The Battle of Starbase 234 - Part 13 - The Ones Left Behind
Posted on Sat Feb 7th, 2026 @ 10:41pm by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake' & Ensign Rin Kagamine 'Twin 2' & Ensign Len Kagamine 'Twin 1' & Commander Chisato Nishikigi & Lieutenant Commander Devon Hunt & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant Nezuko & Lieutenant JG Pryana Z'Kan & Lieutenant JG Nozomi Kusuda 'Gemini' & Lieutenant JG Aika Thompson 'Arcadia' & Lieutenant JG Vyse Ingelbard 'Buccaneer' & Ensign Lynette Bishop 'Highlander' & Ensign Sora Kobayashi 'Blank' & Ensign Hanna-Justina Marseille 'Desert Eagle' & Ensign Grace MacKenzie 'Sabre'
1,646 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
The Return
Location: USS Tokyo & Starbase 234
Timeline: February 27, 2397
The Tokyo, Ark Royal, Broadsword and Graf Zepplin sped towards the starbase in a diamond formation. The Tokyo was leading at the front guiding the other carriers through the debris field.
It wasn't long until they arrived at the starbase. It was starting to drift, knocked from its position by weapons fire and its reaction control thrusters either destroyed or offline.
[USS Tokyo Bridge]
"Aisaka to all ships. Circle the Starbase, start beaming up as many people as you can. All Starfighters warp out to the Sigma Deptronia system, we'll pick you up there." Taiga ordered. She tapped the co-ordinates of the nearby star system into her communications panel. "We only have at most a two minutes before those Herald ships arrive. Once we've got as many people on board, we'll rendezvous in the Sigma Deptronia system. Aisaka out."
She looked over towards Nezuko. "Nezuko. Use every transporter we have, personnel, cargo, emergency, all of them!" Taiga said simply.
"KEEP US FROM BEING HIT" Nezuko's speaker called out, with volume increased. She would NOT accept what happened to them at Amerind happening again. "Beaming in progress."
[Starfighters]
"Snowflake to all pilots. Pull back. Orders from Tokyo. Engage your warp drives and rendezvous in the Sigma Deptronia system." Fubuki ordered to her pilots. She had also watched as the gateways had opened around them, there wasn't even time to re-dock with their ships, so jumping to the next system was the next best option. "Engage when ready!"
"This is Gemini," Nozomi radioed. "Warp drive is primed, ready to engage on your orders, Snowflake."
"This is Highlander; ready to engage, over." Lynette.
"This is Blank; standing by to go to warp." Sora.
"This is Desert Eagle; Einsatzbereit." Hanna.
"Foch 3-1-2, Allez allez." Grace stated, embarrassed to still be using her designation from her destroyed carrier, "On your wing."
"Twin 1 ready to go," Len responded as he pulled alongside Rin and both of them pointed the nose of their Starfighters towards the starsystem.
"Twin 2 too, ready to warp out." Rin also replied.
"Buccaneer, ready to warp out," Vyse added.
"Arcadia, course set and ready." The first time Aika tried her new callsign.
"Engage when ready." Snowflake ordered simply. She tapped on her controls, and then pushed her sticks forward. Her Starfighter accelerated and then jumped to warp, leaving the battlefield behind her.
Grace initiated the warp drive sequence and blood red wrapped the border of her screen as did the words on the screen, "Engine malfunction!" She called out, but the fighters continued to flicker out of sight. The diagnostic ran and came up, something minor but it would take a few minutes to fix.
[USS Tokyo Bridge]
"How are we looking?" Taiga asked as she watched the Starfighters starting to warp out. They looked so small and delicate, like ants. However they were starting to warp out, flashes of light from their nacelles dotting the image as they engaged their warp drives.
Taiga didn't get a chance to recieve an answer before several long range lance beams of purple energy slammed into the lower half of the Starbase. They ripped right through the middle of the base, severing the lower half away from the upper section. The base began to roll over from the impact as the once proud city in space began to break apart into two large sections.
The Tokyo shook as debris from the starbase bounced off their hull. With the shields down for transporters, they were taking flak damage. Every little impact echoed throughout the ship as it impacted the outer hull plating.
"God damn..." Taiga said. She switched the viewscreen to show the oncoming Herald vessels. They already blotted out the stars, and were slowly proceeding towards them. More and more Herald vessels were joining them, following behind them, emerging from the gateways. They descended upon them at a slow rate, like a slow moving high tide. Moving in formation from all directions, enclosing them in sphere of nothing but death.
Their large sphere on the center of their dreadnoughts began to glow purple. It was a weapon that the Tokyo crew were more than familiar with. The same weapon that destroyed Amerind. However now, hundreds of those weapons were focused on them and the starbase.
