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
Ep 6. Unyielding Light
Ep 7. Lurking Memories
Ep 8. Beach Planet Mizuchi
Ep 9. Sunken Glory
Ep 10. Ambush in the Lesser Margatroidic Cloud
Ep 11. Superluminal Patrol
Ep 12. Captured Bird
Ep 13. Captured Bird 2
Ep 14. Ruruie the Pathfinder
Ep 15. Rendezvous
Ep 16. Meeting
Ep 17. A Last Chance to Turn Back
Ep 18. Certainty
Ep 19. Agreement
Ep 20. Quicksilver Star
Ep 21. Gate Guardian
Ep 22. The Stone Bowl
Ep 23. Kaguya
Ep 24. Deceit
Ep 25. Decision [END]

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 more about proxy conflicts, political maneuvering, economics, and ideology between the European Alliance, the North Ectasian Economic Treaty, and the People's Confederation of Lotus Asia. 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 above ground 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, superdimensional intelligence catalysis 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.

In response to the Second Battle of the Ectasia the Lunarians again stepped up their campaign and began deploying Spin Stabilisers underground. Nevertheless, with the resources carefully shepherded during years of resistance, the first overtechnology space cruiser Amahara was completed ahead of schedule. The ship was prepared and launched in April 2015, two and a half years after the Ectasian Impact, sixteen years since the first Lunarian attack and signaled the beginning of Earth's counterattack.

Although inherently fragile, the Amahara was protected by a shield of liquid metal armour. Its main armamament was the liquid metal doped spin warhead which could defeat the Lunarian spin stabilisers and inflict massive damage to Lunarian forces. In the end however, its most amazing ability proved to be its superluminal drive which caused a series of cascading failures in the fabric of space-time, essentially seeding its path with a series of portals through which any sufficiently well engineered ship may traverse effectively instantaneously. This phenomenon was a side effect unknown even to Amahara and was discovered and revealed by communist forces.

Through the end of 2015, Earth's fleet strength grew to some sixteen ships of various types and nationalities and made use of the trail blazed by the Amahara, attacking Lunarian forces throughout the line and in the vicinity of Earth as quickly as spin warheads could be produced. In response, Lunarian forces escalated attacks against Earth's civilian population. It is now April 2016. The Earth fleet has finally linked up with the Amahara around a certain star in the distant Margatroidic Cloud and the final push to the Amahara's ultimate destination is about to begin.

Space Cruiser Amahara

Amahara class superdimensional starcruiser
operator: Dominion of Amahara
length: 190m
mass: 26000t
crew: 99 (11 dead)
power: 4 K-0N 3.5th generation spin reactors
weapons:

1 Phase Transit Cannon

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

4 Long Lance 3-tube torpedo launchers (turret mounted)

2 Dark Repulsor horizontal launch clusters (along the mid-line on either side of the ship)

linear autocannon mounts

38 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 with firepower being a secondary objective. Nevertheless the Amahara's combat strength is 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 Ruruie, its navigation intelligence. Residing in the mysterious liquid metal and drawing power from the spin reactors, Ruruie is able to travel at faster-than-light speeds and pulls along the ship she is tied to. The physical component of the drive appears to mostly be a sophisticated power supply and modulation assembly. Unfortunately, beyond Ruruie's personal foibles, 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 as that spent on travel but the time of the jump itself is not experienced - that is, it is relativistically zero. In practice, this means the ship spends long stretches in ordinary space in between its jumps and tends to spend 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.

• At low distances, more time than needed to reset the drive is generally spent in sublight cruise to escape gravity. The jumps from Earth to Nergal and from Nergal to Acobi were examples of such, being a matter of light minutes.
• At other distances, the limiting factor is usually reset of the drive and/or repairs required. The jump from the Acobi Trojans to Tomoe α was 87.37 light years and had a reset time of just over 80 hours.
• The jump out of the Milky Way to the Lesser Margatroidic Cloud required 268 hours recharge.

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 left 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.

• Following the Battle of Tomoe α, Shibo revealed intermittent, uncontrolled access to alien data within the liquid metal.

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 makes the ship obvious but protects the stealth material from abrasion and damage from attacks that fail to pierce it.

• As advanced as the composite armour is, the Amahara without its liquid metal sheath deployed is squishy and would not absorb damage that much better than the old style terrestrial warships that were, in most cases, trivially destroyed by Lunarian forces.
• With liquid metal deployed, Amahara's defenses against kinetic and explosive impact is somewhat more than doubled - enough to be surviveable but not sufficient to withstand heavy firepower for long.
• Against energy attacks, the liquid metal greatly enhances durability. Over a dozen light Lunarian ships fired continually on it without sinking the vessel, though damage quickly accumulated.
• The Amahara is still vulnerable to the main gun of Lunarian capital ships due to too much energy being applied too quickly.

