CHAPTER 7 – The Sightings


The vehicle that was escorting Shiho stopped at the front of the campus parking lot as she continued her way towards the array of tall buildings. The air was bone biting and the temperature was plummeting fast. It became quite obvious to her that much has happened in the short time that she was gone. The campus was unusually quiet as the pitter patter of heavy snow fall continued once more. For once in her life, the Instructor felt a sense of heavy insecurity creep upon her shoulders.

The white downpour was beginning to gather up on her hair, clothes and feet as she stood still. With her eyes slowly trailing upward towards the buildings that sat in front of her face, Shiho pressed on.

When she reached the front doors of one of the buildings, she was surprised to find that the door appeared to have been barricaded by debris that was buried by snow. It also appeared that the whole hallway that had been barricaded was pitch black, without a single light glowing in the darkness. With curiosity, the woman walked further inside the building. From within the gloomy black haze, Shiho made out a turn in the hallway that led to another corridor, which stopped her from walking further into the complex.

"Is there anyone there?" she called out in the hollow corridor.

No response. She knew that she was wasting precious time by standing there waiting for an answer. She called again, asking this time for where everyone was at and once more, she got no answer. She squinted her eyes tightly and leaned forward and stared outwards. Indeed, there was someone there. The soft sound of shuffling could be heard from the end of the black tunnel. It sounded as if someone was dragging something heavy down the hall and the noise of shuffling bare feet sliding on the floor. Shiho waited a while longer to see if the person would acknowledge her and come to aid.

"Can you hear me whoever you are?" she asked.

With the quick glance in the opposite direction, the woman heard the sound of feet approaching her position. Turning back, there was the shape of a person standing in front of her down the hall. The figure was both shorter and smaller than her, plus it appeared to show no features or colors on its body. Shiho mistaken this for her eyes not being able to fully adjust to her environment. The figure, who was still standing in front of Shiho, also appeared to be a female, according to her body shape and her long hair that trailed behind her head. Due to her lack of detail, the mysterious person appeared to be wearing nothing.

"What is the matter?" Shiho answered again, "Why are you just standing there? Do you know how to address somebody when they are speaking to you?"

Slowly, the dark shape began to move its right arm upward. This caught the Instructors attention and caused her to stand still and watch. The arm continued to rise until the right hand was touching its stomach. Shiho looked down at her body and noticed that her hand was on her stomach as well. The woman's temper began to shorten as she placed both her hands on her waist, but the figure did the same. The person appeared to be clearly copying Shiho's every move.

"Stop trying to be funny. Your games are not amusing me."

Curious to see how the figure would react next, the woman inched forward towards the girl. She stopped when she realized that the person wasn't reacting towards her progressing steps. From where Shiho was, the light that came from outside was starting to slowly dissipate as she went further into the darker building. The mysterious figure was starting to appear less visible but the Instructor wasn't ready to give up just yet. The two stood where they were for a while, staring at the outlines of their body shape. Nishizumi could also point out a new feature on the figure: A faint white glow where the eyes are located. The cold stare started to worry Shiho, which caused her to shiver.

"It's no use." she though to herself, "Standing here isn't accomplishing anything."

She turned to leave when she caught one last glimpse in the direction of the entity. It was gone. Disappeared entirely from sight. The Instructor minded her own and returned to the outside. She quietly made her way back towards the Administrative Building without saying another word.

It had occurred to Maho that things were getting much more serious around the school. From all the people that she has met so far, she realized that not only was security tighter, but people's thoughts were clouded by confusion and stress. The electricity situation had not been fixed and the temperature in some halls were colder than others. Koume and the other two girls that accommodated Maho back at the tank garage were still following her close behind. Being a leader was not an easy task, especially when your a leader of a large crowd of worried people who are weary about what sort of decisions that you are making for them. It comes as no surprise to Maho that she had gave orders to girls who were desperate to question her authority, despite the fact that they have followed in her footsteps for long enough already. This was clearly shown in how the Ferdinand Driver kept asking Maho about where they were going and what they were doing.

