BSBxKc Chpt 2

==Blue Squadron (Battletech x KanColle(ish) crossover) - Chapter 2 -==
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===Home System Rescue===
Blue Squadron popped into existence at their destination's nadir jump point. It was the system the three of them had first reappeared in, not so long ago.
 
With the exception of Waystation 135 it was as unremarkable as the one they had just left. The red main-sequence star in the system's center was orbited by a hot jupiter close to it, followed by two lifeless and smolderingly hot rocky planets not much further out.
 
At about 1.6 AU distance from the primary was the fourth planet. It was vaguely similar to Terra in structure and size, though that was where the similarities ended. It was a frozen wasteland which was so cold that most of its atmosphere had presumably frozen out early on in its life. In its orbit was the only thing of note in the system, a space station. The people who lived and worked on said station had taken to calling the icy rock below them Jan Mayen. Swift Justice thought it was a good choice that suited the planet, since it was as desolate and remote as its namesake.
 
As has happened many times before, the people who lived on Waystation 135 - or those who had to deal with it somewhat regularly - eventually resorted to using the planet's name when referring to the system. Swift approved, since it was preferable over the string of alphanumerical the system was known as on star maps.
 
The three warships-turned-women had gotten moving towards the station, and had been underway for a while when the expected hail from 135 came.
 
"This is Explorer Corps Station 135 to new arrivals, identify yourselves." The man's voice sounded more enthusiastic to the fleetmaidens than they would usually expect from a traffic controller.
 
Then again, Swift mused, that the station had doubtlessly identified them. They were as good as unmistakable, and not everyone got to witness what by all rights should be impossible, nevermind speak with a warship personally.
 
 "Blue Squadron copies. Sending ID now." The grey-haired woman beamed a burst of encrypted ones and zeroes back as they continued on their way.
 
"Codes received. Welcome back." The traffic controller ended their exchange, still audibly upbeat.
 
After a short stretch of silent travel, Brest spoke up. "You're popular." The brunette corvette remarked while she gave the older woman a look that was part searching and part admiring.
 
"We are popular." the cruiser corrected and returned the FedSuns girl's gaze evenly. She fully intended to make them a functioning unit, and that began with setting a good example in humility. There would be no behavior that might lead to gloryhounding on her watch.
 
"Amber Lotus and I had not even arrived yet when you chased those attackers off." Brest retorted.
 
"It does not make much of a difference to those people who of us did it. They were trapped in a metal box that was under attack by several dropships and a wing of fighters. Look into your crewmembers' memories to get an idea of how fun that is." The ComGuard-cruiser paused for a moment and looked towards the Waystation. They were now close enough to see it with their powerful optical systems, and Swift noticed several people in EVA suits busy with repairs on the station's outside said attack caused.
 
"We are a security blanket to them. We will protect them from further attacks if there are any." She turned her gaze back to her charges and gave them a smile. "We may already have done so actually." Her smile became a little crooked. "Our success may not have been overwhelming, but succeed we did."
 
"Hmm. I guess." The taller of the two corvettes conceded with a slight nod that, impossibly, sent her shoulder-length brown hair bobbing in the vacuum and weightlessness of space.
 
After a moment Amber Lotus questioned. "Speaking of the battle. Am i the only one who has been hungry afterwards? Maybe a bit tired too, but mostly hungry, nanodesu?" She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Are we even supposed to get hungry or tired? We run on fusion engines."
 
"Huh." The Fox-class got a pensive expression. "Maybe a little?"
 
Now that the grey-haired woman paid attention, she could feel a slight twinge of hunger herself. "When we reach the station we will ask for food. That is something they have there. Ammunition and replacements for our lost fighters though..." The cruiser trailed off, and the two corvettes frowned slightly.
 
Just then a radio call reached them. "Blue Squadron. This is Waystation 135. We are under attack. The enemy has returned!" The traffic-controller's voice now sounded tense and apprehensive. "Repeat! We are under attack!"
 
All thoughts of food were forgotten as the fleetmaidens seamlessly went into a battle-mindset.
 
"Launch your fighters. Have the dropships tighten their formation. " Swift Justice was all business again and brought her sensor suite to full power in search of the attackers.
 
"What the heck? I don't see anything." Brest spoke the words the moment the older woman came to the same conclusion.
 
"Amber?"
 
"Negative. I see nothing either. What kind of game are they playing, nanodesu?" The girl looked annoyed.
 
