Chapter 38: As Seen Through the Enemy's Eyes 

 

Within a brightly lit traditional japanese room was a busty woman wearing a pinkish kimono. She had long black hair and pink eyes, in her hands was a traditional eastern style teacup. She was sitting down in a seiza and was looking at two screens in front of her. In one screen is a sector map with a small blue blip and a pink blip in a sparse asteroid field. On the other screen was a static image of a black and blue ship within an asteroid, visibly damaged at the thrusters and frontal bow. 

Said ship suddenly engaged its thrusters in an attempt to escape the rock. The sector map showed that it was moving outside of the asteroid field, in the shortest route possible.

“In oceans of space.
A path towards the future.
Lies a struggling fool.”

She said as she took a sip from her teacup. Nodding in satisfaction, she put the cup down before refilling it with hot water. The woman then took another sip before closing her eyes, thinking about the events that brought her all the way here, thousands of lightyears away from her homeland. Though she didn’t exactly adore her home, it wasn’t her style to do business so far away from home territory.

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“Finding a lost cat.
In the endless sea of stars.
Very troublesome.”

The kimono wearing woman said as she sat in a seiza across a female nekomi who had a paper fan over her mouth to hide her expression. She too, was wearing the same kind of clothing as the woman, though much more modernised in taste and much less revealing. The two were in a very wide traditional looking room. The whole place was quiet and only the sounds the birds chirping could be heard. Outside the room is a beautiful garden with a small pond in it, visible through the opened door west of the kimono wearing woman.

She had been summoned here by the head of a powerful family of the Dawning Star Empire. According to their messenger, they had some sort of job for the kimono wearing woman. It was a rare occasion for someone as powerful as this family to actually come to her instead of the other more reliable ‘weapons’ of the Dawning Star Empire. She knew that the nekomi was desperate and she planned to take full advantage of it.

The kimono wearing woman could not see the expression on the nekomi, but she knew the nekomi was not satisfied by her words. The term ‘cat’ was a derogatory term for their entire race after all. Despite being insulted, however, the nekomi carried on with the discussion with grace and calmness. She folded her paper fan before pointing it towards the kimono wearing woman.

“This is an order, not a request Jinko-san,” said the nekomi.

The kimono wearing woman, Jinko, replied: “I Jinkoshijin is not a person to be ordered. Only a person to be afforded.”

“How bold, claiming that you are a person, Jinko-san. Have retirement made you forget your place in this society?”

Jinkoshijin didn’t reply, only pausing to take a sip of tea. She then glared towards the nekomi. “State your price, Libera, and I shall see. If the offer is to my liking, then I agree. Else, best you flee. What Jinkoshijin can do, you can not foresee.”

Libera, the nekomi, took a while to think of Jinko’s words and eventually spoke up: “Three hundred million credits and the latest in technology that my company can provide. I don’t care about your methods, my only condition is that she lives. Intact and with no injuries.”

“Or else?” Jinko asked.

Libera stood up before facing away from Jinko, to stare at the beautiful garden outside. “You die.”

Jinko didn’t reply, only nodded in response.

“Her last known location was in the outskirts of Freedom United. It’s not within their borders but we don’t want to risk souring diplomatic relations with them. Considering your non allegiance to any factions, you are the perfect ‘person’ for the job,” Libera said to Jinko, a small insulting tone included within.

“Freedom United.
A land of democracy.
Very troublesome.”

Jinko said as she let out a sigh. “I decline your offer, for I do not wish to be involved in your schemes, Libera.”

“The offer is always open, Jinko-san. I’m sure that money and the technological advantage will do wonders for your rebellion against Yamato-sama,” Libera said before leaving the room. Jinko was unable to see her expression as she covered it with her paper fan.

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Jinko’s mind returned back to the present. She gave out a frown before looking at the displays in front of her. The ship that her target was in was currently speeding towards the outskirts of the asteroid field. Jinko didn’t know what was the ship’s aim, but they must be planning something. 

‘A daughter who ran away from her mother, her family, and her duties. The greatest mark of dishonour. And yet, in exchange of useless honour, she gained freedom. I guess it is no surprise that she would seek shelter in such a place, with such strange people,' Jinko thought to herself.

 “Launch all missiles of destiny, towards the fool who struggles in futility,” Jinko pointed forwards.