"I will tell you all once we get there." Maho said half annoyed by the constant complaining.

"Are you looking for Erika-san?" Koume asked in her usual soft voice.

"Yes. It's best that we locate her right away too. We must inform her about the situation."

The three approached a pair of double doors at the end of the hall. Just as the commander was about to pull on the door bar, the two rectangular openings swung towards them at the same time. Shiho blinked her eyes as she caught a glimpse of Maho and her friends.

"Mother. You're back again."

"Of course. I have some important news that I must share with you girls, but first, do any of you know where Chief Adachi is?"

"The Chief Officer?" said a voice from behind them.

Erika stood behind the group in a slouching stance. Her eyes were glaised over and her hair was poking out in some places on her head. Erika's skin was also paler that usual and appeared to be covered in goosebumps.

"Are you alright, Itsumi-san?" Shiho asked.

"Don't worry about me, Miss. I'm just cold that's all."

"No, you don't look like your just cold."

Tammy, who was closest to Erika, slowly began to back away from the girl behind her. When the girl emitted a sharp and loud cough that sounded down the entire hall, the others knew exactly what was happening.

"Is the Vice Captain sick?" suddenly bursted the Ferdinand Driver.

"Of course, I'm not." Erika replied stubbornly.

Shiho stepped forward, "Do you mind going back up to your room, Erika? At least until things clear up down here?"

"You want to come with me?" Erika asked to the others.

"Sure." Koume answered, "I don't mind."

"I will come as well." said Maho.

"I think I'll go back to my room." said the Ferdinand Driver.

She had a suspicious look on her face as she cautiously walked away from the others.

"Whats wrong with her?" Tammy thought.

"Actually, you could all go on up and wait for me. I wish to talk alone with the Instructor." Maho firmly said.

The girls agreed and went on there way to the nearest flight of stairs leading upwards. The mother and daughter turned towards each other. There was a cold pause before one of them spoke.

"Mother. I have something important to tell you. It's regarding our trip onboard Seawide Justice High."

Shiho sighed and asked, "What is disturbing you about it? I've heard a few other girls talking about strange things."

"While me and my crew were leaving for another sector of the ship, I recall seeing a girl in a far away window. She looked angry and its sort of getting to me."

"Perhaps it was one of the other teams?" Shiho asked in thought.

"It couldn't have been." Maho replied, "She wasn't even wearing our school uniform."

"That just can't be possible." Shiho said in disbelief, "We were the only people onboard that vessel. How can someone survive in those conditions for over more than twenty five years?"

"I suppose that your right, Mother."

Shiho looked down at her daughter with a look of suspicion, "Do you not trust me?"

"I understand you completely, Mother. It's just that I might have a different theory about who that girl might be."

"There hasn't been anyone else aboard that vessel besides us in more than three decades. If there was anyone that had been aboard the ship for that long, how do you think they are surviving?"

The two stared at one another for a while before Maho stood down. The tall women examined her watch on her wrist, which appeared to have stopped working.

"If that is what you think is right, then so be. All I need you to do is stay out of trouble as much as possible. There has been a great deal of disorder here lately and I would appreciate it if you stay away from any sort of conflict."

"I understand. What about the others?"

"Check with the team members who are still here and ask how they are feeling." Shiho thought for a moment, "Also, if one of those girls show the slightest signs of sickness, report them to me immediately."

"Of course, Mother. I understand that we should work towards limiting this disease."

The captains first impulse was to find Erika. The last thing that she needed was to have one of her best fighters fall ill to the sickness and never recover. When she arrived at Erika's door, she was surprised to see Tammy enter the room without any warning. The commander softened her pace and slowly slid down the side of the hall towards the door, trying to hear what the other two were talking about.

"What's this?" Erika said in surprise, "What's this supposed to be?"

