Space Cruiser Amahara

Space Cruiser Amahara is a game about the eponymous ship and its adventures through the cosmos in a quest to save besieged humanity from destruction at the hands of the Lunarians. It is a (very) soft-science space opera.

Episodes
Ep 1. The Dying Mother
Ep 2. Red Planet
Ep 3. Inverted Forest
Ep 4. The Shimmering Branch
Ep 5. One Moon, Many Places

Background

First Space Race

Following the conclusion of the Sixty Years War, the countries of the world settled into the Cold War, a military, economic and political deadlock between countries and power blocs across the world. Though hostile to one another, each side was deterred by the awesome power of the spin bomb and fear of more global war amidst fresh memories of the self-destruction wrought by the previous three generations. The Cold War was thus about more about proxy conflicts, political maneuvering, economics, and ideology. At the same time, knowledge gained over the Sixty Years War had advanced human sophistication by leaps and bounds. Across the world, scientists sought to conquer outer space in a race to prove the technological superiority of their respective countries.

Lunarian Attack

After a period of competition through the eighties and early nineties in producing rockets, satellites and space stations, the communist People's Confederacy of Lotus Asia first gained a clear upper hand in the Space Race by launching a lunar probe in 1993. Soma-1 was apparently successful and announced in communist media with significant fanfare. However, much of the information on the probe and the data it collected were classified. A series of missions followed but were all said to have failed mysteriously during final approach. The first non-communist mission, with a much publicised launch ceremony presided over by Napoleon X and the Princess of the Church, was the Luna α mission of 24 April 1999. On that day, the Lunarian fleet emerged from the surface of the Moon. Without warning, the aliens launched an all-out attack on the Earth, bombarding the surface and decimating civilisation aboveground by the end of the year. The Hollow, a layer of caverns deep beneath bedrock and previously of little interest besides the tapping of spin wells, became humanity's last refuge.

Alien Technology

Though forced to dwell underground, humanity continued to resist the invaders, using the close confines of the caverns to intercept and destroy Lunarian robotic units before they could approach the hidden underground settlements. Without the direct support of their fleet, the Lunarian onslaught ground to a halt and the war stalled for many years with the Lunarians lacking the will or the means to escalate the conflict now taking place many kilometers beneath the surface. Instead, destroyed robotic units that failed to self-destruct have become salvage for their alien technology. Even more mysterious, are strange ruins being sporadically confirmed in the vast unexplored stretches of the Hollow.

On 21 December 2012, a mysterious, unmanned alien ship impacted in the North Ectasian Ocean. The event drew a massive response from both sides of the war resulting in a pitched battle where humans prevailed against the Lunarian forces for the first time. NEET forces secured the underwater wreckage and immediately began salvage operations, removing the ship, piece by piece where necessary, through undersea rifts to Hollow Amahara.

For the countries of the North Ectasian Economic Treaty, the Ectasia Impact had profound technological consequence. Although hardly intact after its (possibly unintended) crash and the ensuing battle for control of it, the wreck still contained massive amounts of usable data as well as advanced technology that could be reverse engineered for the construction of starships unlike any before contemplated. Among the chief overtechnologies military scientists gained were the crashed ship's mysterious liquid metal hull, gravity manipulation and superdimensional intelligence catalyst and quantum processing that led to breakthroughs in superluminal flight and QT research.

After examining the wreckage and leftover data, it was concluded that the alien ship was launched by a sympathetic alien power and represented an aid package intended for salvage by humanity.The international A Project was quickly organised by the member states of NEET with several goals in mind:

1) Contact the alien power, attempt to gain further assistance and receive whatever communications might have been on the ship that was destroyed by its crash.

2) Survey the cosmos for habitable planets that might be suitable as a replacement for Earth.

3) Acquire any technology or assistance that might, in any way, alleviate the desperate military situation on Earth.

4) Represent the North Ectasian Economic Treaty as a diplomatic emissary.

It is now April 2015. Two and a half years have passed since the Ectasian Impact and sixteen years since the first Lunarian attack. In response to the Second Battle of the Ectasia the Lunarians have again stepped up their campaign and begun deploying Spin Stabilisers underground. Nevertheless, with the resources carefully shepherded by years of resistance, the overtechnology space cruiser Amahara is now preparing to launch ahead of schedule. The time has come for Earth to begin its counterattack.