"Hold on." The grey-haired woman increased speed to the fastest she could go while she radioed back to the people on the station. Luckily they were close enough already that comms-delay was down to almost nothing. By then the launch procedures were complete and the fleetmaidens were ready to engage. The cruiser made a mental note that her two charges did not need to be ordered to stay in formation, despite her sudden acceleration.They were making progress.
 
"135. We do not see any contacts. Can you give us a bearing?"
 
The response was almost immediate. It was another man in a significantly greater state of agitation. "You have to help us! They are coming! They are coming! Help!" Scratch that, it was outright panic.
 
The two corvettes gave each other a look, then turned their gazes at Swift Justice who grit her teeth and pushed her engines as far as she could in an attempt to go faster. The irony of her name in the face of her quite limited acceleration was not lost on the cruiser.
 
"Should I run ahead? I can be there a lot quicker." The draconian girl asked, clearly raring to go and help the people in distress. Yet she managed to keep the impulse in check.
 
The Comstar cruiser grit her teeth again. "If they have some kind of super stealth and this is a trap... you are already damaged, Amber." The yelling over the radio chose that moment to get more intense, and Swift made a snap decision.
 
"Amber, sprint to the station as quickly as you can and aid them. I will send two of my dropships along with you, to strengthen your screen." Swift redirected the two dropships into formation around the dark-haired girl. "You will stay with me, Brest. But give her two of yours as well".
 
The brunette did as she was instructed.
 
As soon as they were in position the flagship gave a nod to the draconian, who was eager to go.
 
The corvette took off at full tilt. Again the older woman marveled at just how fast her younger peer was. There was a stretch of tense silence as Swift and Brest kept track of Amber's progress through their dropships, listening to the frantic radio calls from the station's panicked crew.
 
Eventually the Fox-class spoke up again, confusion evident in her tone.
 
"I don't get it. I see no contacts on anything. No weapons-fire. Nothing. What's going on?"
 
"What indeed." At this point the yelling over the radio had turned into unintelligable screaming, just like when Swift had first encountered their mysterious adversaries and driven them away from 135's vicinity. The grey-haired woman bit the inside of her check to keep her composure and peered at the station again. She had to make the horrible realization that the people in EVA suits on the outside were either thrashing around like they were suffering a seizure or floating aimlessly, curled into a fetal position.
 
 Swift Justice was a vessel of Comstar's military. As such she was privy to considerable classified information, and had been part of many secret operations over the long years. Yet she had never known of any kind of weapon that could have such horrifying effect on people. Especially since it also hit those outside the station itself, who were in separate environments.
 
Suddenly Brest yelled over the radio. "Amber, abort your run to the station."
 
"Reason?" The flagship inquired with a pointed look at Brest. The girl not following the chain of command in such a tense situation irritated the cruiser more than it would have otherwise.
 
"At this point i think we can agree that there's no enemy here. Amber is almost to the station and we see nothing out of the ordinary." The girl paused for a moment.
 
"I think these people's panic has something to do with us. The closer we got the more the station's crew got agitated, and when Amber ran ahead they went into blind panic. The screams got louder the closer she approached." Having made her point the girl fell silent.
 
Swift grit her teeth and thought it over. All of the cruiser's instincts yelled at her to come to the defense of the people in distress, but what Brest said made sense. She peered at Amber Lotus in the distance, who was looking back at her with an expectant expression in turn. The older woman huffed out a breath.
 
"Copy that. We will test that theory. Amber, turn onto a vector towards Jan Mayen's L4 point. We will meet there."
 
"On my way!" The dark-haired girl replied as she turned herself away from the station and set her powerful drives to full thrust again.
 
The duo of cruiser and corvette swung around and burnt towards their new waypoint at Swift's top speed. All three fleetmaidens were keeping their attention on the station, and sure enough, as their distance to it grew again the screaming on the radio gradually sounded less hellish, and the astronauts' thrashing calmed somewhat.
 
"Was I right? Did that do it?" Brest sounded as hopeful as the grey-haired woman felt. People could not withstand that kind of psychological stress for long.
 
 Blessedly it turned out that the corvette's hunch was correct. Swift heaved a sigh of relief when the yelling over the radio finally stopped. No longer needing to go full throttle she adjusted their speed and course while keeping an eye on the girl at her side. The corvette was in the process of picking up her fighters again. The ComGuard cruiser had to give credit where it was due. Brest had seen a pattern in a tense situation and drawn the right conclusion. Swift was happy and proud of her young charge.
 