Maho stood in the doorway, "What's what supposed to be?"

The two girls in the room looked in her direction with stunned faces, realizing that she was listening the whole time to their conversation. Erika held her phone up for her captain to see.

"While me and my crew were investigating a large open area of the empty woods, I recall that we came upon something big."

"Big?" Maho said blankly.

"Very big. Hidden under a hill of snow, we have located what looked like a huge craft of some sort. It was made of metal from the looks of it and it was shaped almost like a large plate."

"A craft? Where exactly did you see this craft? In what sector of those woods?"

"It was deep in a meadow area of some sort. All that I know is that it was huge and odd looking."

"Why didn't you alert the teams before we disembarked from the ship?"

Erika got up from the bed and faced Maho, "This is a big thing, Kommandant. I can't just simply show someone this and expect them to be okay with it. Right here is something top secret."

"I still recommend you to show the Instructor as soon as you can. Please take some responsibility."

The pale haired girl rolled her eyes and heaved an annoyed breath, "Same Old Nishizumi. Still wants to know and show everything to everyone. I'll show our teacher this."

"I appreciate your dedication, Itsumi-san." Maho nodded.

When Erika had left the room, the captain turned towards Tammy. The other girl looked at Maho with her casual expression of openness on her face.

"Tammy? You haven't got rid of those photos that you took earlier yet, have you?"

"No, why? Do you wanna see them?" she asked.

"If you could." Maho said firmly.

She waited patiently for both of her close comrades to return. She wondered about the weird object that Erika and her team took a photo of and the pictures that Tammy took two days earlier. Tammy returned a few minutes later with the envelope containing the pictures in her arms. She quickly came in and dumped the pictures onto the bed, spreading each one out for a better view. Tammy also placed the two detailed photos on top of the stash for Maho to see first. The Nishizumi Heiress sat for awhile and stared at the two detailed photos, carefully examining every tiny detail in it, hoping to find an answer hidden within the film covered rectangles.

"Well? Do you seeing anything suspicious?"

"Whoever these people are, they appear to be pointing their hands in the same direction, which is to the south west."

"Coincidence?" Tammy said rubbing her arms.

"I don't know, but I wish to find out more about it in anyway that I can."

Shiho had arrived at Chief Adachi's when Rie Fukushiba, the one mechanical girl that was rescued from the ship, was waiting outside the woman's office. From the look on the girls face, it appeared that she hasn't slept in days. Unlike when she was found, Rie wasn't wearing her orange maintenance jumpsuit, but instead, she was wearing a new set of cloths that consisted of a white shirt with a light jacket and a pair of sweat pants. She turned back to acknowledge Shiho's presence. The girl straightened her previously slouched posture and greeted the instructor with a friendly gesture.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes." Rie said with a quick yelp, unaware of her tone of voice, "I was just waiting for Chief Adachi to finish her work."

Shiho turned to the closed door and stared at the faint shadow moving inside the office through the door with the one way glass window.

"By chance, did she tell you when she will be available once again?"

For a moment, the girl didn't respond. She seemed frozen in some sort of trance before coming to again. "Not really. The Chief just seemed very frustrated for some reason."

The woman grew quiet. She didn't know what to think, whether or not Adachi was stressing over her own work, Shiho's lack of responsibility for the Mechanic Girls or the safety of those aboard the vessels school. Perhaps, it was all of those. Shiho couldn't really blame her. In the past, Shiho did the same. She attended over the well being of the students' health and her work all at the same time and it began to thin her patience. In the past, she would come home to her daughters and would sometimes raise her voice at them to the point where she couldn't take the pressure anymore. This was not only shown towards Miho, but for Maho too. She had figured that time had built up the layers of stress that eventually lead to the meltdown, but then again, strictness was a common thing for the Nishizumi Family and most of Japan. Just as she was getting ready to leave the Chief and Rie behind, Adachi opened the door.

"May I help you?" she asked coldly.