Space Cruiser Amahara

Amahara class superdimensional starcruiser
operator: Dominion of Amahara
length: 190m
mass: 26000t
crew: 99
power: 4 K-0N 3.5th generation spin reactors
weapons:

4 Ciel condensed light cannon triple turrets (ventral forward, ventral aft, dorsal forward, dorsal aft)

8 Long Lance dual torpedo launchers

2 Dark Repulsor horizontal launch clusters

linear autocannon mounts

48 spin warheads

Space Cruiser Amahara is the first operational superdimensional starship constructed by humans. Being an experimental ship, it is designed primarily to be able to travel the stars rather than maximise firepower. Nevertheless the Amahara is of a combat strength far beyond a conventional terrestrial heavy cruiser of the same size. Loaded to the brim with overtechnology, this one vessel turns the Lunarian technological advantage on its head.

Superdimensional Drive

A key feature of the Amahara is its superdimensional drive, an overtechnology capability inherent to its navigation intelligence. Residing in the mysterious liquid metal and drawing power from the spin reactors, the navigation intelligence is able travel at faster-than-light speed and pull along the ship it is tied to. The physical component of the drive appears to mostly be a sophisticated power supply and modulation assembly. Unfortunately, beyond the foibles of the navigation intelligence, the drive is quite difficult to control and almost nothing is known about how it works. Firstly, it must be free of gravitational influence proportional to the superluminal cruise being made. Second, a gravitational influence of appropriate size compared to the ship must halt the cruise at the far end. A miscalculation on this point would, theoretically, lead to the ship escaping the universe, suspending itself in time-space, or being accidentally altogether. Third, an equal amount of time must be spent in real space to "reset" the drive. In practice, this means the ship spends precisely equal amounts of time in hyperflight and in ordinary space and spends much of the latter escaping the gravitational influence of whatever provided that particular navigational dogleg. Moreoever, while the navigation intelligence can be directed, exactly how to program the drive remains the realm of theory as well. However, strong indications exist that the drive will retrace its steps back to its origin.

Liquid Metal

A piece of overtechnology directly cannibalised from the crashed alien ship which had a hull almost entirely composed of liquid metal. It is another black box overtechnology that is very poorly understood by human science except that it is an extremely advanced development of spintech. Although progress has been on made on reproducing liquid metal, the supply on the Amahara is original material from the crashed ship.

In terms of mass, appearance and consistency, liquid metal at standard temperature and pressure is easily mistaken for ordinary mercury though it requires a specialised high-energy physics lab to make it boil in a controlled manner. Aside from being a liquid, it has several other remarkable properties. First, it is a quantum memory material that can remember shape and store data. Its structure is theorised to be superdimensional, allowing more of it to be pulled out of "nowhere" and giving the appearance of regeneration. It also allows excess energy to be sunk into other dimensions, acting as a heat sink orders of magnitude beyond what is practical with radiating vanes. Finally, as a superdimensional computing medium, it can also serve as a medium for superdimensional intelligences – both the all-purpose general support intelligence Shibo and the navigation intelligence Ruruie reside within the liquid metal which, in theory, also gives the ship almost inconceivable computational power and storage.

Case in point, the Amahara is leaving Earth with a set of all data accessible to Amaharan computer systems that anyone could think of including, an amount that takes up a fraction of available storage.

Defenses

Unlike the smooth lines and clean exteriors of Lunarian spaceships, the Amahara resembles a modern terrestrial warship crossed with an early stealth aircraft. Most of the exterior surfaces are sharply shaped and angled for large plates of radar absorbent material. While a little sinister looking this stealth design gives the 190m long cruiser a greatly reduced signature, allowing it to run in stealth mode at an efficiency dictated by system activity and the availability of cover. The radar absorbent material is backed by plates of composite armour. Surface damage, including gradual abrasion during extended space cruise will gradually wear away this stealth layer. However, the ship is equipped to make repairs using its tactical armours.

While the Amahara has no "energy shield", its supply of liquid metal can be used as a hard exterior defense by deploying the liquid metal sheath. This forms a mirror-like layer of liquid metal over the surface of the ship which then hardens and uses the ship's energy to retain its shape against attack as well as a small energy commitment to keep on standby. The liquid metal sheath, though very much solid in use, is considerably more effective against heat and directed energy than it is against kinetic impacts but is rather more durable than the composite armour either way. Deploying the sheath does reduce the ship's stealthiness significantly but protects the stealth material from abrasion and damage from attacks that fail to pierce it.

