Petals of Carbon Steel -- You're a Pilot, Not an Ace. Try your best.

We are His shining sword and shield. With one hand He wields us to strike down our enemies, with the other raising us to protect the people. For every one life we take in His name, a million more are saved.

All praise to our Emperor!

— Divine Navy Oath of Allegiance​

Onboard the HDMS Sunspot

The truth is, Mari is terrified. She'd been terrified the whole previous fight, acting on a desperate animal instinct as much as any existing piloting knowledge. That it had somehow ended with her alive and many others dead is still difficult to entirely reconcile.

"Fear's normal, kid," Salimus had told her. He'd flashed her that smile of his, the one that's probably meant to reassure. "It'd be worse if you weren't scared. You protected yourself and the whole ship. That's what matters."

He's wrong, though. Once the shooting started, Mari hadn't spared a thought for any of her friends on the ship. That's why she still can't face them. Taking the lives of the terrorists hadn't even been a distant concern, but not because she was brave. It had been because she was so scared out of her mind that — she knows deep down — it could have been absolutely anyone threatening her safety, and she still would have pulled that trigger. If it's going to be her dying or someone else... it's going to be them every time.

Mari doesn't want to kill again. She still has nightmares, most nights, of being back in that fight. Of riddling cockpits with automatic fire. In the nightmares, she can somehow see the bodies being broken down, hear the screams even though the vacuum of space, hear crying and begging before she kills them. In the dreams, it doesn't even make her hesitate. Mari knows she'll do it again. Sol help whoever gets in her way, while she's behind the controls of that machine.

Taking a deep, steeling breath, she tries to get her composure back under control. Those are her friends out there, who are working hard to make the most of this terrible situation as well as they can, just like her. She owes it to them to at least pretend things are alright. Reaching up, Mari pushes open the hatch of the training unit, and floats out to meet them.

"Hey," she says to the group, forcing a fake smile onto her face, somehow managing her usual vaguely silly grin. Alvin, Sevda and Ava look back at her with varying degrees of visible apprehension. It's still strange, everytime she sees them in Divine Navy white and gold. She wonders if it looks as wrong on her, or if it settles over her small shoulders as easily as killing seemed to. "... Hello, sir," she adds, giving Salimus a salute.

"Hello, Cadet Tanaka. I'll just leave you all to it," Salimus says, after returning the gesture. True to his word, he disappears through the nearest open hatch, heading elsewhere in the ship.

"So, you're all off-duty right now?" Mari asks them.

"For a little bit," Sevda explains. "We were just, you know, in the neighbourhood..."

"We're worried about you!" Alvin explains. Beside him, Ava sighs.

Mari feels her smile threatening to tug downward, but she forces it to stay in place. "Sorry for worrying you all," she says. "You know me, though. I'm fine!"

/////PoCS\\\\\

Onboard the AIJ ship, Esther Strova

Another day, another briefing. After the last two times you've been in here, you can't be the only one who finds the space to have taken on a pall of genuine dread, even if it wasn't any of yours who died this last time. That you've been graced by a special guest, here to present SRI scan data to you all, serves to unintentionally highlight those who you did lose, however.

Lieutenant Priss herself floats at the head of the room, still injured, but otherwise without a hair out of place, one arm still bound to her chest, her face set with professional unflappability, as though you could set off a bomb in her face and she'd calmly ask you why afterward. Both Commander Owusu and Captain Leski are near at hand as well, currently looking on from a nearby wall.

"As you can see from this scan data," North tells you all, "we have managed quite a close fly-by of the installation." Expensive USE stealth-tech comes in handy, it would seem. True to her word, you're all treated to detailed scan data and mapping, displayed on your workstations in extreme detail. She breezes through the complicated model as if it's her job, which you suppose it is. For all that you found her in the middle of a shootout with honest-to-fuck space pirates, Amani North is the nerd sort of SRI officer, rather than the sexy-dangerous-superspy kind. "These defences are basic in the scheme of things, but still enough to cause us all a serious issue. They'll have to be dealt with, somehow."

"Somehow?" Kitty asks, incredulous.

North looks at her, levelly. "Yes, Squad Leader Wehrschmidt, somehow," she repeats. "We did have a potential countermeasure we reverse-engineered from the enemy a year or two back, but we are currently short on technicians qualified to execute it." Sol, she's good at delivering that sort of ... because of you fucking idiots line without seeming petty about it. You'd take notes, if you weren't already so much of a lost cause where that kind of delicacy is concerned.

The defences in question are a series of minor weapons platforms, positioned in Jovian orbit around the station such that they can give complete coverage to any approaching ships. Apart from that, it's a standard habitat, with a port and shipyard just large enough for the False Verdant's needs. The sort of place that plies its trade by offering harbour and maintenance to those with no better alternative, at extortionary rates. You know that kind of station all-too-well, although most of them aren't so buddy-buddy with the Divine Navy.

The ship itself is there on the scans, anchored to the station. It's obviously undergoing maintenance, and will hopefully not be back up to its full fighting weight just yet. With any luck, you'll be able to hit the place ahead of the Divine Navy noticing your presence, leaving them scrambling to respond.

As for the monster itself, it might still be a serious problem. But this time, you have Jay, whose job is going to be to keep it off of the rest of you. You've never had to fight him, but you'd be willing to bet he's about as scary on the battlefield as whatever psychopath was flying that prototype last time. And that's when he's not furious with himself for sitting out the last encounter you had with it. Right now, he's paying intense attention to the data, regardless of his dislike of the woman presenting it or the organisation she's a symbol of.

None of you are going to be taken by surprise by what the enemy can do, this time. That's not your only advantage, though. You have one thing, looking at this data, that swings the odds enough in your favour to make this whole enterprise worth the attempt.

Article:

What is an additional advantage you have in planning your attack on this space station?

[ ] Use SRI technicians to sabotage the defence array ahead of the battle

[ ] The position of the False Verdant means it will be late join the battle
[ ] The enemy prototype mecha will not be able to immediately launch
[ ] The station's inner defences are less of a threat than you were worried they would be