaze at the distant star they had only recently returned from. "I do not want Vespucci to repeat itself."
 
An expression that might have been gratitude fleeted across the man's features, before he schooled his expression into professionalism again. "We will be fine. Reinforcements are en route, and should arrive as soon as, or shortly after, you have recharged."
 
"Do we know what those reinforcements are made up of?"
 
Swift's question made the officer pause for a moment before he replied. "I know that at least one Jumpship was dispatched after the reports of your battle with the enemy reached headquarters. I expect there to be more though. What exactly, we will only see when they get here though. Transmitting over such a large distance that key military units may have been moved is not a good idea."
 
"I am skeptical of that." Swift's tone was dubious.
 
Zheng argued the point. "My own opinion is that the enemy will only strike on this system from 1339. If you can intercept them there, i think the risk to Jan Mayen is low."
 
The grey-haired woman weighed his words. Although Zheng's hypothesis rested on assumptions, it did make sense. She sighed defeatedly. "Very well. I will trust those reinforcements to be enough to keep the station safe in our absence."
 
"What's those reinforcements good for in the face of our friends' influence?" Brest did not share Swift's view. She gave her flagship an incredulous look. "We can't leave the people here to their fate."
 
"Our little corner of the galaxy has drawn the attention of notable people back in the Inner Sphere." Zheng took a deep breath before he continued. "And some of them think that what we are dealing with here is serious. Serious enough to divert effort away from the Clans." He connected his eyes with Brest's and held her gaze, before he finished his argument. "There are experts on their way here, tasked with looking into ways to combat this new foe."
 
Getting visibly agitated, the Fox-class gestured at Jan Mayen's Lagrange Point, which held the enemy remains they had brought back in its gravitational grasp. "All the experts in the galaxy will not make a difference if the enemy shows up." The pitch of her voice rose steadily while she spoke, and she cast a beseeching look at Zheng.
 
"I share Swift Justice's view. I have confidence the reinforcements will be able to handle any situation." The man's voice and expression were calm and placating in the face of Brest's upset state. Swift Justice wondered for a moment if he had children of his own.
 
Floating in front of the girl, Blue Squadron's flagship placed her hands on the Brest's shoulders. She gave the brunette a firm look to make her listen.
 
"Whether we like it or not, we are at war. With that comes a risk to everyone even remotely involved, and we can only be in one place at one time. The enemy will target more locations than just one station, and there are not enough military units in known space to defend even a small fraction of them."
 
A smile appeared on her face then. "Luckily we have the luxury of reducing the risk of attack for the people of Jan Mayen, by going on a combat patrol, and hopefully striking at the enemy preemptively."
 
The corvette held Swift's gaze for a moment longer, then dropped her gaze with a nod. "Alright. I just hope we will not regret this. Stupid THINGS." After a moment she added with a huff. "And we need a term to refer to them. Just calling them The Enemy seems a little silly after a while."
 
"I am open for suggestions." The grey-haired woman replied.
 
"Let me think about it for a bit." The girl replied.
 
"Alright. Until then, let us think about how to go about our return to system 1339." The Aegis replied.
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