Weapons

Condensed Light Cannons
These reddish-white energy weapons are directly derived from the main weapons of lighter Lunarian warships and robotic units. An electro-plasma condenser is used to concentrate electromagnetic energy into a coherent beam fired from four triple turrets. Although not especially powerful, due to size and superior reactor output, the Amahara's twelve main cannons cycle significantly more quickly than the Lunarian version. Use of such bright energy weapons naturally compromises stealth.

Spin Torpedo
The Spin Bomb was a weapon of mass destruction developed at the end of the Sixty Years War, ushering in the Cold War due to their overwhelming power. Ordinarily, spin bombs are rendered inert by the Lunarians' use of the Spin Stabiliser but Amaharan scientists have managed to use liquid metal to tamper the warheads to allow them to detonate even within the area of effect of this defense. Even without access to their full potential, Spin Torpedoes are immensely powerful and constitute the Amahara's secret weapon. Their cold launch torpedo tubes only compromises stealth in a cone extending from the mouth but the torpedoes become obvious once they activate thrusters.

Dark Repulsor HLS
The side of the ship opens up to reveal a double row of horizontal missile launch tubes along each side of the ship that can deploy a variety of missile types, though they are not large enough to carry spin warheads. Aside from damaging the stealth shaping when the huill opens, this is a hot launch system so its use is highly stealth-vulgar.

Linear Autocannon
These weapons are designed for lighter targets and can fire over nine thousand rounds per minute.

Complement

The Amahara is crewed by 2 superdimensional intelligences and 99 human individuals assisted by a limited number of ASI droids. The ship's hangar deploys a squad of four Type 914 Tatehaya spatial battle armour. These are 18m tall, vastly uprated main battle armours capable of highly maneuverable space flight and equipped with condensed light rifles and mecha linear launcher capable of deploying spin warheads. They are highly experimental, cutting edge mecha named for the antediluvian founding king of Amahara who fought the celestials in the mythic era. There are also a dozen Type 14S2 Akatsuki multi-environment tactical armours which are much smaller but more flexible. However they cannot actually fly through space effectively and are limited to surface or microgravity environments.

Where conditions permit, these mecha can be teleoperated, though the controls are less responsive in this mode. An ASI package is included and can be installed to take control of the machine if necessary, though its tactical performance would be subpar. The preferred control method is a human pilot.

Technology

Spintech

Spintech is a revolutionary branch of technology that harvests quantum potential. The most straightforward application of this is in weapons of mass destruction but the field became pervasive in civilian life following the Sixty Years War, most notably in the areas of power generation and quantum computing. Naturally, spintech is a cornerstone of space flight and humanity's ability to resist the Lunarians to any degree.

The foundational fuel of spintech is spin fluid – condensed quantum potential. The term "fluid" refers to its behaviour in the context of superbly advanced hyperscience rather than a liquid (or any) physical state. Once extracted, spin fluid gains a finite and measurable quantity and becomes exhaustible like any other resource.

Given it is critical for many technologies, including practical tactical armours, productive spin wells – naturally occurring sources of spin fluid – are important strategic resources in the modern era. Most economically significant ones occur deep in the crust, within the cavernous spaces of the Hollow. Ones that occur near the surface tend to mutually develop with locations of religious or cultural import due to their tendency to catalyse paranormal phenomena. Economic spin wells are limited in their rate of production of spin fluid but do not decay (at least directly) as a result of extraction.

There are a number of ways to utilise spin fluid. The simplest concepts such as the quantum dynamo or quantum pile simply "burn" free fluid and turn it into some other form of energy. This is the preferred method for small and medium applications when free fluid is available and can be delivered safely. Satisfying these criteria is a little more complicated in space but even then, the Amahara carries a store of spin fluid in photonic crystal arrays

The spin bomb creates a spin fluid criticality state to unleash an explosion of quantum phenomena – large amounts of electromagnetic energy and unstable spin wells are the archetypical results. Artificial wells created by bomb detonations are (appropriately) termed "fallout" being far too unsafe to extract from. While they are unstable and will decay over time they can make an area uninhabitable for years or decades.