"I must speak to you regarding the information that I have collected from the staff at the hospital."

The Cheif Officer closed her door with a small slam.

"Must we have to go through this right at this very moment? I have to watch over D-Sector of the campus and I need to get there now."

"The information that I have collected might determine the fate of everyone aboard this ship. Its urgent that I inform you about the situation."

"How can it be that urgent if you were willing to leave those poor girls behind on that abandoned vessel?"

Short of words, the Instructor stood silently with the same face that Chief Adachi had. Rie quickly stood up, thinking that another conflict was going to sprout up.

"Chief, hear my case. Before this incident even began, we have waited a good deal of time for these girls to return from their mission. After this amount of time has passed, I'd figured that we were going to have to return the others before we returned with a proper search party."

"Nishizumi-sama, two days have passed and your search party has not crossed over to the Seawide Justice vessel. How can I trust you when you say that you're going to do it?"

"Fine, then its all my fault." Shiho suddenly concluded, "It is my responsibility to finish what I started and now, I'm going to truly fulfill that task by going back."

"We have already began the investigation ourselves. You must stay out of this."

Down the hall, the sound of clunking footsteps could be heard. Adachi caught Rie trying to slip away, but caught her before the girl could get far. When she turned back, the chief saw Erika approach Shiho with her phone in hand. The image of the field was glowing around them in the darken hall.

"What is it that you want to show me?" Shiho asked impatiently.

"I forgot to mention this to you, but we found something strange aboard that vessel and we were wondering if- "

"Going back? I don't think that will be necessary."

"Hold up a minute, miss." said the Chief with a smirk on her lips, "You just said that you wanted to continue this investigating. Perhaps, this might be your opportunity, eh?"

The Instructor felt as if she was stuck between two imaginary walls that were beginning to push her inward. Whether she wanted to or not, Shiho had to return back to Seawide Justice. The odd snapshot on Erika's phone gave her another reason to further investigate the ancient vessel. About thirty minutes later, a student aid girl approached Maho's door and knocked on the cold hard wooden rectangle.

"It's probably Erika." Maho said standing up, "Allow me to answer it."

Upon opening her door, the student aid began to speak, "Mrs. Nishizumi says that you need to meet her in the Panzerkraft Classroom near the school garages at once."

"Oh, well. Thank you for the notice." Maho blankly returned.

"I'll follow you." Tammy said from behind.

The two locked up and made their way down the dark hallway to the stairs at the end of the corridor. The main power was still out in that sector, but they managed to get to the bottom floor without any problems. The halls were starting to grow colder as the hours passed and many of the people who were seen down on the lower floors were wearing much heavier clothing than usual. It began to bother the two who were still dressed in their ordinary school uniforms that didn't provide much protection from the chillier environment. Whey they stopped at the front doors of the dormitory building, the two girls prepared themselves for what was going to hit them when they go outside.

"I'm not really ready for this, are you?" Tammy grunted.

"We have to." Maho replied with no amussment.

Upon opening the doors, a freezing wind like nothing that they've ever experienced before, pounded against their faces.

"Goodness, what the hell happened to the weather?" Tammy wondered over the harsh wind.

"I guess nature wanted to expel its full force right at us when we are getting ready to leave."

They started to tread onward but stopped again shortly after clearing the building perimeter, "Talk about bad timing. Should we go back and wait?"

"Its not that bad. Lets just keep moving." Maho said with a raised voice.

Though it was clear outside, the temperature alone was forcing the two girls to look away from what was in front of them. The level of snow that was on ground was almost up to their knees and by the time that they have reached the Sensha-do Classroom, they were shivering and partially wet.

"Somebody needs to do something about the snow." Tammy emitted from her chattering teeth to an incoming person.

"I understand." mumbled the other tankery student.

She handed Maho and Tammy a set of gloves and escorted them to the crowd of students surrounding Shiho. Erika, Koume and the Ferdinand Driver were standing in the back of the group, appearing to be socializing with one another quietly.

