Blue Steel 2199 Chapter 28: Rescue!
"Lunchtime!" Yukikaze called to PO1 Sakai as she entered the control room. The young electronics tech slid out from underneath the communications console as Yuki set a tray of food down on a small table in the back of the room.
"Thanks Yuki!" The petty officer carefully secured his tools and made sure that every loosed bolt and screw was accounted for. Everything was precious on this frozen rock. Here, nothing was taken for granted. Nothing was wasted.
The first twentyfour hours after the Gamilon cruiser had landed, Lieutenant Genda's team had spent holed up in the abandoned mining station, relying on their environmental suits to keep them alive. Every moment living on the edge of fear. Then Yukikaze had arrived. The Gamilons having departed, the business of survival began in earnest. Yuki and Petty Officer Kobayashi using the ship's surviving SC-84 shuttle to ferry every salvageable commodity from the wreck of their destroyer back to the mining base. Emergency rations, an oxygen scrubber plant, water stores and filtration unit, an emergency generator and Yukikaze's supply of nanomaterials had taken first priority, but gradually; over the next couple of days, everything that might possibly be of use had been stripped out with the sole exception of the com system and the ship's emergency beacon. It being intended that any 'visitors' would be drawn to the automatic beacon first. Genda and his team wanted to get a very good look at any would be 'rescuers' before revealing their location. Active sensors were kept off, but Yukikaze kept a continual passive watch for any electronic emissions.
After the most immediate survival needs had been taken care of, busy hands was the order of the day. Keeping occupied left little time to dwell on circumstances and there was plenty to be done in the long abandoned base. Fortunately, the original evacuation had been conducted more in haste than thoroughness and tools, supplies, and stores had been left behind. Mining drills and even a cargo shuttle sat unused in the vehicle bay. Today's project had been fixing the station's internal communications while Lieutenant Genda and Kobayashi tried to fix the balky mining shuttle.
Yukikaze had found an early model OMCS unit and repaired it, meaning her crew no longer had to rely exclusively on emergency rations for sustenance. She had become religious about enforcing meal breaks for them. They needed her and in truth, she needed them. Needed a reason to endure this lonely place...
Suddenly, Yukikaze froze as passive sensors registered a contact. The sensors station console beeping loudly and Sakai turned to check to make certain this was an actual contact or whether this was a glitch of some sort. He nodded to Yuki as he quickly ran a diagnostic.
Yukikaze activated her personal com. "Lieutenant Genda. We are picking up a contact directly above our position."
"Confirmed sir." Sakai put in. "Contact is definitely a ship of some sort, descending now."
"Yuki! Lock us down. Close all outer doors until we're sure who is up there. "
"Hai!"
Genda frowned. Passive sensors could only discern so much as to the identity of their unknown visitor but if this WAS a Gamilon up there, then any active signals could very well kill them all. The best they could do was to sit tight and hope for the best. "Keep a close eye on our guest, passives only. Kobayashi and I will be right up."
"Understood." Sakai answered. It was ironic, for if the survivors of Yukikaze had chanced to use an active radar scan, then they would have noted the launch of a SC-97 Seagull from the huge battleship as it landed. It took only a couple of minutes for Genda and Kobayashi to get to the control room.
"Any identification yet?" Genda asked.
"Nothing so far. They came down right over the mine. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten the cameras up in that area." Sakai replied.
Genda nodded. The internal systems had naturally been given a higher priority. Unfortunately it left them at a disadvantage. There was one option and none of the three men in that room were happy about it. "Yuki... we need you to get eyes on our guests."
Yukikaze understood their concerns but she was a mental model of the Fog and her crew was either in grave danger or presented with the chance for rescue. There was never a question about her duty.
"Leave it to me!" She answered with enthusiasm. "I'll route my audio feeds to the secondary com panel."
"Alright but be careful." The lieutenant cautioned.
Yukikaze simply smiled as she hurried out of the room.
Several minutes later, Yukikaze had slipped into position. In the control room, the others waited tensely. "It appears to be.... " A touch of excitement crept into Yukikaze's voice. "It's the Yamato! It's an earth ship!" She knew the battleship very well, having seen it from the day Yamato's keel had been laid to only two months ago as it neared completion. This massive ship cast in the image of the Supreme Flagship herself. Certainly deliverance was now at hand.
"We read you Yuki!" Genda replied with a sense of growing excitement. "Standby while we open a hail." He nodded to Sakai who began to warm up the transmitter when the world went mad.
"Yamato. This is Sanada. We are under attack. Enemy armored forces estimated company strength."
Aboard Yamato, Aihara turned ashen as he heard Commander Sanada's report. "Drill team is under fire Captain! Gamilon tanks attacking!"
"Sound battlestations!" Captain Okita ordered.
"Weapons are still offline Captain!" Nanbu called as the lights went red and klaxons sounded. "What do we do?"
Okita frowned. "Get the drill team back on board as fast as possible! Launch fighters as soon as the drill team is aboard."
"Yes sir!" Aihara relayed the recall order to Sanada's team. "Sir! The rescue team is also under attack!" He reported as Yuki Mori's distress call sounded in his headset.
"Cosmo Zero -1 has launched!" Nanbu announced. And then a minute later. "Zero -2 also airborne."
*****
"Immediate recall! Drill team return to the ship at once!"