The spin reactor uses an initial seed of critical spin fluid to create an artificial spin well which continually produces fluid in the same way as a natural spin well. Reactor wells are not as stable as natural ones but are more stable than ones resulting from bomb detonations. The spin fluid from standard reactor wells cannot be safely extracted from the core but is continually used up inside the containment assembly to generate thermal energy. Spin reactors are carefully controlled and monitored, not only to keep them from melting down but also to make sure the spin fluid within is generating power, and not something else.

Tactical Armour

Tactical armours are humanoid robotic weapons operated by a single attuned pilot that were first produced and deployed late in the Sixty Years War. They rely on spintech for their main power and control systems which greatly exceed the levels of non-humanoid weapons systems. Although they have been produced to an enormous variety of designs and specifications, they can broadly be divided into main battle armour – heavy armoured units with a great deal of firepower – and smaller units that inherit the term tactical armour which are primarily for infantry support in conjunction, in recent years, with powered armour.

Since the Lunarians took over the surface, land battles topside have been fairly rare and limited mostly to raids from underground. Due to their reduced practicality in the Hollow outside of the largest caverns, very few new main battle armours have been created since the Lunarian invasion. On the other hand, smaller units around the same size as the original Middle Empire units have flourished due to necessity and have resumed sole inheritance of the term "tactical armour". With the deployment of the Type 914 Tatehaya, main battle armours, with the room for extensive life support and all-aspect thrust, may be making a resurgence.

Other Forces

Foreign Space Projects

Amahara is not the only country to launch a ship into outer space. The other countries in NEET will also be launching vessels with technology from the A Project: the Albish Union is building the Albion and the North Middle Republic is preparing the All Under Heaven. Additonally, all known governments are in negotiations with the NEET Governing Council to share the technological advances acquired from the Ectasia Crash Site from which the A Project ships are derived. It is expected that after initial research and prototyping that construction of overtechnology weapons and warships could accelerate.

There are also separate space programs that predate or are contemporary of the Ectasia Impact. The Francian Empire launched the Joan d'Arc in 2013 but it was quickly shot down by the Lunarians before it could launch. Various sources claim they were able to salvage a number of critical components and/or that a sister ship is nearing completion. It is unknown what sort of – if any – superluminal propulsion this ship might have. The country does have unique access to the Vatican Hadron Collider, a massive installation that had already become operational deep beneath the surface from the mid-90's.

Danuby has a larger ship under construction. It is believed they have power and propulsion systems for it, though their nature is unclear.

The People's Confederacy of Lotus Asia may still be in the lead of the Second Space Race, supposedly having placed ships there in secret already. It is not known whether their superluminal propulsion is stolen A Project technology (known to have been compromised to some extent by communist spies) or from some other source if it exists at all.

Lunarian Forces

Spin Stabiliser

The spin stabiliser is an area-of-effect type device that inhibits the operation of most quantum technology by collapsing the Sieglinde-Liao field and reducing spin to a null value. This is all around devastating to modern technologies but its most pronounced effects include causing modern spin reactors to enter forced shutdown (and older reactors to explode) and rendering Lunarian units immune to spin weaponry.

Permanently deployed spin stabilisers make the Earth's surface inhospitable to modernity. The Lunarians have also begun deploying them towards humanity's last strongholds in the Hollow using tunnel borers since the Second Battle of Ectasia, effectively threatening civilisation with extinction.

Enemy Crab

This type of unit is the most numerous robotic unit of the Lunarians and is classified as a terror unit as their battle tactics are rudimentary and properly trained soldiers find them reasonably easy to destroy one way or another. Standard intermediate smallarms can shatter the armour of most types and their single CL gun is not powerful enough to turn most cover into concealment. However, it is considered dangerous to approach up close without powered armour due both to their melee capabilities and self-destructing energy cells. Enemy crabs have an autonomous swarm intelligence that needs to be properly dealt when large concentrations are active in an area. Groups often arrive in huge numbers in large clusters of units compressed into a small transit configuration before unfolding and attack. They will often perform kamikaze attacks by self-destructing. Some observed types are able to fly through space, and/or survive atmospheric re-entry.

