BSBxKc Chpt 1

==Blue Squadron (Battletech x KanColle(ish) crossover) - Chapter 1 -==
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===Joint Deep Space Mission===
Unnamed System, Deep Periphery
The planetary system around the orange dwarf star was a calm place. Situated in the deep periphery, and lacking any habitable celestial bodies, or easily exploited resources, the unnamed system had remained off of most starcharts since its discovery, centuries ago.
 
That peace was disturbed when the intricate gravitational dance between the system's single nameless gas giant, its moons, as well as the orange star, produced a viable jump-point in said gas giant's wider orbit. Not long after the jump point stabilized, three vessels emerged from it with the suddenness characteristic of a hyperjump.
 
Said vessels were all WarShips. Had anyone been close enough to see them with the naked eye, these WarShips would have appeared as human females to a hypothetical observer. The fact that none of them were wearing any kind of environmental suit did not seem to bother them, and each had parts of their hulls, gun turrets and more attached to their backs or sides.
"Here we are. Is everyone alright?" The largest of the three radioed asked. She followed procedure and looked down to check herself over as well. As an Aegis-class cruiser she was the oldest looking out of the three, with the appearance of a woman in her mid twenties. Wearing a Comguard uniform, and with her grey hair in a prim braid that reached the middle of her back, CSV Swift Justice cut an imposing figure befitting of a squadron's flagship.
 
"All systems green." Came back in unison from the two smaller ships, both of which were corvettes.
"Good. Launch your DropShips and have them assume their escort positions around us." The cruiser's voice had some steel in it when she gave orders to her two companions. It was the first operation of their hastily thrown together formation, and as such not much thought had gone into their designation of Blue Squadron. After a bare minimum of navigational training together, which was actually the three of them moving someplace from where safe jumps could be made in their system of origin, they had embarked on this "important mission".
 
Two affirmatives came back, and while the corvettes began detaching their DropShips the squardon's leader did the same on auto-pilot. Green as they were, Swift Justice half expected having to step in to prevent oopsies. So she kept an active sensor lock on them watched closely as her two charges went about the procedures. Not helping that expectation was the fact that, to her human perception, they looked like not-quite-women teenagers.
 
The girl in a Federated Suns Navy uniform, slightly taller than the other, launched her DropShips and started directing them where they were supposed to go in their formation. The corvette wore her brown hair at shoulder length and had an expression of intense concentration on her face as she did so.
"Finished", FSS Brest, a member of the Fox-class, exclaimed and looked at Swift Justice with an eager to please expression that made her blue eyes almost shine.
 
In contrast, the other corvette was as composed and professional as one would expect from a member of the DCMS as she went through the motions. Her uniform added to that picture. The girl's dark hair, which she wore in a bun, together with her equally dark eyes and generally Japanese look completed the image. Looks can be deceiving, though, as DCS Amber Lotus spoke in a surprisingly soft voice. "Formation achieved."
 
Swift Justice nodded at her two inexperienced squadron-mates and turned towards the gas giant, which loomed in space ahead of them. "Moving out. Keep your eyes open for anything unusual."
 
The formation swung around and started burning towards the huge planet at a moderate 0.5g. Swift Justice turned her extensive sensor suite to the maximum and could feel her companions do the same.
 
Swift's pale grey eyes narrowed in concentration as she peered at the gas-planet in the distance. Its system of moons was a possible hideout for what they were searching. The more she looked at the planet the more it reminded her of Jupiter, and memories came to her, unbidden. Memories of desperate battles, of tragic loss, of triumph, of...
 
A voice drew her back to the present. "Now that we are on this patrol, can you tell us what our task is?" Brest was looking at her with an eager expression.
 
"I suppose. You remember those...things i mentioned, that were attacking Waystation 135 when I appeared in the system?" At Brest's nod Swift continued. "When i closed in to defend the station, they fled to the other side of the planet and were gone when i got there myself. So they must have had a jumpship waiting there. Our task is to find it while it may still be charging its drive, and make sure it cannot be used to attack anything else."
 
"And that intelligence man you talked with thinks they are in this system. How does he know, nanodesu?" Amber raised a good point.
 