Genda frowned. Their rescuers were literally right out the door and now someone was shooting at them! FUBAR!" His mind swore. They needed to keep out of Yamato's com traffic for now. The battleship's crew did not need the distraction right now. All they could do was sit and wait.
"Yuki! We've got party crashers dropping in on our guests!"
"Don't worry! I'll take care of it!" Yukikaze chimed.
"Alright Yuki." Genda accepted. "Take them out!"
"Hai!" Here I come you Gamilon bastards. It's payback time!
Chief Enomoto jumped into the trench next to Sanada. "They don't have nearly the forces enough to attack the Yamato." Sanada noted as he observed the oncoming Gamilons. His mind wondered in detachment at what the enemy planned with only such a small force. The enemy's plan always makes sense... From his perspective. Hyuga had once told him. If you can fathom his perspective you can prevail against him
"Yup!" The chief agreed. Of course it didn't matter that the Gamilons could not suceed in attacking the Yamato, they were doing it and he and his men were caught right in the middle.
Suddenly one of the Gamilon tanks imploded, crumpling in on itself like a spent beer can and then erupting in a ball of fire. Its destruction did not go unheeded by its fellows but Brigadier Schulz orders were clear: Bring back prisoners. To that end, this attack was merely a diversion while a small detachment moved on the Terron scout craft that had separated itself from the main unit, probably drawn to the automatic signal coming from the wreck on the moon's surface. Their recon landing ship had surveyed the site but had found nothing of value. Perhaps the Terrons disagreed? Not that it mattered. What mattered were their orders. Nothing else.
Yukikaze spent but an instant to relish the satisfaction in the tank's destruction before moving on to the next one, again using a super dense gravity field to crush the target like stepping on an egg.
Enomoto looked on stunned. Sanada thumbed his com. "Yamato. Friendly forces this location. Over."
Yukikaze soon found herself drawing fire from the Gamilon base ship. The weaponry of the Recon Landing Ship was not sufficient to overwhelm her Klein field but unfortunately enough to keep her pinned down... At least until a Cosmos Zero was able to bring the enemy craft under fire. Its companion having broken off to go to the aid of Yamato's medical team. With the enemy's attention now diverted, Yukikaze bent her Klein field to form a bat as she proceeded to belt the turret of a destroyed tank like a hard line drive into the Gamilon's engines. The craft attempting to gain altitude as the remaining Cosmos Zero fired two missiles into its prow and exploded it.
"Area secure." Lieutenant Kato announced. "Am proceeding to support the medical team..." He added as his borrowed fighter headed off after its twin. Kato need not have worried. With the last Gamilon tank destroyed And one pilot in a helluva lot of trouble with a lot of explaining to do. Kato thought, (although his gut told him he already knew the answers and simply did not want to hear them) this fight was over.
*****
Hours later the Yamato cruised in stationary orbit low over the surface of the Saturnian moon. As Lieutenant Mori resumed the bridge, Lieutenant Kodai reported up to the Captain's Day Cabin.
"Tactical officer Kodai requesting permission to enter."
"Enter." Captain Okita replied as he faced the view out his window, gazing out at the surface of Enceladus and the remains of an Isokaze class assault destroyer... Kodai. Did I do everything I could have that day? Was there some answer by which you would be here now? Or was this all predestined somehow?
Susumu Kodai stepped through the hatch and came to attention.
"Kodai... I am assigning Mental Model Yukikaze to your section at her request."
"Understood sir." Kodai answered. He recalled his brother talking about Yukikaze in one of his letters. Mamoru had described Yukikaze as a little powerhouse and the embodiment of enthusiasm. Kodai hoped he could learn more about his brother from her. Ironic that Mamoru's classmates and crew probably knew more about him than his own brother. Would it be too late to learn?
"Lieutenant Genda reports that the bodies of nineteen Yukikaze crew are accounted for. Lieutenant Ishizu and Commander Mamoru Kodai remain unaccounted." Okita recounted.
"Yes sir." Susumu's feelings of relief at his brother's possible survival warred with fear over what may yet have happened. In his heart though, Susumu knew his brother was alive.
"Kodai." Okita spoke, then paused. Here was a young man so much like his brother in so many ways. The brother of Mamoru Kodai had the potential for greatness equal to the elder Kodai. It just required the young man to find it in himself. One more chance to be the teacher Jezu. One more chance to repay your debts in some small fashion.
"Sir?" Susumu broke from his thoughts
"No matter what may have happened, your brother's spirit lives on."
"Yes sir!" Susumu felt the conviction in his captain's voice. More than just words.
"Kodai... We don't want what happened to the Yukikaze to happen to earth, do we...?"
*****
Down on the surface of Enceladus the remains of a UNCF destroyer sat a silent sentinel upon the frozen surface of a lonely world as a fresh snow fell. Nearby stood a marker.
Here lie nineteen brave souls of the crew of the Yukikaze.
Someone's distracted the author with a bunny of plot!? Where's my "really no" pic....
John A. Warden is american variant of Japanese Murasame class cruiser, twenty of them were built for US space navy. Warden subtype is much more armored and armed then standard Murasame class cruiser, however even with additional weaponary none of them survived the war with Gamilas. Ten new ships would later be built as patrol cruisers (between 2204 to 2230 when they are retired), none of this new ships participate in war against Bolar Federation or SUS).