• With liquid metal stowed, the Amahara has a very small radar cross-section and can hide effectively so long as at least some cover is available. It is, however, less effective near planetary surfaces as its distinctive black plates can be spotted visually against a background. It is also less effective in outright empty space.

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.

• Using CLC alone, the Amahara's firepower is six times that of a Lunarian escort ship and will wreck one in a single broadside.
• Amahara's blasts are brighter - more white than red - than the Lunarian version. Each blast is somewhat more powerful and each gun fires three times as fast.

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.

• A torpedo can probably wreck multiple escorts when in typical close formation or seriously damage a battleship.

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 hull 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.

Phase Transit Cannon
A spin bomb-pumped weapon designed by science officer Kanzaki Setsuko. The phase transit cannon is forward mounted axially, offset to the ship's upper portside quadrant. When fired, its beam amplifies a spin bomb's destructive power and moreover directs it forward in a cone rather than inefficiently in a sphere. As it does not require delivering a warhead to close proximity, the phase transit cannon has thus far been virtually impossible for the Lunarians to defend against, with cooldown being its only real weakness.

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.

In April 2016, the Amahara was supplied with an experimental new space battle armour.

Sections

Bridge

Captain's Chair
The Captain's Chair is set on the upper level at the back of the bridge, overlooking the main screens and most of the other operating stations. It is draped with a Baikal tiger skin rug which could be seen as scandalous since the animal is now almost certainly extinct.

Main Weapons

QT Operations

Engineering

Reactors
The Amahara has four reactors arranged in two vertically stacked pairs, one in front of the other.

Hangar
Ship has at least two docking bays (ventral and dorsal) and at least two SBA launch silos.

Phase Transit Cannon
Mounted firing forward from the port dorsal hull.

Middle Sections

Officers' Quarters

Crew Quarters

Galley

Ship's Bar

Laundry Room

Lower Sections

Setsuko's Lab
Near the bow.

Brig
Has a Lunarian in it now!

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 was not the only country to launch a ship into outer space. The other countries in NEET also constructed vessels with technology from the A Project: well after the Amahara's departure, the Albish Union completed the Albion and the North Middle Republic completed the All Under Heaven. Additonally, all known governments were 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 was expected that after initial research and prototyping that construction of overtechnology weapons and warships could accelerate.

There were also separate space programs that predated or were 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 claimed they were able to salvage a number of critical components and/or that a sister ship was nearing completion. It was 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 had a larger ship under construction. It was believed they had power and propulsion systems for it, though their nature was unclear.

The People's Confederacy of Lotus Asia was in the lead of the Second Space Race at the time of the Amahara's departure, having placed two ships there in secret already although they lacked superluminal drives.

Roughly a year (Earth time) after the Amahara's departure, the United Earth Fleet was formed, travelling using the wormhole pathway left by the Amahara.

2 Albion class starcruiser (Albion, All Under Heaven)
dimensions: 235m; 45000t
power: 3.5th generation spin reactors
complement: 210-215; 6 Gallowglass or 8 Serpent General spatial battle armours
Progressions of the Amahara, the same basic design is used by both the Albish Union and the North Middle Republic and are of similar concept, being stealthy, multi-purpose ships with ample facilities and storage for long journeys. Like the Amahara, they are capable in theory of independent warp. The Albion brought fair amount of spare parts in case they ran into the Amahara. The Albish Gallowglass is a big, tough but rather obtrusive spatial battle armour. The Serpent General is inferior to the Tatehaya in performance but is stealth built. Neither has liquid metal armour but all three are probably better than anything the Europeans have.

2 Hakurei class starcruiser (Hakurei, Kirisame)
dimensions: 180m; 23000t
power: 3rd generation spin reactors
complement: 90
Former attack submarines modified for space flight. They have a fragile, jettisonable exterior stealth hull. They are pure attack ships with no flight facilities and fewer amenities being largely devoted to torpedo launchers and magazines to go with them.

Cosmic Battleship Scarlet Waltz
dimensions: 350m; 180000t
power: 3.5th generation spin reactors
complement: 800; 30 spatial battle armours
The biggest Earth vessel and flagship of the Earth fleet. The vessel seems able to shift its liquid metal around to concentrate protection out of the factory much like the Amahara's intelligences can do on the fly. Through sheer size it is probably quite surviveable even if the armour is breached.

