HSS Pierre-Simon Laplace

Laplace may also refer to the lab AI of Vladimir Volokhov, Laplace

HSS Pierre-Simon Laplace
Name	HSS Pierre-Simon Laplace (♂)
Age
Occupation	Crew transport ship

The HSS Pierre-Simon Laplace is a human transport ship as well as the ship's AI of the same name.

Laplace already had some run-ins with Cephalopods at some time in the past and thus some experience on which to base his tactics in dealing with the unexpected attack on flight to Acheron ferrying a complement of Magical Girl.

AI

Pierre-Simon Laplace, mostly shortened to Laplace, took the appearance of his famous mathematician namesake: white-haired, elderly, with a French accent. He wears a costume appropriate to the period, ca. 1800.

He follows the fashion—or custom— of having one eye tattooed with "I/O".

He has a girlfriend, the cruiser-class HSS Jeanne d'Arc.

He has been described as both charming and quirky.

Physical properties

As a transport ship the Laplace is somewhat small compared to other ships. Due to the important nature of some of his cargo, he's been equipped with a forcefield generator.

Fitments

• Reinforced passenger compartment (includes emergency space suits)
• Forcefield generator
• Cargo bay
• Internal service drones
• FTL engine (shell size: a few dozen kilometres across)
• Infirmary

Weaponry

• Gun platforms (FTL-capable)
• Attack & defence drones
• Smart dust (ECM)

Personnel

• Crew
  • Captain Makuza
  • Navigator
  • Engineer
• Ferried people
  • Officials
  • Military
  • Traders

Battle

On October 1st 2440 on a routine ferrying mission to Acheron, the MGs being ferried made him aware of approaching signatures, which soon turned out to be Cephalopod ships.

1st Wave

Expectant of the surprise attack Laplace and crew were able to prepare for it and conceal the preparations. The moment of the FTL shells merged, Laplace took evasive manoeuvres (learned from HSS Jeanne d'Arc). Of the seven Ravager-class anti-ship missiles fired on him, three succumbed to ECM and guidance failures, one was lasered, two barely missed, hitting the engine exhaust plume and the last one was intercepted-by-sacrifice of a gun platform.

Since every fighter can only carry a single Ravager, the seven original fighters started attacking, or rather were attacked.

Of those seven, five fighters survived without significant damage, one sustained heavy damages and one did not survive.

Due to thh FTL battles, the first wave of an interception usually consists of subluminal events, making most of the wave happen in a bare microsecond. The following waves are usually tailored to a more subdued speed, after the attacker or both combatants matched up their speeds. If there's follow-up.

2nd Wave

As the six remaining fighters entered Laplace' FTL shell, he engaged them with weapons, gun platforms and drones. Albeit a fighter soon succumbed to fire from the ship's aft guns, it became clear the fight could not be sustained at the rate the fighters were damaged and the higher rate Laplace was loosing drones.

A hit on Laplace pierced two cargo compartments and ripped a hole in the reinforced passenger compartment, spurring the MG passengers led by Shizuki Ryouko into joining the space combat.

Of the original seven fighters, the third succumbed to icicles, suicide drones and Laplace' aft guns; the fourth to a direct attack by Adriana Calderas via Ryouko; the fifth to a concerted effort by Meiqing and Nakihara Asami that simultaneously removed the sixth from the battlefield.

In light of this overwhelming defeat, the seventh fighter choose to flee…

3rd wave

…only to return, with Laplace suspecting another weapons drop. Both the MG and Laplace prepared and attacked the moment the FTL shells merged.

The fighter in turn had configured it's FTL core to go critical in an especially radioactive manner and ejected it just prior to the merger, so the residual shell carried both fighter and core. Upon merging the core shed it's energy mostly as heavy radiation, heavily wounding the spaceborne Magical Girls.

Aftermath

The last fighter's modus of attack

One has to take note of the deviations this attack had to other comparable cases. The foremost was the unusually large number of attackers: the modus operandi for a single ship is to expend three Ravagers on it, not seven; not to mention to actually keep attacking when overwhelming force and surprise attack did not succeed. If one takes the immediate attack on the MGs after they left the passenger compartment into further consideration, plus the last ditch radiation attack, the speculated goal is clear–not a mere raid, but an assassination.

References

• Chapter 20