Looking over to the shorter corvette, the Aegis-class replied. "I think it is more of an educated guess. The people from the Intelligence Command are good at what they do." She did not mention that she was a little suspicious of the whole thing herself, albeit for different reasons.
 
The entire situation was beyond absurd when the cruiser-woman thought about it. She had been destroyed a year ago, during Operation Odysseus, when she took a salvo from a battleship. Following that was a brief blackness, akin to a trivid cutting out for a moment, and then she was in high orbit of a planet she did not know, compressed into human shape yet somehow still herself as a warship. And before she had known it she had been in motion too, responding to the desperate radio-calls for help from what she recognized was a space station belonging to the Explorer Corps. A station that was under attack by what appeared to be combat DropShips and aerospace fighters, yet to her new senses they looked and felt... off.
 
Then, after she had chased those unknown attackers off and was approaching the station, she was contacted by an officer from to the Star League Intelligence Command, Member State Liaison Division, who introduced himself as Zheng. He had seemed thoroughly rattled but not as surprised as one would have expected him to be, considering he was talking with a warship. Maybe she did not give the man enough credit for his composure, but she had a hunch the officer knew more than he let on. That was par for the course when it came to intelligence people, naturally, but Swift still intended to have a chat with him once they returned.
 
Amber gave her a dubious look, and the cruiser added. "They have many eyes all over space, even out here, and access to star charts with systems on them nobody knows. Compiling information and drawing conclusions to figure out enemy movements in advance is their entire purpose." The dark haired girl hummed and nodded once, her suspicions apparently appeased for the moment.
 
"Those charts sounds really helpful. Can we have a copy of them?" The Fox-class, bless her enthusiasm, piped up.
 
Not wanting to dash the girl's hopes the cruiser hummed in mock thought. "We can ask, but i would not be surprised if they refused to hand them over. Unless it became necessary for an operation. They will quote information security as a reason, but spooks just do not like to give up their secrets." And it had bitten them in the past, the grey-haired woman thought sourly.
 
The corvette from the Federated Suns merely huffed in slight disappointment and fell silent.
 
No more words were spoken, aside from terse commands and replies, until the small squadron of fleetmaidens, as Zheng had called them, swung into low orbit of the giant planet's first of two large moons. Rounding it several times the three scrutinized its surface very carefully in the entirety of the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as other ways.
 
After three orbits Swift Justice was reasonably certain there was nothing out of the ordinary on the atmosphere-less block of ice below them, and directed their formation to do the same for the second large moon, which was closer to the giant. After a few orbits there they reached the same conclusion and continued on to an equally nameless ice-giant. It was further out from the system's primary, and the only other notable body in the system.
 
On the way there tension seemed to make one of the Aegis-class' companions jittery. Brest had been wearing an insecure expression for a while when she spoke up. "I've got a feeling we're walking into a trap."
 
Maneuvering closer, the cruiser placed a hand on the corvette's shoulder and gave her what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "There is no way to ambush us in open space. If they are here they are hiding, which by extension means they think they cannot win against us. We will be fine." The Comstar-cruiser mentally frowned and hoped she had not just told a lie to her young charge. The reminder that this was both of the corvettes' first sortie made her realize that she could not even remember her own first deployment. It was so long ago, the Aegis thought wistfully.
 
The rest of the way to the ice-giant was uneventful, and orbiting it at the equator several times yielded nothing. That left the ice giant's single planet-sized moon which, judging by its retrograde orbit, was apparently a captured protoplanet. It was also a snowball.
 
Just when they were done burning onto a transfer vector into the moon's orbit, something tickled the ash-haired woman at the edge of her perception. She turned her gaze towards the source the same moment Amber spoke up. "I see something. Faint reading on magnetic, Several actually, but unambiguous. There are fusion-engines on standby on that moon."
 
The draconian corvette sent the contacts' location on the icy satellite's standard system of coordinates, though it was not necessary any more. The other two could also see them.
 
For a moment Swift thought about taking a gamble, to attempt and play it cool. Pretend they did not see the contacts, which she somehow knew were enemy, for a chance to maybe attack them from orbit. She discarded those foolish thoughts with a mental headshake. Nobody would just sit there while enemy WarShips positioned themselves for bombardment in the sky above.
 