Crusader
dimensions: 250m; 50000t
power: ???
complement: 300; 30 spatial battle armours
The Papal light carrier. When not actively launching craft, its launch catapults can combine to form the wide aperture hadron acceleration cannon.

Flower of Orleans
dimensions: 266m; 65000t
power: ???
complement: 287; 12 spatial battle armours
Not stealthy. Equipped with an axial main weapon.

3 War of Roses class cosmic cruiser (War of Roses, Ars Ultima, Karlsland)
dimensions: 200m; 27500t
power: 3.5th generation spin reactors
complement: 110-130; 6 spatial battle armours
Not stealthy.

Space Battleship Root of the Lotus of Revolution
dimensions: 311m; 118000t
power: ???
complement: 365; omnicraft
Railguns. Instead of spatial battle armours, the communists launch independently operating "omnicraft".

2 Type 3 Space Cruiser
dimensions: 150m; 13000t
power: ???
complement: 55; omnicraft?
Railguns.

2 Type 5 Space Cruiser
dimensions: 185m; 20000t
power: ???
complement: 70; probably omnicraft
Railguns.

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 attacking. 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. Later in its voyage, the Amahara did encounter "Royal Rabbot" units with cockpits containing human-like Lunarian pilots.

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

250m-350m types that stays in orbit in small numbers without moving much. Deploys a visually stunning charged particle main cannon in addition to condensed light secondary guns. Their capabilities in more general combat is much greater than a picket ship.

Command Ships

This is the catch-all term for the manned warships of the Lunarian fleet - they appear to all be part of the Superluminal Patrol. Each is unique in design, though all share standard Lunarian design features. They can range in size from cruiserweight to super dimensional fortresses. Given what has been discovered about Lunarian fleets, the latter may be proper Lunarian warships while the former are little more than armed yachts.

Lunarians

Lunarians have been established as a human-like superdimensional race. Having superdimensional bodies and being able to freely shift, it is almost impossible to destroy one except with spintech weaponry. The highly disperse Lunarian society driven largely by personal relationships is based around the premise of fellow Lunarians being very difficult to harm or destroy. They appear to frequently have high levels of QT and often possess unique custom ships and rabbots.

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. By default, the difficulty threshold is 6 and can move up or down. A 1 is always a failure but does not subtract. Having more 1's than successes is a botch.

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. Relatively few actions are rolled straight from the QT stat but QT has an additional function of providing extrasensory perception and assists to tasks of the other stats. QT can be used as many times as its rating per session (including multiple uses and multiple abilities on a single action) and grants one of the following bonuses provided that the action could reasonably benefit from QT.

• Add one automatic success. Can be declared after the roll.
• Reroll any action. Can be declared after the roll.
• Roll QT and reduce threshold on the next action by the number of successes to a minimum of 2. Must be declared before the roll.
• Perfectly dodge any threat to your person. Works for robots as well.

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

Collective XP Tracker: 46 XP

Akizora Ashigara

Captain of the Amahara.

Physical: 7

Mental: 5 Yelling Orders

QT 6

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.

41 XP used

4 XP spent on +1 Mental

4 XP spent on +1 Mental

8 XP spent on +1 QT

4 XP spent on +1 Mental

5 XP spent on +1 Physical

8 XP spent on +1 QT

8 XP spent on +1 QT

currently at 3 QT

Kuroki Katsumi

Tactical Officer Shounenko

Physical: 8 Fire Arms

Mental: 8 Gunnery Tactics

QT 2

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 42 (3 unspent)

Tenko Reizei

:| cybernewtype

Physical 7 (TA pilot)

Mental 2

QT 8

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

XP 1/46

Kanzaki Setsuko

Science Officer

Physical: 2

Mental: 11 Alien Technology Rakshata

QT: 1

An draftee from the EOTI Institute, clutzy

5/37 xp
7xp mental 9
8xp mental 10
8xp Specality: Rakshata 9xp Mental 11

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

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 but sometimes does appear in other areas of the ship. Her personality is cold and business-like, like a quintessential staff officer. She seems to have a deeper connection to the liquid metal as she seems to regain access to some information with every jump whereas Ruruie is surprised even by aspects of her basic abilities.

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. Early in the journey, Ruruie only occasionally appeared outside of superluminal fold operations. More recently, she has mellowed out and now interacts with various members of the crew, especially Ashigara. Like Shibo, she can also control the liquid metal, though on a much smaller scale.