As she did so, the sounds of tube popping could be heard and five missiles could be seen on her screen travelling at high speeds towards the black and blue ship. Right after firing, she closed her eyes and concentrated hard for a few seconds. When she opened her eyes, the display in front of her had changed. She was now looking at the ship from a slightly different angle — she had changed her position in the battlefield.

The few missiles that she launched were approaching the black and blue ship. All of them were aimed at the ship’s two thrusters. These were Class C stealth missiles, meant to cripple and disable specific ship components without outright destroying them or doing too much damage. Just like most Dawning Star weapons, the missiles were exceptionally stealthy and hard to detect without a good radar.

And yet, despite the advanced stealth capabilities of the missiles, the black and blue ship was able to detect the missiles and shot most of them down using its laser turrets. Those that managed to get past its defence missed their target and hit the ship's plate hull instead of the thrusters. The black and blue Maxwell managed to turn around in place before missile impact, receiving minimal damage to the ship.

‘Interesting,’ Jinko thought to herself.

The ship wasn’t able to detect the missiles in the first few strikes, so why was it capable of doing so now? Jinko was unable to understand just how exactly the ship managed to do so. Then again, the stealth capabilities of Jinko’s missiles were not infallible. They weren’t exactly state of the art and a keen eye paired with a good camera system could still spot the missiles coming from afar. 

‘But its anti missile defences aren’t perfect,’ Jinko thought to herself as she engaged her thrusters to maximum output.

She then launched more missiles to the ship, eight of them with a second interval between each missile. Each one of them aimed at different parts of the ship. Two aimed at the thrusters and the rest towards the ship’s laser turrets. Due to her moving across the battlefield, the missiles came towards the ship from different directions.

The tactic proved effective when the black and blue ship was unable to detect and prevent most of the missiles from hitting it. However, this attack failed, just like her previous attempts at damaging her components. The ship engaged its directional thrusters and, like a bottle on a table, turned around in place to prevent damage to the more vulnerable systems of the ships. Anything that hit the armoured part of the ship only inflicted minimal damage.

Whoever was piloting the ship must have noticed how effective it is to just spin around while cruising, as she was now in a permanent spin.

Jinko felt annoyed at this action. She had fought many other ships before in her service, so this is not exactly an uncommon tactic. It was a good way to prevent other ships from easily boarding them and was a good way to prevent the enemy from doing pinpoint damage to vulnerable components. While this sounded good, most people would not do this as it only made it harder for the ship to function due to the centrifugal force exerted. Said maneuver also causes difficulties in firing weapons accurately and disrupts the accuracy of detection instruments.

But most of all, in the Dawning Star Empire, this was seen as a foolish and dishonorable act. It was an act only done by people who refused to give up, wanting to cause as much trouble for the victor as possible. Though in this situation, it was probably the ship’s best choice. It didn’t need its weapons nor did it need its detection instruments. Spinning around like this was the best form of defence for the ship at this moment.

Jinko looked at the sector map and observed the location of herself and the ship within it. After a brief calculation, she calculated that the ship will reach the outskirts of the asteroid field within five minutes. She then looked at another screen, on it was the amount of missiles that she had remaining.

[Class C Stealth Missiles Mk 2:  44/80
Class E Hull Shredder Missiles Mk 3: 10/10
Photon disruptor Torpedo 2/2]

“Load Class E Missiles. Intervals of four per Class C Missiles,” Jinko ordered. She then could feel herself ‘shifting’ shortly after.

Class E missiles were much stronger than Class C and were meant to punch through thick armour. She didn’t use it before in fear of inflicting too much damage to the ship, but after seeing how little her Class C did to the ship, she concluded that the ship could take the extra firepower.

“Fire!” She yelled out. 

Again, the sounds of tubes popping off could be heard. Only this time, instead of eight missiles she launched dozens of them towards the Maxwell. Occasionally, a larger tube popping sound could be heard and with it came a large bright missile. Unlike the class C missiles, the Class E were not as stealthy. Most radar systems would probably be able to spot it from afar, making it easy to intercept. However, Jinko doubted a ship spinning like a fool would be able to do so. 

