Yamato Resurrection Chapter 13

A Battle Betting on the Future

Space Battleship Yamato and the escort fleet ignited their main engines and left Planet Amal’s sphere of gravity. Their destination was the sector of space where the SUS task force resided. The SUS forces would also have been accompanied by the Fridei and Beldel fleets. It would be the first time Yamato entered the battlefield directly against the SUS.

Communications chief Nakanishi reported while looking at his console.

“Contact from the rear observation deck. Someone is following our fleet.”

“What?”

Kodai looked suspicious and Sakurai thundered an explanation.

“The identification code is Amal space force.”

Before he could get his last words out, General Pascal was projected onto Yamato‘s main video panel. His expression was dark and anguished.

“Captain Kodai…would you now please add my fleet to the battle line?”

“I understand, General Pascal. Earthlings and Amalians alike share feelings toward their motherland. Let’s join hands and make our stand against the SUS.”

“Captain Kodai…I beg your pardon, but we are much more familiar with the western sidereal systems. Please give us the honor of taking the lead.”

Kodai nodded.

Pascal’s ship, the flagship of the Amal fleet, had the characteristic shape of a seagoing ship with a huge photon sail at the bow. As it overtook Yamato at the head of the formation, the combined fleets of Earth and Amal executed a warp into the battlefield.

At space coordinates YZ456/E78/GU457, the huge fortress that was a symbol of fear for the SUS stood unmoving. In the command center of the main tower at its center, SUS Forces Commander in Chief Barlsman was in his seat, gazing silently into the sea of stars on the screen. A silhouette stepped up behind him and he burst into laughter.

“You’re back? That was unlike you, Metsler.”

Barlsman showered sarcasm upon Metsler, who had escaped from the flagship Maya after his clash with the Etos fleet.

“I’m sorry. I was betrayed by Gorui.”

“You lacked the skill to tangle with a man of his caliber.”

“The enemy fleet will soon come to this sector,” Metsler answered, blood still dripping from his forehead. The color of his blood was blue.

“I know! We are prepared for their attack.”

“I think it is dangerous to underestimate them…”

Barlsman snorted at Metsler’s advice.

“As long as we have this fortress, the absolute supremacy of the SUS will be unshaken. And the Fridei and Beldel forces are also joining us. Don’t be meek!”

Barlsman laughed arrogantly.

Space coordinates YZ456/E78/GU457. Yamato with 180 Earth ships and General Pascal with 40 Amal ships encountered the SUS space navy in this region. The SUS forces took on a diamond formation with the regular army at its core and the Fridei and Beldel fleets on each wing.

Behind the fleet, which filled a large expanse of space, lurked the gigantic SUS space fortress. Its body took the form of a huge inverted triangle with a castle tower that jutted upward in the shape of a demon. Five spear-like pillars surrounded the fortress.

Kodai issued orders from his captain’s seat, one after another.

“All hands to battle stations. Prepare all ordnance for firing. We are at first-class battle conditions.”

“Roger!”

Combat Chief Kamijo gave battle instructions from Yamato‘s first bridge to all the other ships. Other crewmembers also followed Kodai’s instructions and quickly performed their operations.

“Captain Kodai,” Sakurai called out from the cosmo radar, “the giant enemy fortress is wrapping itself in a swirl of energy!”

Kodai looked up at the screen to see that the entire SUS fortress was being surrounded by a pale, shining whirlpool of light.

“Orihara, analyze that energy wave.”

“Roger. Moving to EC1.”

Maho’s seat dropped into the floor and an elevator shaft took her directly to EC1 in the third bridge. Kodai glanced up at the screen again. It was definitely a shield system. The pale energy seemed to originate from the five pillars surrounding the main tower. Those pillars looked like props but may actually have been camouflaged battle satellites.

He remembered fighting against the White Comet Empire in his younger days. Their world Gatlantis was enveloped by high-speed neutrons and high-pressure gas, preventing all attacks from outside. If the giant SUS fortress was equipped with the same defense system, it would not be easy to penetrate.

Kobayashi was the first to leap out of Yamato‘s hangar. He now wore the same military uniform as ace pilot Saburo Kato, given to him by Kodai prior to this battle.

“It’s a testament to the captain of Yamato‘s air corps, worn by my good friend Saburo Kato,” Kodai had said. It was also the uniform worn by the elder brother Shiro Kato, Kobayashi’s instructor at the space warrior academy. At that moment, Kobayashi was ashamed of himself for ever seeking the rank of combat chief. Kodai had continuously watched Kobayashi clash with Kamijo. They were growing as men while scraping against each other. Kodai had quietly told Kobayashi that’s what it meant to be young.