"Once again, not all of you will be going aboard the ship. With that being said, I will begin calling out the crews who are going." With a sheet of stiff paper in one hand and a pen in the other, Shiho began calling out the names of the departing crews.

"The following teams will be boarding Seawide Justice with me: the Tiger I, the Tiger II, two of the Jagdpanzer IV's, the Ferdinand, two Panthers, the Panzer III and the Jagdpanthe- "

The woman realized that Ritakio and her crew were not present. In fact, she realized that Ritakio will never be present again.

"She's dead." Shiho mumbled to herself, "I mean..."

"I'm here, Mrs. Nishizumi-sama!" called a familiar voice.

When everyone turned to see who had spoke, some of the girls gasped. It was shocking enough for Shiho's eyes to widen. There, standing in a quiet manner and with a small expression on her face was Jagdpanther-Chan. The girls symptoms were completely gone and she appeared to be in perfect health.

"Ritakio? When did you get out of the hospital?" asked one of the other girls in the crowd.

The short haired adolescent hesitated before smiling, "Um, just recently. It feels great to be with all of you again."

"Very thoughtful for you to say that." Shiho commented before signaling her come towards the other girls.

Jagdpanther-Chan stood to the side of the group. Many of the girls were still staring at her, as if she was a ghost. The Driver of the Ferdinand began to back away from the girl, sensing that something wasn't completely right about her.

"I think that we are through with that. Let us get moving now. I don't want to be stuck out in the cold for too long."

Shiho insisted that the Maus Commander, Koume Akaboshi and Tammy should take positions elsewhere in the tank destroyer. Once all of the tanks were ready, the mighty tankery force drove off to the ships connecting bridge to get aboard Seawide Justice. However, when they had arrived at the connector, they were all told to stop.

"Kommandant, why are we stopping?" Erika asked over the radio.

"The Instructor is telling us to not go over the bridge yet." the Captain responded.

"Aww, it must be that main handle crank line." reported a binocular weilding crew member, "It appears to be frozen solid."

"Unless you guys have a better plan, looks like our marvolous expidition is over." Erika groaned.

"Enough with the sarcasism, Itsumi-san." snapped the Maus Commander from the Jagdpanther Radio.

"How are we going to clear this obsticle?" Akaboshi wondered.

"Well. Do any of you girls have an idea for how we are going to get across?" Shiho asked.

Tammy squinted her eyes while trying to find a way to unfreeze the crank line that was suspended above the generator. Suddenly, an idea came to her.

"Perhaps we could shoot the cable loose?" suggested Tammy.

"Wouldn't the main gun shatter the line, though?" said Jagdpanther-Chan.

"Try using the machine gun." Erika replied.

"Let me try." Koume offered.

She slid herself through the turretless structure of the tank destroyer and into a small area next to the driver seat.

"Let me use this for a minute." she said to the Maus Commander.

The other girl slid over towards the radio to allow Koume to slip into the cockpit. Next to the steering colubm was a small coxical machine gun with a full load of rounds in the chamber. Once she was firmly in her seat, Akaboshi squeezed the trigger to the machine gun, aiming it at the frozen wiring. With a few small bursts, the chunks of icey sleet blasted off the line, freeing it from its idle state.

"Excellent effort, Akaboshi-san." congradulated the other crew members.

"It worked! The bridge is coming down." Erika grinned.

"Looks like we're back in business. Continue on." Maho instructed.

Taking more caution than before, the tanks slowly manuevered their way across the sleek connector onto Seawide Justice. Another few minutes after that, they were treading through the frozen urban ruins. When they arrived at the same runaround as before, the teams began to stop.

"Erika! Lead the rest of the team to that objects location!" Maho called over the howling wind.

"Understood, Kommandant!" she hollered back.