Rabbot

Despite repeated attempts by various militaries to formalise callsigns for them, the Albish battlefield slang for these Lunarian armoured units has stuck. Rabbots do have an uncanny resemblence to rabbits, having reversed legs, prodigious jumping ability and prominent V-angled "rabbit ear" antennae. Like other Lunarian units, they have distinctly glossy dark gray to off-white "moon camo" finishes with glowing red eye sensors. Because many have been destroyed and they do occasionally fail to self-destruct properly, they are a major source of Lunarian technology for reverse engineering and humans have a fairly good grasp of them. Many believe they resemble Lunarians in physical form but no wreckage captured has ever yet contained a cockpit.

Rabbots can be armed with a variety of energy weapons or energy pulse missiles and are protected by a tough silicon-based macromolecular armour that is very resistant to kinetic impact but more vulnerable to directed energy weapons. The larger units are comparable to the gundam-sized main battle armours that replaced tanks but tended to greatly outmatch them. They were very difficult to stop early in the war but generally have no business being underground. The smaller units are comparable to knightmare-sized tactical armours or powered armour infantry and would probably still outmatch most current ones if not for humanity's considerable defensive advantage in the Hollow. Aerospace versions of rabbots also exist that previously had no direct human analog. In general, even the smallest, powersuit-sized rabbots pose a serious challenge to even seasoned infantry unless they also have powered armour as their armour requires heavier weapons to penetrate. Their threat is a major impetus in the drive to miniaturize energy weapons.

Frigate

The Lunarian frigates are 130m long and are the basic enemy warship that comprises the greatest proportion of their fleet. It is proportionally shorter than human ships and has a slight avian feel in its outlines with smooth, curved surfaces largely free of external gubbins. Like most Lunarian units, they have dark gray to off-white "moon camo" colour scheme and menacing red exterior lighting. Compared to rabbot wreckage, Lunarian warship wreckage is quite rare, occurring in fragments at best. While at least some of them seem to have internal spaces, they operate as unmanned units.

Lunarian frigates are able to operate within atmospheres and gravity wells but performance is still decreased, especially in very thick media such as Earth's oceans. Nevertheless, they aren't shy about diving – a key weakness exploited at Second Ectasia. The basic armament of the frigate is the condensed light cannon with which it can seriously damage a conventional warship with just a single shot while their armour can resist battleship shells unless at close range. However, they seem fairly vulnerable to their own brand of weaponry.

Escort Carrier

A larger frigate variant that deploys a small number of Rabbots. For those dedicated to carrying the large types, six seems to be the usual number. In exchange, their cannon armament is generally lighter than that of an ordinary frigate.

Attack Ship

A more aerodynamically fit frigate variant used to deploy surface forces and provide heavy ground attack fire.

Battleship

A 250m type that stays in orbit in small numbers without moving much. Deploys some sort of a charged particle cannon against ground targets. Their capabilities in more general combat is unknown but assumed to be much greater than any ordinary picket ship.

Heavy Battleship

A 350m type. One appeared following the Second Battle of the Ectasia and may be a command ship.

Characters

This will be fairly rules light. All characters have three stats that start at 1 each, one specialty of choice and 40xp to spend.

Physical is the Suzaku stat, affecting physical conditioning, accuracy, reaction time and agility under all gravity conditions. Very useful for all kinds of physical activities as well as piloting tactical armours.

Raising Physical costs 4xp per level up to 6 and then +1xp for every level above that.

Smarts is the Lelouch stat, affecting intelligence, perception, awareness and knowledge. Very useful for most of the things to be done on the bridge besides keeping one's balance.

Raising Smarts costs 4xp per level up to 6 and then +1xp for every level above that.

QT (Quantum Tesselation) is the Newtype stat. Quantum powers derive from a poorly understood organelle in human neurons and differs in level of activation from person to person. Generally provides extrasensory perception or assists in tasks of the other stats. QT can be used as many times as its rating per session and grants one of the following bonuses provided that the action could reasonably benefit from QT.

• Add one automatic success.
• Reroll any action.
• Roll QT and reduce threshold on the next action by the number of successes to a minimum of 2.
• Perfectly dodge any threat to your person.

Raising QT costs 8xp per level.

Specialties are linked to a stat. When that stat is rolled for that specialty (which should have the same scope as an Ability under White Wolf), the dice pool is either doubled or increased by +3, whichever is better.

Specialties cost 8xp each.

PCs

Akizora Ashigara

Captain of the Amahara.