Miharu’s fighter followed that of Kobayashi.

“Miharu, you’re coming out again? What’s your main job, doctor or fighter pilot?”

“I haven’t thought about it.”

“We’re in battle,” Kamijo interrupted. “Cut the chatter.”

Kobayashi shrugged, no longer his old stubborn self.

“Roger, combat chief.”

His radar showed a large number of bright spots moving toward the combined fleet of Earth and Amal. The SUS fighter corps. Resisting his natural sense of impatience, Kobayashi methodically led the Cosmo Pulsar corps toward the enemy fleet. They moved into a high-speed dive, and the stars became many brilliant lines flowing to the left and right.

The field of view narrowed in Miharu’s goggles. She caught the enemy battleships in her crosshairs and pressed the missile firing switch. Her missiles were released and accelerated forward on jets of flame, becoming arrows of light to attack the SUS battleships. After a moment of glitter, they erupted into flames and lost control.

Miharu immediately peeled off and aimed for her next prey. A fighter from the ship that had just been destroyed attacked her Cosmo Pulsar from above. She slammed the control stick 90 degrees to break away from the attacker’s firing axis. Enemy shots narrowly grazed her airframe. Circling in an upward loop, the tail of the SUS fighter jumped right in front of the Cosmo Pulsar’s cockpit. Miharu slid the protector off her stick to expose the switch for her pulse laser cannons. Knowing he was about to be hit from behind, the SUS pilot frantically tried a scissor maneuver to get out of range, but Miharu deftly followed him.

Miharu’s Cosmo Pulsar fired its pulse lasers. Intermittent flashes caught the SUS fighter. Small flames ignited and the fighter suddenly broke into two pieces, shrouded in flames as it shattered. Miharu saluted.

After Kobayashi accurately hammered his missiles into another SUS battleship, he used the lightness of his Cosmo Pulsar to his advantage in a running dogfight. Dominating his control stick, he executed a high speed turn to the left that brought him behind an SUS fighter he’d been tracking. With precision, he knocked it out with his pulse laser cannons. His argumentative character seemed better suited to one-on-one dogfighting than torpedo strikes.

Miharu decided upon a perfect Immelman Turn to let an enemy fighter pass her, then she shot it down from behind.

“Miharu, two of ’em on you.”

Startled, she glanced at her radar. An SUS craft was in a diagonal position behind her, looking down on her Cosmo Pulsar. An aircraft could engage in pursuit to avoid the risk of single combat, playing a support role for another craft to destroy an enemy plane in cooperative tactics. The attacking craft wouldn’t need to worry about its rear, and could concentrate on fighting. The covering craft would issue instructions from above, pursuing a distracted enemy for the kill. It was a tactic for winning a dogfight.

Miharu confirmed the positions of two aircraft on her radar and fired her jets to accelerate. She kicked in her left rudder and banked diagonally to the left. Next, she pulled back on her control stick and made a sharp upright turn into a vertical dive.

In the eyes of the attacking SUS pilot, the Cosmo Pulsar had disappeared from view like magic. It performed a brilliant spiral dive as if it were a fluttering, falling leaf. He pointed his nose upward and ignited his jets to maintain speed and mobility. The situation immediately reversed; the two SUS fighters lost sight of their target as they stumbled around. Miharu fired her pulse lasers and pierced their fuselages like paper. Immediately after she shot past them, they burst into flames and scattered into burning fragments.

Yamato, the escort fleet, and the Amal fleet fought a better than even battle against an enemy several times their number. Yamato‘s proud shock cannons fired one after another, blasting apart first the SUS ships and then their Fridei and Beldel allies. Clearly, Fridei and Beldel lacked fighting spirit. There was no doubt that the unanticipated death of Admiral Gorui, the great commander of the Etos fleet, had cast a deep shadow over their hearts. Still, they had to follow the SUS out of fear. They had no idea what kind of retaliation they would bring upon their home nations if they defied their orders. Both the Fridei and Beldel fleets looked like they were vomiting their own grief and anger against the SUS in their gunfire.

Then space itself was dyed blue for a moment. A battleship in the Earth escort fleet had fired its Wave-Motion Gun from the rear. Its energy became a torrent of fierce light that attacked ships of the combined SUS fleet and evaporated them in an instant. Cheers broke out from the escort fleet and Amal fleet.