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 massed 38kg in April 2015. 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
The melee specialist and aspiring action girl.

Nanri
The crowd control specialist and remarkably complete action girl. Cute in other settings. Also a token catgirl.

Tsuruga Male pilot.

Kirigaya The handsome ace of regulars.

Ten other qualified pilots, not all of whom are full time.

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.

Redshirts

Able Spaceman Keiichi Hentai and designated leading redshirt.
Lab Technician Kurosawa Not to be confused with the chief engineer.
Xenolinguist Touko
Professor Kei
Middle aged scientist. Speciality is Xenobiology and alien civil culture.

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. Killed late 2015 on Earth.

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).

Captain Ran Kouichiro
Started off commander of the lead ship of the Hakurei class attack submarines that were the backbone of Amahara's terrestrial naval defence on Earth in 2015. An earnest man in his late 30's who admires and envied the spacefarers. He is the admiral's grandson. Later on, the Hakurei class were upgraded into starships and he was promoted to captain as well.

Commander Wasatani Piko
Captain of the Kirisame. Seems like the straight-laced type.

Captain Margaret MacRisa
Captain of the Albion. Blonde, busty, high QT and dumb luck, just the way Katsumi likes them.

Captain Li Ming
Captain of the All Under Heaven. Boy-like and always with a flustered grimace but rumored to be the highest scoring graduate of all time of the NMR military academies.

Allies

Admiral Parikh
The guy whose space station the Amahara shot up last year! Possibly still angry.

Admiral Lavinia Pentavion
Also the Princess Milhalcea of Mihalcea-Pentavion and overall commander of the United Earth Fleet. Very pale, very beautiful, and probably very dangerous!

Princess Astra de Lorean
While also a princess, she doesn't seem nearly as dangerous and may have gotten the job due to her rank. But she does have an amazing head of hair. Funny Francians and their massive ringlets. Her glasses cost more than everybody else's wardrobes.

Cardinal Francis V
The Papal representative in command of his holiness's forces. You can't see his eyes behind his gleaming glasses.

Lunarians

Lord Anaraluhi
KIA: Wave Motion Gun shot

Erumon-Telea
Captive onboard on the Amahara. Terrified of Shibo.

Lord Aldusmoros
Celestial mecha ace and major commander. Forced out of the battlespace by Ashigara and Ruri in a giant robot duel. Vows to return.

Lord Kirtansis
Owner of the Celestial Superluminal Fleet and holder of the mantle of leadership for the Celestial Combined Force Fleet.

Epilogue

The crew rescued Erumon-Telea and her revelations turn the Lunarians on their heads. With the danger of liquid metal technology falling into any Lunarian's hands, the only rational thing they can do in the short term is to immedately withdraw from all contact with humanity. The Lunarians are still out there - vast numbers of them. They have a huge head start in space and they're still immortal to most things, but for the time being the moons along the Ruruie Star Corridor are sealed.

[00:37] <@Mal> Speaking of Ruruie, does Ashigara pursue? :p [00:38] <@Ashigara> Yes [00:38] <@Ashigara> War's over!

The Amahara is turned into the first interstellar explorer and Ashigara opens new starways with Ruruie. Eventually, other dimensional intelligences with other countries awaken enough to Pathfind and most are significantly less flighty and more responsible than Ruruie. As the decades go by, humanity's star map gets more and more cluttered.

[00:40] <@Ashigara> That implies there are some that are MORE flighty [00:42] <@Mal> At least one in fact as Able Spaceman Keiichi goes back to academy, eventually graduates to a command and shacks up with Another Certain Dimensional Intelligence to sail the sea of stars under the flag of visual culture. But that is another series. [00:44] <@Tenko> Keiichi's dimensional intelligence is Naguya [00:44] <@Tenko> he's finally achieved his dream [00:44] <@Tenko> a bishoujo figurine girlfriend

Setsuko wakes up in the infirmary still crusty with foam. Shibo vanishes. A few weeks after the battle, the terminal portal of the Ruruie Star Corridor to the Stone Bowl is destabilized by the neutron star's gravity and shuts forever.

[00:46] <@Ashigara> Setsuko's last order from Ashigara is to crack the celestial's secret for Tenko

Setsuko eventually gets summoned to Her Holiness' presence. The Apostle is hidden behind a curtain veil when she talks but her voice sounds awfully familiar. She is commissioned to find a way to extend the emergency war measures combat clones lifespans to normal human.

[00:47] <@Mal> What does Tenko do? [00:48] <@Tenko> hmm [00:48] <@Mal> Become a Maid?