Physical: 6

Mental: 2 Yelling Orders

QT 3

The youngest son of the noble Akizora family, Ahigara is the compromise candidate for captainancy of the space cruiser Ahamara. A skilled tactical armor pilot his rise through the ranks has been hastened by his innate QT talent, giving him seemingly uncanny luck. He is generally relaxed, irrevent and sometimes indulgent, having covered the captain's chair of the Amahara with a Baikal tigerskin rug.

Kuroki Katsumi

Tactical Officer Shounenko

Physical: 5 Fire Arms

Mental: 6 Gunnery Tactics

QT 1

The younger sister of famous captain Kuroki Reiko, who died heroically at the Second Battle of the Ectasia along with her ship. Katsumi is determined to avenge her sister and rescue the earth. She is a genius at maths and tactics.

XP 14 (0 unspent)

Ruriyama Isamu

Security officer/Weapons specialist

Physical: 6 Martial Arts

Mental: 3 Security

QT 2

A large, broad-shouldered bearded man, Isamu is a former 'tunnel-fighter' of the Amaharan ground forces, engaging in recon and special ops in the passages beneath the earth. He was selected to manage the ship's weaponry and security due to his experiences with automated systems. Is heavily augmented with cybernetics, including MMI interfaces.

XP: 8/14

Physical to 6 (4)

Tenko Reizei

:| cybernewtype

Physical 4 (TA pilot)

Mental 1

QT 5

The output of the QT-π quantum augmentation program. Probably giant robot pilot. Blonde eyes, blue hair.

XP 10/14

Kanzaki Setsuko

Science Officer

Physical: 2

Mental: 8 Alien Technology

QT: 1

An draftee from the EOTI Institute, clutzy

• 2 sux on Research AI project at diff 9*
• Spin Bomb Scientist*

Nakahara Tomoko

Helmsman/Shuttle Pilot

Physical: 5 Aerospace Pilot

Mental: 3

QT: 3

Romantic shuttle pilot who feels she should have been born in another era. Is the helmsman because there was ostensibly no one better.

NPCs

Crew of the Amahara

Superdimensional Intelligences

The superdimensional intelligences inhabit the medium of the liquid metal. While sometimes referred to as the ship's true AIs, they do not have code or databases in the traditional sense.

Shibo
The ship's senior superdimensional intelligence. Shibo is the integrated computing shell of the Amahara, effectively acting as the all-purpose general AI and information assistant to the bridge crew. She also responds automatically to commands as if she were the officer in control of the disposition of the Amahara's liquid metal supply, though the actual orders are given by the ship's human commanders. Shibo is (almost?) always on the bridge, having no human necessities.

Ruruie ("Ruri")
The ship's junior superdimensional intelligence. Ruruie is integral to the ship's superluminal travel and is thus known as the navigational intelligence but has thus far demonstrated her abilities to be rather flaky. She is somewhat childish and quick to blame something else for any of her failures but is very easy for humans to see through. Frequent assurances of her hostility to everyone mark her as a card carrying tsundere. Her attire is at least partly a manifestation of self-image so it cannot be changed easily but normally appears as a mildly bondage themed elegant gothic lolita fashion complete with collar, chain and shackle accessories. Unlike Shibo, Ruruie only occasionally appears outside of superluminal fold operations.

Shrine Maiden

All sea-going Amaharan ships are required to have a shrine maiden aboard, even when the sea is the Sea of Stars. The onboard shrine maiden appeases or pacifies angry spirits, petitions gods with rituals for fair weather and safe passage, and recognises the benevolence of the gods at stops along the journey. She is also responsible for ceremonies in case anyone dies at sea.

Musubi
A teenaged girl and youngest member of the crew. She is the official shrine maiden of the ship as it relates to Amaharan religious traditions and law. While not exceptionally strong or educated, Musubi probably has a rather high QT classification. She masses 38kg. Unlike the rest of the crew, she was born underground a few years after the Lunarian Invasion and has never experienced a pristine Earth except through media. Rarely fully occupied by her clerical duties, Musubi can often be seen fumbling her way through odd jobs in the galley or laundry area (suffering from a seeming complete lack of life skills). She also accidentally runs into Tenko with remarkable regularity.

Bridge Bunnies

The Bridge Bunnies occupy five key positions on the bridge of the space cruiser, not including Tomoko's helm. They are generally the ones on hand to deal with whatever it is that needs dealing with. With four of its members having physical traits of 1 each, the bridge bunnies are frequent victims of the Amahara's finicky gravity control system and other foibles of environmental control.