In the previous battle to defend the emigration fleet’s long warp using the black hole, not a single battleship had fired its Wave-Motion Gun. But there were no unarmed civilian ships to defend now. There was no need to perform acrobatics, firing in retreat to enter warp. The consciousness that this was a war for the future of Earthlings and Amalians alike strongly inspired Amalian hearts.

Before this overwhelming majority of enemies, Earth and Amal were defying the SUS. The escort fleet was positioned to fire off their Dispersion Wave-Motion Guns in sequence.

Barlsman, commander of the giant fortress standing behind the combined fleet, didn’t try to hide his unpleasant expression.

“What an unseemly battle. Unable to prevail over such a small number of opponents.”

Metsler turned his cold-blooded eyes to the screen.

“Your excellency, let’s annihilate the enemy all at once.”

“What do you intend to do, Metsler?”

A frigid smile appeared on Metsler’s face.

“I shall bring joy to your excellency by crushing these hateful little enemies with just one blow.”

Metsler bowed elegantly, but with a cold, icy flame in his eyes. He shouted at the officers manning a console panel.

“Push the entire fleet forward. Narrow the distance with the enemy and shower them with concentrated fire. Don’t allow them to fire their Wave-Motion Guns! Give those orders to the Fridei and Beldel forces.”

The communications officer of the command fortress headquarters delivered Metsler’s orders to the SUS, Fridei, and Beldel fleets. At this command, the combined fleet advanced as one, carrying out a direct assault. Their counterattack against the combined Earth and Amal fleet increased the intensity of the battle, ships falling one by one. It was turning into a brawl.

“The enemy has turned to an all-out attack,” Deputy Captain Omura said. “We can’t get enough time to fire Wave Guns.”

Kodai agreed.

“Concentrate all our fire forward. This is the climax of the game! No retreat! Nakanishi, tell Kobayashi to keep the enemy fleet off our fleet!”

“Roger,” Nakanishi answered, switching on his communicator.

“This enemy attack is insane,” Omura said with a frown.

“I think the enemy fears our Wave-Motion Guns,” Kodai answered in agreement. “They’re pressing us so we can’t use them.”

Kodai may have reached veteran space soldier status, but he hadn’t yet realized this was a clever SUS trap.

“Hyper neutron beam gun, prepare to fire!”

Metsler’s cold voice echoed in the command room of the SUS fortress’ main tower. A gunnery officer slid his fingers over the console to begin the firing sequence for the tower’s weapon of pride. A massive generator rumbled and its output started to rise, sending energy to the batteries surrounding the fortress in a brilliant sea of glowing white electrons.

What seemed to be a reef of pillars surrounding the fortress was the hyper neutron beam gun itself. Two of the five batteries transformed, pointing toward the area of space where Yamato was fighting. A muzzle opened. A huge amount of energy was sent from the fortress to the battery’s nuclear oscillator.

Yamato and the Earth and Amal fleets have been pinned down by our fleet. Now it will be possible to deliver a fatal blow with the hyper neutron beam gun.”

Barlsman smiled at Metsler’s words.

“Hehehe. Interesting entertainment, Metsler. I like it.”

“I thank you.”

Metsler’s voice rose to a bold shout.

“Hyper neutron beam gun, fire!”

The gunnery officer answered.

“Our fleet is on the same firing axis as the enemy. If we fire now, won’t we destroy our allies?”

“It doesn’t matter. Fire it.”

“Yes,” the officer replied, expressionless. He didn’t follow the order out of fear of Metsler, only in his duty as a soldier. Something that the people of Earth, Amal, and Etos all had in common seemed to be missing from the people of the SUS. The officer spoke in a monotone as he pressed the firing switch.

“Hyper neutron beam, fire!”

Maho was in the third bridge deck EC1, analyzing the energy flow that protected the fortress. She was the first to notice something unusual, shocked to see an abnormal spike the energy.

“This is Orihara in EC1. Captain Kodai, an abnormal flow of energy is detected in the SUS fortress. A huge amount of energy is being sent to one of the pillars surrounding them!”

After a few seconds of silence, Kodai replied.

“Change the target of your analysis. Find out which pillar the energy is flowing into.”

“Roger!”

Maho’s slender white fingers glided over the console. Yamato‘s main computer immediately sent the results of the analysis. Maho read it and held her breath. She quickly switched on her communicator and her shrieking voice was carried to the first bridge.

“Captain, it’s a battery! It’s already at full power, ready to fire…”

In the next instant, Earthlings and Amalians were blinded by a pure red light, the flash of the SUS fortress’ hyper neutron beam. A powerful neutron beam that burned everything it touched was fired at their combined fleet.