Tenko attempts to stay pen-pals with Erumon. But on Earth, after a stint helping out at shrines, she finds a vocation writing outsider-art fantasy manga. With the hope that they will help the other clones find their humanity. Cue 7 years later. A back shot of a woman with really long silver hair looking at manga for sale in one of the new cities of the recovering surface of the Earth.

Katsumi gets a bobcut because vampires love those and becomes very good friends with the princess of Danuby and eventually becomes appointed an ambassador. The Cold War, interrupted by the war, dies down/livens up into the New Space Race.

[00:52] * @Katsumi misses the military a lot there

Devastated Earth does recover, but eventually, most people spread out into the stars.

[00:53] <@Setsuko> oh yeah [00:54] * @Setsuko invinites the two old physicsts who helped her with the superweapons over to celeberate when she returns [00:54] <@Mal> The nerdiest celebration ensues

[00:54] * @Katsumi eventually gets her own ship [00:55] <@Mal> So she does. What ship is it? [00:55] <@Katsumi> The first Amaharan superbattleship the Kaguya [00:55] <@Mal> heh [00:56] <@Mal> And in command of it she remains until ripe old age far in the future when she uses it for/against colonial separatists [00:57] * @Ashigara kicks the crew of the Amahara off at year eight after sending a cryptic rendezvous location to Tenko and Setsuko [00:58] <@Mal> Hmm, did we miss anyone? Does any of the NPC crew need one? [00:59] <@Katsumi> I think as it's so late they get a general montage [00:59] <@Setsuko> I think after a while Setsuko would go off and be a hermit though

[01:03] <@Mal> The only confirmed immortal is Telea [01:03] <@Koffee> I only have pmage as a normal game now :p [01:03] <@Mal> What does SHE do after two hundred years? [01:03] <@Mal> Did Tenko have kids? [01:03] <@Peel> Eventually, prolly [01:03] <@Mal> Does she visit them? Is she a godmother? [01:03] <@Mal> (literal godmother) [01:04] <@Mal> How does she feel about being the second Lunarian to ever be banished among mortals? [01:04] <@Mal> Does her identity as a Lunarian cause problems in the next series? [01:04] <@Peel> all this and more in her new autobiography on shop shelves now [01:04] <@Mal> Does Space Amahara become a gundam-like franchise and does she show up in every single series? [01:05] <@Ashigara> Ashigara's totally crashing the Celestial's party, because one lifetime isn't enough to get back to the Stone Bowl and finally drag Shibo out from being a hermit

[01:07] <@Ashigara> Also they banished Erumon-Telea? [01:08] <@Ashigara> Most uncool [01:08] <@Mal> Probably self-imposed [01:08] <@Mal> Or just de facto. [01:09] <@Mal> They sealed up the moons but they can't tell a Lunarian which side to be on when it happens [01:09] <@Mal> So if she chose to be among humans that's that. [01:09] <@Mal> There might even be others [01:10] <@Ashigara> We'll just keep poking holes in their wall until they give in and talk to us

The Communists soon put their first units on the moon, followed by the country nations but no one can figure out how to get into the moon.

[01:12] <@Ashigara> nah I mean keep going to OTHER systems with moons :p

Perhaps that is why Ashigara wanders the stars, him and Ruruie together with an unspoken goal; to search for that infinitesimally small chance of jumping into a system with a moon.

Drama CD

Mysteries of the Amahara: 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

Mysteries of the Amahara: Episode 2: Tenko

<Ashigara>Today's mystery is the ace pilot of the Amahara, Tenko Reizei

<Ashigara> We've gotten a lot of letters saying how mysterious she is

<Ashigara> And our viewers are curious about what her favorite food is

• Tenko stares intently at a stuffed animal held by Musubi

<Musubi> "I-Is something the matter? o.o"

<Tenko> "Is that edible? It looks like the marshmallows the Captain gave me yesterday."

<Musubi> "Ack! You can't eat him!"

<Tenko> ">:|"

<Tenko> "I don't get it but okay. Food is complicated."

<Musubi> "You can't eat Tatehaya-sama! This is actually a small shrine!"

• She plops it back to sit awkwardly on a small wooden mobile shrine.

<Tenko> "You can make shrines out of marshmallow?"

<Musubi> "He's not marshmallow!"

• Musubi gets big circly frantic blank eyes

<Tenko> "Oh."

• Tenko looks confused

<Tenko> "Is he a shrine to marshmallow?"

<Musubi> "Here, you can have this fortune bun."