Though, as if reading her mind, the ship stopped spinning and started to intercept the missiles. Not the smaller Class C ones, but the bigger more threatening Class E ones. The ship’s guns were fast to lock onto the Class E and took them out— all five of them that she launched. Though this came at a price as the smaller more stealthy Class C struck the ship. Explosions after explosions could be seen hitting the ship, causing a cloud of smoke to pop out.

Jinko immediately stopped firing and waited in place, observing the cloud of smoke. Once the cloud of smoke settled, Jinko zoomed in onto the ship to see its status.

How shocked she was when she saw how little damage she actually dealt to the ship. Make no mistake, the ship was visibly damaged, mostly on its two thrusters and its forward bow. However, the amount of missiles that hit the ship should have been enough to cripple the ship. Yet, only minimal damage could be seen on the ship and even weirder, the ship seemed to be repairing the damage from itself. 

Whatever the ship did, it managed to reduce the impact of her attacks. The capability to spot and shoot down missiles while being able to take multiple hits from her attacks was not something a cargo freighter should have. Despite the misleading looks, she could tell that this was not any normal ship. The owner must have enhanced or modified the ship in some way or form for it to be able to take that much damage.

‘As expected of a Freedom United ship. Even their freighters are armoured,’ Jinko thought to herself.

“Load Photon Disruptor Torpedo into the launch tube, target— Argh?!” Jinko said out her orders but was immediately cut short when she felt a sharp pain in her head. She also had a feeling of nausea as well.

Jinko knew she was struck by something. But this pain was different. It should not be this way. It should not be causing her headaches. Turning her cameras around in a hurried motion, she saw what had shot her. A small black and blue fighter corvette. 

‘When did this ship…? A friend? How did I not detect it beforehand? How did it manage to find me?’ various questions filled Jinko’s mind.  Somehow, someway, this ship had managed to find Jinko and slip past Jinko’s detection.

It was unfortunate that these questions would not be answered anytime soon as the fighter corvette shot a few more rounds towards Jinko. It didn’t even pierced through her hull but each shot caused a sharp headache to Jinko, hurting her.

It was at this moment that Jinko’s virtual realm changed from a small japanese room to a large garden. It was a westerned themed garden with a large gazebo in the middle of it. In the distance she could see a large mansion. 

Her nanomachines were engaged against another's. Their virtual realms were now connected. 

She was being assimilated.

“How peculiar…” Jinko muttered.

“Hostile entity detected controlling ship,” a monotone voice came from behind Jinko. 

Turning around she could see an expressionless woman wearing gothic clothing. She had blue eyes and black hair and was staring right at Jinko. The two stared at each other before the expressionless woman raised her hands towards Jinko.

“Destroying hostile nanomachines. Cutting hostile entity connection to virtual realm,” said the expressionless woman as a large beam of light came out of her hand and destroyed Jinko’s virtual body.

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* * * * *

 

‘A Living Core. Everything makes sense now. To think the young mistress would have met such an unusual ally,’ Jinko thought to herself as she viewed Ashen port from one of her windows. She was currently in the bridge of a large pinkish battlecruiser with nine large guns.

‘To be able to cut me out of my own ship, she was a powerful Living Core indeed,’ she thought further. She could feel a part of herself was now missing, probably assimilated by the expressionless Living Core who defeated her.

Granted, it was an old throwaway stealth ship made for reconnaissance, but a loss is still a loss. The thought of being blindsided by another stealth ship was a source of shame for her, the expert in stealth combat. It was a big blunder.

'She must have warped out of the area by now. My stealth fighters are not detecting her.'

 

“How silly of me,
I thought she was a fool,
That fool was actually me,
A lesson to be learn,
Or a bigger fool I am.”

Jinko recited a poem as she continued to observe the sight in front of her: the sector map, a blue blip on a certain asteroid field and a certain highlighted station, the nearest neutral port that is not Ashen Port. There was a big chance that these would be where the Living Core that sheltered her target would go next.

Either the neutral port Little Foot or the asteroid field nearby.

'It's just that this area is…'

Jinko then closed her eyes. She recalled a word that the head of the Libera family said to her— that she didn’t care about Jinko’s method, only that her daughter goes back to her alive.

‘Perhaps I can still make contact with her. She may prove to be a useful ally to me as well,’ Jinko thought to herself, her warp drive warming up.