Taiga froze, the sheer amount of weapons fire would not only destroy them, but would annilate any chance of any survival in one single shot. Her hands clasped to the ends of the arms on her chair. She grip was so tight that her knuckles were on the verge of turning white.
Finally she spoke solemnly. "Aisaka to all ships. Complete any transporter sequences and retreat. We've got as many people as we can. Full retreat."
Nezuko tensed up but then nodded. She deactivated the transporter. They had as many as they would get.
"Raise shields, set a course for the Sigma Deptronia system. Engage as soon as the transporters have finished the current cycle..." she looked around her bridge momentarily. "Now people."
[Starbase 234 Promenade]
The sound of transporters faded and a moment of dead silence fell upon the entire promenade. Hundreds of people still gathered awaiting rescue. The explosion and rocking of the starbase fell silent as the sky outside began to rotate slowly like in a planetarium.
Then it started, the screams and the desperate cries of people who now knew that their end was near. People flocked to the large windows, striking them with their fists, calling out to the Starships outside for rescue. Yet their voices would never be able to carry across the vaccuum of space.
They watched as one by one the Starships each warped out.
"Where are they going mummy?" A young girl asked as she clutched to her mothers shirt. Her bright blue eyes looking out at the now empty space where only demons approached from the depths. "Are they coming back for us?"
Her mother didn't respond, just pulled her young daughter into a tight embrace. She ran her fingers through her hair, holding her close. "Mummy? Are they coming..."
Several purple anti-proton lances struck what was left of Starbase 234 from every side and every angle. A bright flash of white light flooded the system as the one proud starbase was obliterated into nothing but dust.
A ways away
Grace's eyes were on the starbase as the computer driven damage control system made the fixes to the warp drive. No one was paying any attention to her, a single fighter well outside the combat zone now and running at impulse almost directly away from the Herald fleet. The vomit of purple beams from the fleet seemed almost to be a physical thing and they washed over the starbase. As they finally dissipated, there was just the void where the magnificent creation had been.
"Oh mah gawd." Grace whispered to herself before the screen in front of her finally flashed green again and she finally tapped a key before pushing the sticks forward, blinking back tears as the fighter went to warp... Finally.
[USS Tokyo]
The bridge was silent as the Tokyo fled at high warp. Reaching the next system would take them only about half an hour at their current speed.
Taiga sat in her chair, her eyes closed as she looked down at the deck plates, she was trying to hold back the tears that she could feel welling in her eyes. "Nezuko..." she said simply. "H... H... How many did we get?"
"Transporters collected one-five-four-seven rescued from Starbase two-three-four," Nezuko replied. "Not enough." She wiped a tear from her eye.
One thousand five hundred and forty seven out of nearly six thousand that were on the Starbase. Taiga pulled herself up out of her chair her gaze remaining on the floor. "Maintain course." she said simply. "Mister Yuvek. Until Commander Johnson returns, the bridge is yours..."
With that said she walked slowly over towards the ready room doors.
The bridge is yours.
Lieutenant Yuvek slowly pushed himself up from the helm station, his burned arm protesting the movement. The command chair seemed impossibly far away - just a few steps across the bridge, but it felt like crossing a chasm.
He lowered himself into the captain's chair, the leather still warm from where Taiga had been sitting. His hands rested on the armrests, but they felt wrong. This wasn't his chair. This wasn't supposed to be his responsibility.
Around him, the bridge crew worked in near silence - the soft beeping of consoles, the hum of the warp engines, and nothing else. No one spoke. No one looked at each other.
On the viewscreen, stars streamed past at high warp. Running. Again. Always running.
How many more times? How many more battles end like this?
"Maintain current course and speed," he said quietly, his voice carrying across the silent bridge. Not because he needed to give the order - the helmsman already knew - but because someone had to say something. Someone had to keep them moving forward.
Posting by:
Captain Taiga Aisaka
Commanding Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek
Chief Helmsman
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Nezuko
Chief Operations Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant JG Pryana Z'Kan
Tactical Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake'
Commander Air Group
USS Tokyo
Ensign Rin Kagamine 'Twin 2'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Ensign Len Kagamine 'Twin 1'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant JG Nozomi Kusuda 'Gemini'
Squadron Leader
USS Tokyo
Ensign Grace MacKenzie
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant JG Aika Thompson 'Arcadia'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant JG Vyse Ingelbard 'Buccaneer'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Ensign Hanna-Justina Marseille 'Desert Eagle'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
Ensign Sora Kobayashi 'Blank'
Starfighter Pilot
USS Tokyo
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