The white covered woods outside of the city provided strange beauties to the tankery team. Hanging from the trees, small ice flakes and frosty glass sickles shined in the mid-day cloudy light. The colors shined and caused the girls to stare at them in awe. For a brief moment, all of them forgot about why they were there.

"I don't really get whats the point of coming back here again. It gives me the creeps to come back here." Koume reported.

"We believed to have found something strange somewhere in the woods nearby and now we are on route to investigate it."

"All I can say is, I hope that this is worth it." said another team member.

The rest of ride was quiet, with the exception of the roaring engines guzzling oil. The convoy entered into a snow filled meadow that stretched far out to the distant treeline. Right in the middle of the field, buried under a giant hill of frost, was the mysterious object that Erika took on her phone.

"There it is!" she exclaimed.

The teams began to pull over and unload from from their vehicles, except the Jagdpanther, which drove closer to the object than the others.

"Is this where you want me to stop at?" asked the Maus Commander.

"Yes." said Ritakio, "We should start searching this thing as soon as possible."

"Please slow down, Ritakio-san." Tammy whispered uneasily, "We need to wait for the others to come."

Refusing to stay behind, the Jagdpanther Commander rushed out of the tank and stood at the back of the enormous object. The other three girls in the vehicle stared at one another in confusion.

"Well, that was awkward." Tammy shrugged.

"What do you expect when you've seen a girl like her throwing up like mad not long ago." Erika frowned from behind.

The tankery team gathered around the back of the craft. The whole object was constructed completely out of titanium and steel, which was smuthered by layers of mud and frozen chunks of ice. There was also an oddly shaped exhaust pipe of some sort extending out of the craft. The object was tube shaped and had a large aliment of windows to it that was covered in jagged pieces of cold shining metal. It was like nothing that the students had ever seen before.

"What on earth is this thing?" Maho wondered aloud.

"I have no idea, but it looks like a giant spaceship of some sort." claimed the suspicious Ferdinand Driver.

A Panther Commander snickered, "Ha! How can that be. Spaceships aren't real."

"Can't you believe your own eyes. The proof of their existince is right here."

"Well that can be anythi-"

"Oh my God, what is that thing!" Koume shouted.

The others found her pointing at something covered in frost. The thing appeared to have the shape of a human and was about the size of an ordinary girl. Recognizing its apperance, Shiho ordered all the girls to back away. She then began to slowly inch herself closer to the humanoid like body. It was completely black and featurless, with the exception of its face that had a pair of small milk white colored eyeballs. There wasn't a mouth or a nose present on the person either and the hair on its head was long and rigid with bits of snowy particles stuck to the strands on its scalp.

"What is it?"

The woman sighed, "I'm not sure, but everyone needs to leave it alone."

"Your orders, Instructor?"

"Yes. All of you should be in groups of three no less and collect some data regarding this...this ship. All I ask of you is to not get lost and don't touch anything dangerous."

When the girls were dismissed, most of them gravitated towards the frozen humanoid in the snow. One of the girls even began to poke at it with a stick that was nearby.

"Kommandant. I must speak with you. It's important." whispered The Driver.

"What's the trouble?" she asked.

"When your going inside that ship to investigate it-"

The girl peered over Maho's shoulder at Ritakio, who was grossly engulfed in the frosted opening of the crash landing. She turned back to the other girl.

"Watch the Jagdpanther Commander. Observe her very closly please." said the Driver in a serious voice.

"Very well. I will try my best."

"No. Don't try, Kommadant. Do watch her. She's acting very weird about this craft."

The two noticed the other groups of girls observing Ritakio as she tried to grab at a small hatch on the edge of the giant cylinder. It made the others giggle at her, but she kept on tugging at the compartment.

"If you say so. We best get moving. This thing is huge and it will take some time to explore it fully."

Just then, Tammy called Maho back over to the group. As she made her way inside with them, she continued to watch Jagdpanther-Chan up ahead as she began to dig into every little space that she can find. Back outside, the howling wind began to pick up more violently.