• Ashigara speaks to the viewers. "To be honest I'm not sure how she's confusing a stuffed animal with marshmallows. I guess that's part of her charm."

<Musubi> "It contains an appropriate fortune granted. It's usually only eaten on festival days but today I will decree an exception."

• plop*
• Tenko eats the bun whole and swallows

<Tenko> "...when does the fortune come?"

• Ashigara turns away from the holowindow and sweat drops
• Musubi also sweatdrops

<Tenko> "Marshmallow is better."

<Ashigara> "Well that's all for today's mysteries of the Amahara!"

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

Mysteries of the Amahara: Episode 3: Shibo (?)

<Ashigara> Today's Mystery of the Amahara is the ship's Super Dimensional Core

<Ashigara> With the release of the first DVD volume we've gotten a lot of mail asking just how does it work

<Ashigara> I can assure you it works very well except when it doesn't.

• Ashigara pulls out slides and an A-frame and is suddenly wearing glasses

<Ashigara> "The super - hold on. Who put a picture of Shibo here?"

<Ashigara> "Well it's true that Shibo is another of the Mysteries of the Amahara"

<Tenko> "The Captain is very eager to solve that mystery, for sure."

• Ashigara coughs
• The picture of Shibo looks down on you all coldly.

<Ashigara> "Whoever took this picture must have gotten her on a bad day."

• Ashigara frowns at it in concentration "Reminds me of aunt Kirishima, really."

<Katsumi> "You know Captain, you're one of the mystries of Amahara too."

<Ashigara> "Really?"

<Katsumi> "A mysterious nobleman and mobile suit pilot. We've had many letters asking to know more about you."

<Ashigara> "I haven't seen any of those. Have you been going through the mail?"

<Katsumi> "As XO it is my duty to censor all incoming mail. Many of the missives were quite lewd and I did not want to distract you Captain."

<Ashigara> "¬.¬"

<Ashigara> "You've kept them for yourself, haven't you."

<Ashigara> "Tenko! Read her mind if she doesn't reply!"

<Tenko> "Yes sir."

• Tenko advances sinisterly

<Katsumi> "I don't know what you're talking about Captain! What possible use could I ever have for the lustful attentions of your numerous female fans?"

• Ashigara pulls the slide of Shibo away and reveals the next one, labelled Katsumi-o-vision.
• Ashigara taps the slide showing a Katsumi in bed with arms around a large number of scantily clad young women

<Ashigara> "I think your thoughts speak for themselves, XO."

<Ashigara> "And that's all the time we have this week's Mysteries of the Amahara!

• Cut to Shibo standing in the lab looking into the containment for the sinister radioactive tree branch.

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

Mysteries of the Amahara: Episode 4: Setsuko

<Ashigara> It's time for Mysteries of the Amahara, narrated by your captain

<Ashigara> Today's Mystery of the Amahara is our genius scientist Kanzaki Setsuko

<Ashigara> How did she get so many degrees at such a young age?

<Ashigara> How does she go so many hours without sleep?

<Ashigara> Is she actually interested in other humans?

<Ashigara> All these and more are her mysteries!

<Setsuko> Caffine pills and no not really

<Ashigara> We've convinced Tenko and Ruruie to go undercover and try to discover the answers to these questions!

• Tenko is rummaging through Setsuko's drawers while Ashigara distracts her
• Tenko holds up a tape "Supervisor - outside high school"

<Tenko> "She's very enterprising."

<Ruruie> "What's the use? A shut-in like that couldn't possibly be very interest-FUWAAH!"

• A computer console explodes*

<Tenko> "Who watches the watchers? Setsuko-sensei does."

<Katsumi> "unfortunately many other humans are interested in her."

<Tenko> "Although..."

• Tenko turns over the VCR tape.

<Tenko> "Does anything even play this format anymore?"

<Ashigara> "I think Shibo could play it back."

<Ruruie> "You don't need that old hag to play something like this. Watch and be amazed!"

• Ruruie slurps up the VHS tape like a noodle.

<Ruruie> "Pweh!"

• Ruruie spits back out a shining data crystal and holds it up!

<Tenko> "ooooooooooh"

<Ashigara> "·.·"

• Ashigara applauds

<Ashigara> "Let's play it"

• Setsuko has a vague sense of unease

<Ashigara> "Hm, it looks like for her second-year cultural festival Setsuko built a machine that wouldn't just tell fortune but would tell her female classmates who their ideal boyfriend was."

• The machine speaks with Glados voice*

<Ashigara> "She must have spent a lot of time programming in the details of all the boys at school - oh wait, it did girls too."