“Evade,” Kodai shouted. “All ships, evade at full speed!”

Omura converted it into specific instructions. Sakurai yelled desperately.

“No good, we can’t make it! Impossible to evade!”

Kodai slammed his fist into the console at his captain’s seat.

“Damn, was the head-on fleet attack a disguise? Is this how the SUS treats its allies!?”

A torrent of high-speed neutrons was rushing directly toward Yamato. The crew was prepared to lose Yamato and their own lives. But just as they thought the hyper neutron beam would swallow them, the area of space around them remained normal, unaffected by the storm of energy.

“Pascal’s ship!” Sakurai cried out.

Pascal’s ship had opened the photon sail at its bow, deploying it as a shield in front of Yamato. General Pascal gave an order on his bridge.

“Deploy the bow photon sail to maximum!”

The high-speed neutrons from the hyper neutron beam swarmed over the photon shield.

“General Pascal!” Kodai shouted.

A large quantity of high-speed neutrons surrounded Pascal’s ship and Yamato. The beam struck with an enormous amount of heat that would burn everything it touched. But somehow Pascal’s photon shield withstood the torrent. Theoretically, this was a blow that could never be countered.

“Captain, Pascal’s ship…!”

Startled, Kodai looked at the main video screen. Bathed in the hyper neutron beam, Pascal’s ship had protected Yamato and seemed to have taken much more damage even with its shield. At the same time, a transmission from the ship took over the screen, showing the general himself gravely injured.

“General Pascal…!”

“Are you all right, Captain Kodai…?”

Pascal’s bridge was severely damaged with fires breaking out. Crewmembers who died at their posts could clearly be seen.

“Thank you, General.”

Pascal seemed satisfied by Kodai’s words. Blood dripped from his face.

“Captain Kodai, I want to apologize for my prior ignorance. You Earthlings are not invaders of Amal…we will join hands and build the futre…you are important partners…”

“General Pascal, get out of there! Your ship is finished!”

The shadow of death already showed through the expression on Pascal’s badly-injured face.

“Now that the SUS has been completely revealed as our enemy, Earth is Amal’s only ally. Captain Kodai, please…help Queen Iriya and the people of Amal.”

“I promise you, General Pascal! Earth is a friend of Amal!”

Hearing Kodai’s words, Pascal finally smiled gently. He rendered an Amal salute.

“Captain Kodai, please…Yamato…”

The video was cut off there. Pascal’s ship exploded in ferocious flames. Kodai rendered the Yamato salute to bid the ship farewell, followed by the crew. But a merciless emergency alert brought them all back to reality.

Kodai issued orders in quick succession.

“Nakanishi, notify the surviving escort ships; scatter to avoid being targeted by the enemy fortress’ guns. Kamijo, recall the Cosmo Pulsar corps. Some of the fighters may have been grazed and damaged by the power of that beam gun.

“Roger!”

“Orihara, continue to monitor the enemy fortress’ guns. Report any signs of firing.”

“Roger!”

“Kinoshita, get on damage control with the maintenance team.”

“Roger!”

“Goda, check and report on any damage to the weapons.”

Kinoshita shouted, turning pale.

“Captain, there’s a fire right under the engine room!”

Kinoshita’s console silently indicated a fire in the auxiliary engine room. If left unchecked, the fire would soon reach the Wave-Engine room directly above it. There was no doubt it would be fatal to Yamato. Kinoshita issued instructions to the maintenance team.

“Close the upper and lower 9th, 10th and 11th bulkheads! Inject with halon gas for fire suppression!”

Kinoshita clenched his teeth tightly.

“Open the exhaust vent of the auxiliary engine room!”

At this order, a surprised voice replied from the maintenance team.

“Wait, chief! There may still be survivors in there! If we open the exhaust vent, there’s no saving them!”

“The Wave Engine is the heart of Yamato. If we lose it, we all die. I’ll take responsibility. Open the exhaust vent to the outside of the ship and expose that compartment to vacuum…that’s an order!”

“Roger…”

Members of the maintenance team followed Kinoshita’s instruction and a reply came back quickly.

“Auxiliary engine section exhaust vent open…the fire is out.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

It was a terrible choice to be placed upon a young man just over twenty. Kinoshita turned off the communication and sat back silently.

“Kinoshita…”

“Y-yes, captain?”

Kodai gave him a gentle look.