Shin Yumiko
A meganekko who usually monitors the conventional sensors station and is generally the first voice raised in alarm when something goes conspicuously right or wrong. Occupying the upper-center position, Yumiko could be considered the "lead" bridge bunny. When off duty she has a light-hearted personality and has significant male attraction.

Nazawa Moka
Occupies the back-left position responsible for main communications. Moka cuts a conspicuously statuesque figure than the rest.

Amenaya Yuuko
Occupies the back-right position of support communications primarily to direct the tactical armour team. Thin and pale and rumored, like Shibo, to never leave the bridge.

Yamane Mihoko
Forward right. In charge of internal diagnostics and conditions of the ship.

Kamino Miki
Forward left and of smaller stature than the rest. Enthusiastically confirms lock for weapons.

Engineering

Chief Engineer Kurosawa
The chief engineer of the Amahara, usually occupying the engineering sections. He knows his way throughly about the vessel's exterior and interior and is the ship's requisite grizzled old man.

Medical Unit

Dr. Fukuyama
The gloomy young dentist. Everything about him seems dark.

Dr. Watanabe
Old and hard drinking, forming one of the "drunk" trio though it's hard to argue he can stay conscious and remarkably sharp through vast quantities of liquor. It's said to be more appropriate to say he gets others drunk instead.

Tactical Armour Company

Kuga

Nanri

Tsuruga

Kirigaya

Care and Feeding

Bartender
Runs the bar on the Amahara which he rebrands frequently of his own initiative: the most recent sign read The SunShy Spider. It's possible only a few members of the crew remember his actual name. His main job is actually in the rather more sensible ship's galley.

Other

Able Spaceman Keiichi
Lab Technician Kurosawa
Linguist
Decryption Specialist!
Scientist!

Officers of the NEET Joint Command

Ran Suzuki
An Admiral of the Dominion of Amahara's once proud navy. Leader and sponsor of the Space Cruiser Amahara project.

Ran Kouichiro
Commander of the lead ship of the Hakurei class attack submarines that are now the backbone of Amahara's terrestrial naval defence on Earth. An earnest man in his late 30's who admires and envies the spacefarers. He is the admiral's grandson.

Commodore Yaegahara Shirayuki
The former non-compromise candidate for captaining the Amahara. A model lady officer from a samurai family and the highest scoring post-invasion graduate of the military's Command Aptitude Assessment. Also a top scorer on the Spatial Warfare Campaign Simulation Battery and one of only three candidates to score a draw on the hardest Case Yami (not including Akizora Ashigara, the only one who scored an outright victory).

Facts and Objects

• A shimmering branch from an underground forest of 4th Planet, Nergal. Trips fallout warnings?

Drama CD

Mysteries of the Amahare: Episode 1: Ruruie

Mysteries of the Amahara, narrated by Captain Akizora

<Ashigara> "Today's mystery is the Super Dimensional Intelligence Ruruie"

<Ruruie> "What's this thing?"

• Ruruie peers into the hidden camera on the spiderbot.

<Ashigara> "Our viewers have asked a lot of questions about Ruruie. Like what are her three measurements, where does she buy her clothes and will she be my waifu."

<Ruruie> "Hmm."

• Ruruie taps it experimentally.

<Ruruie> "Oh well."

• Rurioe starts changing, but everything is annoying just out of frame

<Ashigara> "But sorry Jun in F City, she didn't want to be your waifu."

<Shibo> "Her form is a reflection. If there were a place she acquired her clothes, such a place would surely be..."

<Shibo> "...the darkness of men's hearts."

• Male figures sweatdrop

<Tenko> "And Katsumi's."

• Musubi grows cherry red at Tenko's remark!
• Ashigara coughs

<Ashigara> "Moving on. Ruruie is one of the two super dimensional intelligences onboard the Amahara."

<Ashigara> "She takes care of our super dimensional navigation and only makes mistakes half of the time. Let's all cheer her one! Gambatte Ruruie-chan!"

<Ruruie> "Yes! Praise me-wait a minute! I don't need to be cheered! Everything flies according to the Starborn Scrolls! Heeey-"

<Ashigara> "And that's all for today's Mysteries of the Amahara!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zhWXQDO4Ek