 They eventually reached L4 and performed a deceleration burn. When they were in a temporary orbit around the Lagrange point the flagship directed a question at her young companion.
 
 "Did you keep track of the ranges?"
 
 "Of course i did." The Fox-class replied. "It is around 700.000 km for unease to appear in people, 350.000 for panic..."
 
 "And below 200.000 for total anarchy." The other corvette finished the quiz while decelerating to link up with the other two vessels again.
 
"Good." Swift Justice nodded in approval. The two did pay attention. Frowning, she turned her mind to the main question. "What caused the people to go bonkers like that though? We were right next to the station before we left and everything was fine."
"The enemy's remains." The taller of the two girls spoke up.
 
The other ship-women looked at her questioningly. When Brest did not elaborate Swift prompted her with a raised eyebrow.
 
"It's got to be the wreckage we picked up." Her voice was hesitant at first, but gained confidence as she spoke "It's the only thing that's different now from then."
 
"How can the shattered remains of a few enemy units make a large number of people go into a blind panic?" Amber Lotus sounded incredulous. "That does not make any sense, nanodesu!"
 
"Rationally it does not." The older woman had her bay personnel jettison reached into one of her uniform's pockets and produced a piece of wreckage she carried on herself. She held it out towards her charges. "Look at it. What do you see?" It was a piece of hull from one of the destroyed dropships.
 
"A vessel's outer skin." The shorter of the corvettes answered.
 
Swift shook her head. With an intense expression she prompted again. "Look at it with your new senses. What do your eyes see?"
 
"A piece of chitin from a large beetle."
 
"Yes." The grey-haired woman tossed said piece and followed it with her eyes for a few moments as it floated away. Returning her gaze to her two charges she continued.
 
"I think we have let mundane habit limit our view. This new enemy is more than just a military force with hostile intentions." The cruiser raised her hands and looked at them. "And so are we."
 
With a mental shake the woman returned her attention to her squadron-mates. Amber Lotus was looking thoughtful while Brest had a smile on her face, nodding at the cruiser. The girl had a good head on her shoulders, and had apparently reached the same conclusion before Swift did.
 
"Alright. Let us see if your theory holds water." Returning the nod with a smile of her own, the Aegis continued. "Jettison the wreckage we have picked up. We will leave it here on a parking orbit around the L point."
 
It did not take long for the three vessels to discard their apparently dangerous cargo. After peering at the artificial cloud of debris for a moment, the cruiser swung their formation around onto a vector towards 135.
 
"Let us try that again. Carefully." At a leisurely pace the fleetmaidens approached the station again, prepared to turn around at the first sign of trouble. The radio chatter had returned to what was normal for an installation of its size, Swift noted, before she made contact again.
 
"Waystation 135 this is Blue Squadron, come in."
 
"We read you Blue Squadron. Are the... enemies gone for good?" It was the traffic controller from before on the radio again. To the man's credit his voice was remarkably steady, considering the state of pure terror he had been in just a short while ago.
 
"We think so, yes." The grey-haired woman decided to go with that version of events for now. Something told her that their liaison Zheng intended to keep the true nature of recent events under wraps as much as possible.
 
"Praised be Blake for sending you to our aid! You have saved us again!"
 
"Yes...." Swift Justice grimaced and took a moment to compose herself. "Please let us know in case you notice anything out of the ordinary." After the man's confirmation the Aegis-class turned towards her two companions.
 
Both looked pensive and somewhat uncomfortable. Eventually the FedSuns corvette spoke up.
 
"Were they so panicked they didn't realize what actually happened?"
 
"It seems so. I had intended to speak with our contact anyway, but now i want to ask him many more questions than before." Despite her need for answers Swift felt apprehensive at the prospect of that meeting.
 
The distance between the squadron of three and the space station gradually shrunk down to almost nothing, and this time around the people on 135 did not fall victim to the mother of all panic-attacks.
 
"I think that theory of yours has been proven as fact, Brest." Swift placed a hand on the corvette's shoulder and gave her a smile. "Well done."
 
"Yes, well done. I wouldn't have thought of that." The draconian girl hesitated, then added. "At least not as quickly, nanodesu."
 
"It is not a competition. One of us having the right idea was enough." The cruiser felt a certain pride with how their unit had performed, despite its ad-hoc nature and the members' inexperience.
 
"Yeah." The taller of the two girls added with enthusiasm.
 
"Have we earned ourselves a little rest and relaxation for that?" The dark-haired corvette sounded hopeful as they swung around and parked themselves next to the station. "I'm really hungry now."
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