“I support your judgment. I believe you gave the right order. The ultimate responsibility is mine, so don’t obsess over it.”

“Y-yes…thank you very much…”

Kinoshita turned back to work and large teardrops spilled out onto his console. Ashamed that others might see it, he pretended it wasn’t happening and continued staring forward.

“Attention, all hands. You each have your own thoughts, but our battle isn’t over yet. Keep your mind and heart on the reality in front of you.”

At Kodai’s words, the entire first bridge crew answered.

“Aye!”

Sakurai called out from the radar panel.

“Captain Kodai, both the Fridei and Beldel fleets are abandoning the battle and leaving the area!”

Hearing this, the crew looked up at the main video panel. Sure enough, all of the Fridei and Beldel ships were turning away and leaving the field. After being treated as cold sacrifices for the sake of an SUS victory, they finally had all they could take. It was the same as the respected Etos commander Gorui had demonstrated in his surprise attack during the deceptive Amal invasion. Their anger and dissatisfaction with the SUS had boiled over at last.

“General Pascal’s death seems to have paved the way for us,” Kodai said to himself. It was the same for the rest of the crew.

To Barlsman, watching from the main tower headquarters of the SUS fortress, the departure of both the Fridei and Beldel fleets was an unexpected turn.

“Pathetic fools. Whether to bind yourself to Earth and Amal or bind yourself to the SUS, it seems you can’t even calculate such a simple profit/loss account.”

“They are no longer any benefit to us,” Metsler said. “We’ll just assemble and drive them away eventually.”

“How many enemies are left?”

The officer in charge of analysis replied to Barlsman’s question.

“About 40% of the enemy fleet was taken out with the first blow. It is estimated that many of the remaining ships have received damage, so it seems the enemy force has decreased to less than half.”

“And now that they’ve scattered, the power of the hyper neutron beam gun is also halved. Prepare for subspace communication. I will teach those of Earth and Amal to truly fear the SUS.”

Cautious of the hyper neutron beam, the Earth fleet had spread out to aim at the SUS fortress. Now that the Fridei and Beldel fleets had left the battlefield, only the SUS fleet was left to protect the fortress. Even they had lost a large number of ships in the beam strike. The Earth and Amal ships had destroyed SUS battleships one after another, but the SUS fleet had not fled. It was as if they lacked the feeling of fear.

An Earth battleship passed close to the fortress and fired its Dispersion Wave-Motion Gun. Wave Energy erupted from its bow muzzle, condensed for an instant, and burst into a huge dome that swallowed the entire fortress. Earthlings and Amalians held their collective breath as they watched.

The SUS fleet protecting the fortress was crushed instantly by the Diffusion Wave Energy.

But…

As the light of the Wave Energy faded, they hardly believed their eyes. The huge fortress that should have taken a direct hit still floated arrogantly in space as if nothing had happened.

“It…to withstand a direct hit from a Dispersion Wave-Motion Gun…”

While Sakurai muttered this, Kobayashi was with a maintenance team in the hangar, preparing his Cosmo Pulsar for another round of battle. Miharu returned to her original job, working with the medical team to treat the wounded. Kamijo, having witnessed the SUS fortress’ defiance, was at a loss for words.

“Orihara,” Kodai asked, “have you analyzed the energy surrounding the SUS fortress?”

Maho’s answer came back from the third bridge immediately.

“Analysis is complete. It is presumed to be a magnetic field formed by powerful electromagnetic waves. The magnetic field becomes a shield, covering the entire fortress. If a missile is captured by the magnetic field, it will be shattered. Optical weapons such as lasers will be polarized.”

Kodai’s mouth tightened.

“How much power would we need to break through the magnetic field from outside with a Wave-Motion Gun?”

“Calculating based on the output of the magnetic field, it seems impossible to break through even if all the surviving Earth ships fired at once.”

Omura groaned.

“Then what? In other words, we don’t have the means to capture that fortress?”

Maho could only remain silent.

“Orihara,” Kodai asked, “Is there any way to disable that magnetic field and reduce it to zero?”

“We would have to break through the magnetic field and destroy the generator of those electromagnetic waves from inside.”

Maho’s response brought despair to the first bridge crew. The possibility of achieving such a feat was equal to zero. As if to actually prove it, an Earth battleship and a Super Andromeda-class battleship fired their Wave Guns toward the fortress one after another. Their attacks were effortlessly resisted. When this was understood to be a wasted effort, all attacks ceased.

A heavy silence engulfed the combined fleet of Earth and Amal.


Continue to Chapter 14

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