• Ashigara whispers "Nobody tell Ka - oh hello, tactical officer."

<Ashigara> "You're just in time for the opening theme!

• Katsumi looks disapointed just before the title plays

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

Mysteries of the Amahara: Episode 5: Musubi

<Ashigara> Welcome back to another Mysteries of the Amahara, hosted by your captain!

<Ashigara> Today's mystery is our youngest crewmember, Musubi

<Ashigara> "Why was she chosen to by on the Amahara? Do the gods actually reply to her? Why does she look just like Tenko? And why is she so tiny?"

<Ashigara> "It's a mystery!"

<Setsuko> "Last two are probably due to genetics"

<Ruri> "Bwahahaha! Yes, tiny! Chibiko is tiny!" ---> flat chest

<Ashigara> "Despite all these mysteries, Musubi does her best to keep the spirits of the crew up and evil spirits away!"

<Musubi> "I've never really understood why gods only answer to some people. Wouldn't it be nice to have more friends?"

<Tenko> "Maybe most people don't listen."

• cutscenes of Musubi foofing up tasks in the galley and laundry room*

<Ashigara> "I haven't heard anything from the gods since we left Earth."

<Tenko> "Did you leave your phone off?"

<Musubi> "The original task of a shrine maiden aboard any ship is to ensure the passage of souls lost at sea but since captain Ashigara has kept everyone alive so far I haven't had to do anything. That's good of course."

• Ashigara sweatdrops

<Ruri> "Wait wait, don't I get any credit? If it weren't for me, everyone would be stranded forever in the sea of stars!"

<Ashigara> "Musubi, we've had some viewers send us some letters asking questions"

• Ashigara unfolds a sheet of paper

<Ashigara> "It seems they're asking if you consider Ruri and Shibo gods of this ship"

<Katsumi> "And if so, what offerings its best to make too them."

• Katsumi reads over Ashigara's shoulder

<Musubi> "Shibo-sama is very goddessly. And doesn't she permeate the liquidy computers?"

• Ashigara nods

<Musubi> "As for Ruruie-sama... Wouldn't she be more of a half-baked youkai?"

• Ruruie: D8
• Ruri tugs Musubi's cheeks.

<Ashigara> "Well . . . "

<Ashigara> "That'sallfortoday!"

• Ashigara rushes to pull Ruri off Musubi

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

Mysteries of the Amahara: Episode 8: Mail Call

<Ashigara> This week is mail week

<Ashigara> First up we have Katsumi fanart

• censored pixiv works*

<Ashigara> "Hmm, you look different not wearing a catsuit all the time"

<Tenko> "Who's that guy in the mask?"

• Katsumi begins to blush at her own fanart

<Ashigara> "Next up we have some chibi-Musubi fanart"

<Ashigara> "So I guess even more chibi?"

<Tenko> "She just looks like normal."

<Tenko> "Captain, this one reports that our ship was 86 metres long in episode 3, but 120 metres long in episode 11. Is this a property of the liquid metal?"

<Ashigara> "Our specs sheet say the Amahara is 190 meters long."

<Ashigara> "I guess the animators got lazy"

<Tenko> "Smaller things are easier to draw. That makes sense."

<Ashigara> "That's why you have more detail than Chief Tokugawa."

<Tenko> "It's inefficient to waste detail on someone like me."

<Ashigara> "Why do you say that?"

<Tenko> "I clean it all off every night. Unlike SOME crewmembers."

• Tenko glares at Keiichi's stubble
• Ashigara tilts his head and gives Tenko a look

<Katsumi> "You're a model for everyone else Tenko-chan."

• Musubi collapses, red faced and steaming after looking at her scandalous fanart

<Musibi> "We don't like this at all!"

• Tenko cleans the red off Musubi

<Ashigara> "Oh and here's some of Rururie. These are some pretty fancy clothes."

• Tenko leaves lineart. "Ulp. Wrong soap!"

<Katsumi> "Hmm. These ones of me and the doctor are nice."

• Katsumi starts to develope a nosebleed.

<Ashigara> "There's never any artwork of me. :("

And then we cut to Able Spaceman Keiichi leaning against the corner in the foreground with a knowing smile holding...

fanart of Katsumi x Lunarian

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

Mysteries of the Amahara: Episode 9: All Tomorrow's Wars

And it is AY 199 of the Third Galactic Empire, in the distant corner of the cosmos

• Ashigara is flying a mirrored red Tatehaya-XI with the embodied Tenko on his wing

<Ashigara> "Do you see the enemy, Tenko?"