In a carefully controlled voice the ash-haired woman gave orders. "Prepare to engage the enemy. Launch your aerospace fighters and have them keep a screen around us at all times. Only send them to strike at the larger enemy vessels when you see a good opportunity for it."
 
The affirmatives she received trembled a bit, but to their credit the two corvettes' composure held as they went about the launch-procedures. It was Amber Lotus' turn to wear a look of concentration while Brest appeared apprehensive.
 
The fleetmaidens' unknown adversaries did not remain idle. They had to have known that they were detected already, but when the three WarShips launched fighters the gig was definitely up. And they were prepared too. Quickstarting their fusion engines, they rapidly launched and rode pillars of flame into the sky, to meet the squadron of fleet-women.
 
As the unknown attackers were rising into orbit Swift got her first good look at them. Her initial impression was right. There was something off about them indeed, most obviously their looks. The enemy force was made up of three DropShips of a class the cruiser had never seen before. The grey-haired woman also noted that they were not the same vessels which had attacked Waystation 135. When they proceeded to launch fighters of their own, those too remained unknown. All she could tell for certain was that they had a monochrome color scheme. All bone-white and pitch black. Whoever their adversaries were had even gone to the trouble of decorating the DropShips, and most of the fighter-craft, to look like there were teeth sticking out of them.
 
Although, as the enemy formation closed in and that feeling of unease got stronger, the three of them somehow knew that those decorations were not decorations at all.
 
"You weren't joking when you said we'd know our foes once we saw them. What's wrong with those things?" The apprehension in Brest's voice was plain to hear.
 
CSV Swift Justice released a breath and spoke in her best commanding officer voice. "Here they come. Remember to cover everyone as well as possible with fighters." After a moment she added. "They are just DropShips. They have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. They will attack until either they or we are dead. Keep your heads in the game."
 
The cruiser's focus, sharpened to a knife's edge, was resting solely on the unknown attackers as they closed in. Sparing a quick thought for her charges she grit her teeth. The two were about to fire their first shots in anger, and she was not about to let anything happen to them if she had any say about it.
 
Finally the formation of monochrome ships came into effective engagement range, and the Aegis-class gave a single command. "Fire at will."
 
Three WarShips opening up, even with just their longer ranged weapons, was quite the sight. Lasbeams and artificial lightning briefly brightened up space around the clashing squadrons. The first salvo went mostly wide, which was not unexpected, but still a bit disappointing.
 
The engagement distance shrunk, and while the longer ranged guns had reloaded, the Naval Autocannons on the three WarShips opened up to throw massive shells at incredible velocities at their adversaries. Only few connected, and apparently the enemy had enough armor on them to withstand those hits.
 
It was at this point that the enemy's almost two dozen fighters crashed into the fleet maidens' own fighter screen, and one heck of a dogfight ensued. While the human side had significantly more fighters, the enemy's pilots were superior to the green ones belonging to Amber and Brest. Not to mention that the confusion of such an engagement made it difficult to discern between friend and foe. Quite a few of the corvettes' fighters were lost, the death of each pilot a painful pinprick for the respective fleetgirl.
 
As Swift had the squadron maneuver to bring their broadsides to bear on the enemy again, the Fox-class spoke up, sounding less than enthused. "This is not going well." As if to prove her point, a beam of laser light hit her square in the chest and singed her uniform. The corvette flinched, then cursed.
 
"We will be fine. We have them outgunned significantly. All we need to do is..." Swift trailed off as a form zipped past her. Belatedly she realized it was Amber. The girl had to be accelerating at more than 4g.
 
"All we need to do is hit them hard and fast, nanodesu!" The draconian girl yelled, charging with breakneck speed at the enemy formation.
It took the ash-haired woman a moment to recover from her surprise, before she yelled at the speeding corvette in her best Superior Officer voice. "Amber Lotus! Return to formation immediately!"
 
Amber did not seem to be in a mood to listen. Having reached medium to short range with the enemy, she took a lot of fire, yet was able to use her entire suite of weapons effectively. The short distance also helped to improve the corvette's gunnery, which allowed her to cripple one of the enemy DropShips' propulsion system, with a lucky hit from one of her PPCs.
 
Yet the greatest effect Amber Lotus' reckless maneuver had was the breaking up of the enemy formation. Turns out that when 200.000 tons of steel come charging right at you, the instinct to get out of the way apparently overrides the chain of command. As a result two enemy DropShips dodged into different directions each, while the crippled one remained on its trajectory.
 
CSV Swift Justice released an impressive string of curses, when repeated attempts to reign in the draconian corvette went unheeded. "Damn that girl." She muttered. Now they had to be careful not to hit their fleetmate with their sub-par gunnery, too. At least the girl stayed on the crippled DropShip, which put her somewhat out of the way. The cruiser fired a salvo and looked over at the other corvette she had under her wing, with a bit of a scowl. The Fox-class flinched slightly under the older woman's gaze, but kept up her role in the battle.
 
Eventually the fleetmaidens' advantages won out. The massive dogfight was won, so Brest and Swift could use their fighters to strafe the enemy DropShips, that were still maneuvering. It was not long after that, one of them slowed from the relentless attacks, which allowed the ash-haired woman to land a good salvo with her NACs on it. The hits were effective too, and internal explosions could be seen rippling through its hull. It took no more action after that.
 
"Finally." The Aegis raised her fist in triumph, but lowered it again quickly. If any of her sisters, or former fleetmates, could see just how bad her gunnery was... she would never live it down.
 
"Yatta! Woohoo!" Just then, Amber had apparently delivered the killing blow to her own adversary of choice, and was doing a little victory dance. The DropShip's hull was almost completely covered in scorch marks, courtesy of the draconian corvette's point defense weapons. Which was good on one hand, because apparently she could wield those just fine. On the other hand, it also meant that there were few large holes from capital grade weaponry, which meant she had missed most of those, even at short range.
 
Swift made a mental note about that, and turned her sights to their last remaining enemy. Just as she was about to take aim, it went up in a ball of flame. With all of its fighters stripped away, and having already taken significant damage, it could not evade a Barracuda missile Brest had fired at it. Apparently the hit caused so much internal damage, it actually destroyed the magnetic confinement on the DropShip's fusion engine. Something that happened only rarely.
 
Breathing a sigh of relief, the cruiser turned to the brunette girl next to her, and gave her a nod and a small smile. "Well done." The corvette seemed happy with the praise, and could not help the broad grin that appeared on her face.
 
"That was exciting. Good thing we got rid of them." The other corvette was in the process of forming up with the rest of the squadron again, and looking pleased with herself.
 
The Aegis-class whirled around, to face Amber with a thunderous expression. In a dangerously low tone, she asked. "What exactly were you thinking?"
 
The good cheer had left the girl when she responded carefully. "I..I could not hit them from afar. It is how i work best. Get up close and overwhelm the opposition, nanodesu."
 
Swift had to bite her tongue to make herself think before she spoke, because she did not know what to say first. She was furious with the girl.
 
"You are lucky you do not belong to the ComGuards. If you did, i would send you to peel potatoes until the end of eternity. You did not only endanger yourself, but the entire squadron with that kind of recklessness. Had any of those been full sized WarShips, you would be dead now. What if any of those missiles they hit you with had been tipped with nuclear warheads? You are not a battleship. You cannot shrug off hits like that. Heck you do not have the armor to withstand even one salvo from my NAC35s." She gave the corvette the hardest look she was capable of, to drive the point home, to make her understand.
 
To her credit, Amber Lotus took the dressing down surprisingly well. Her voice was subdued, but steady. "I understand, and I apologize."
 
The cruiser deflated and heaved a sigh. "We will talk about this later, during debriefing. For now i am happy that all of you are alive and well."
 
Trailing off, Swift took a good look at Amber's disheveled state. The girl's hair had partially escaped its confining bun, and there were tears and scorch marks all over her clothes, as well as a few blackened patches on her skin. "'Damage report?"
 
The draconian had the good grace to look sheepish. "Uuh, my armor took most of it. Slight damage to the hull and the jumpsail. That should be fixed in a little while, nanodesu."
 
Resisting the urge to launch into another lecture, the cruiser instead turned to Brest in an unspoken prompt.
 