<Tenko> "There. Behind the wreck."

• Ashigara skims over the hull of a shattered Unified Danuby Stars battleship

<Ashigara> "Poor bastards never had a chance."

• Tenko flies behind and away to one side, diving between QT-projector pylons.

<Tenko> "That is the nature of life in this universe."

<Ashigara> "If only we could have done things differently."

<Tenko> "That too, is the nature of life in this universe."

<Tenko> "You only live once. But perhaps, it will be a long once."

<Ashigara> "Now you're just making jokes."

<Ashigara> "I see them."

<Tenko> "I have your wing. Deploying phase-transition rifle."

<Tenko> "I try."

• Tenko telescopes out a rifle larger than she is, which then deploys five additional barrels
• Ashigara makes a tiny superdimensional leap, moving the mecha across the intevening space to emerge behind and above the enemy squadron

<Ashigara> "No dimensional jammers. How sloppy."

<Ashigara> "Take them!"

• Tenko lances a forest of quantum fractals through them while they spin to face Ashigara
• Ashigara puts a precise shot through the faceplate of the one lucky survivor as the others disintigrate

<Tenko> "How long will this go on, Ashigara?"

<Ashigara> "Until we find her and bring this all to an end."

<Ashigara> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2DEvTKWyfg

Mysteries of the Amahara: Episode 10: Captain's Orders

<Tenko> "Professor Setsuko, where is everyone?"

• Tenko looks around the deserted Amahara
• Setsuko looks up from her desk

<Setsuko> "People are gone?"

<Setsuko> "I hadn't noticed."

<Tenko> "I can't find anyone on the ship!"

<Tenko> "It's mysterious."

• Tenko walks up to Setsuko, past several shadowed science tubes containing hints of figures

<Setsuko> "Its very fortuitous that I built enough robots to maintain the ship at full efficiency in case this happened"

<Setsuko> "I am taking it you didn't eat the cake in the mess hall today then."

<Tenko> "I already supplied my daily nutrient intake with my morning algae broth, which is also more efficient."

<Tenko> "For me to supplement it with confectionery would be deleterious to the mission."

<Tenko> "Even... even delicious confectionery."

• Tenko cocks her head

<Tenko> "But without the captain, who gives orders to the robots?"

<Tenko> "I'm the last bridge officer. Am I in charge?"

<Setsuko> "Yes, Tenko you are the now the captain"

<Setsuko> "Now what are you going to do?"

<Tenko> "Um."

• Tenko adopts a very earnest and serious expression
• Tenko holds it
• Tenko starts sweating

<Tenko> "Find the captain!"

<Setsuko> "Anything else?"

<Setsuko> "I mean this is your ship now, you can do anything you want"

<Tenko> "Well. First of all."

<Tenko> "As the leading ship of the human counterattack 'Amahara' is insufficent for the purposes of psychological warfare."

<Tenko> "This ship is now named 'Great Galactic Avenger 'Luminaria XVII."

<Tenko> "Robots! Paint that on the side."

• Setsuko has the robots paint that

<Setsuko> "Now what?"

<Tenko> "And I have to take over diplomacy with the lunarians."

<Tenko> "Bring me a cape and a big hat with skulls on it."

• Setsuko has robots get that

<Setsuko> "So you renamed the ship, you changed your outfit, anything else you want changed?"

• Tenko gets out a list and starts writing.

<Tenko> "New uniforms for the troops... new protocols for my coming on bridge... new UI for Shibo, she's too conservative for a war computer of the Great Galactic Navy..."

• Setsuko has the robots move the tubes of people down further into the bowls of the ship while Tenko is distracted

<Tenko> "...and um. I don't know. What about you? You're number two now. I can't do all the work, that's an inefficient use of the very important time of the captain."

<Setsuko> "Well lets inspect the ship together then"

<Tenko> "Yes!"

<Tenko> "As the new captain I have to inspect the ship."

• Tenko gets up

<Setsuko> "But before we inspect the ship may I propose we have a toast to the new captain"

<Tenko> "Of course!"

• Setsuko pours a drink of sake for both her and the captain
• Tenko holds it up

<Mal> So we have three?

<Tenko> "To the victory of our mission and the total obliteration of Lunarian and/or all life, or alternatively, the new future of anvilicious cooperation and mutual understanding between Great Galactic human and filthy lunarian life!"

• Tenko downs it
• Setsuko has hers slip out of her hands cause she's clumsy
• Tenko sways and falls over
• Setsuko has a robot tube Tenko

<Tenko> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gHORDBZuOA