"Aside from a few minor hits that barely scratched my paint, i am undamaged." There was a certain pride in the FedSun-vessel's tone.
 
The squadron leader nodded in affirmation, and gave new orders. "Much as i would prefer to head back now, we need to check out the wrecks before they get away too far. Send boarding parties onto them and see if you can find any information about who our unwelcome guests are. And what they want. Document them. Take pictures, load pieces of them onto your DropShips. See if you can find serial numbers on any of their parts. Anything to help identify them or their class. Same goes for their fighters. Each of you grab the least shattered one you can find, and take them along."
 
Two affirmatives came back and each of them got moving. While she turned, the Aegis-class added "Amber, keep me up to date on the status of your sail."
 
"Will do." The draconian corvette chirped back. The girl had gotten over the lecture she had received rather quickly. The fleet women split up then, each heading for the remains of a destroyed enemy DropShip.
 
When Swift reached the wreck she had taken out, she got confirmation for what she had already suspected.
 
"This one is a total write-off. Suffered cascade system failure, everything blew out of it. It is literally an empty hulk. Any luck with the others?"
 
Amber Lotus had regained the usual soft tone to her voice. "I've got a boarding party on this one. There's no serial numbers on any kind of hardware my infantrists have looked at yet. More importantly though, there are no remains of the DropShip's crew." There was a pause before she continued. "Well, none you would expect. There are dark patches all over the ground though, even in undamaged parts of the ship." A moment of hesitation. "I thought they were scorch marks, but a number of them are on chairs at consoles. It looks like the crew just turned to dust, or were consumed by a flame that did not singe or melt anything else."
 
After a moment of rather uncomfortable silence Brest spoke up. "Can confirm. I see the same thing over here. Also no serial numbers. The EMP from the blown fusion engine fried all electronic systems on the ship. I will pack up what i can remove, and link up at the waypoint."
 
The draconian spoke up again. "I'll try to salvage the DropShip's computer core. My boarders are working on that at the moment. I'll be done soon."
 
While listening to the corvettes Swift had been steadily moving towards their rallying point. On her way there, half of an enemy fighter drifted past her. Reaching out to grasp it, she asked. "Amber, how is that sail of yours looking?" The only thing she learned from peering at the destroyed craft up close was, that it was even more disturbing than she initially thought, with its hull looking chitinous to her human senses. She stuffed the wreck into one of her DropShips and continued on her way.
 
"Repairs are finished, and my boarding crew is almost done removing the computer core. I will link up with you shortly, nanodesu."
 
Brest and Swift arrived at their waypoint at the same time. The cruiser gave her younger charge a nod and a smile. The girl had done well, and her happy grin was justified. Switching from battle mindset to logistical, the older woman asked. "How are we looking on aerospace fighters? How many did we lose?"
 
The brunette girl's happy expression turned into a grimace. "Counting my own, as well as those my DropShips lost... nine."
 
"Seven here." The shorter of the two corvettes had also linked up, and the squadron started burning towards a new waypoint. One close enough to the orange dwarf to charge their KF-drives within reasonable time, yet far enough away to jump out safely.
 
The Comstar-cruiser flinched at both numbers. "With my four that means we have lost as many fighters as our enemies, while we had them outnumbered in that department more than two to one." Needless to say, that was terrible. And judging by their expressions the two corvettes knew it as well.
 
The three WarShips had arrived at the waypoint, and deployed their solar sails to charge their drives. After a short stretch of silence Swift Justice mused.
 
"What matters is that we were victorious. What I wonder is how we are supposed to replenish lost fighters and spent ammunition. We are literally in the middle of nowhere, so it is highly unlikely that anyone has several wings of aerospace fighters to spare. Not to mention, fighters our pilots are certified for." The woman took a long look at Amber Lotus, before she added. "And repairs."
 
Though there was no judgement in the ash-haired woman's words any more, the dark-haired corvette still looked at her feet.
 
Any further musings were cut short by the squadron's KF drives reaching full charge. The command was given to retract the sails and dock the DropShips. After a last look around the flagship gave the order, to jump out of the system and return to their nominal headquarters. The small flotilla disappeared from the system in a flash of light.
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