Yankee Knights
Chapter 7
The Benisuzumes
From this point forward, I pledge to be more diligent with staying to KoS's actual timeline. It's kinda been messed up because I keep taking this on in sprinting bursts instead of jogging it.
Arigato.
James came out of the locker room covered in gloom and a clean vac suit. Kobayashi had taken the liberty of assigning him a locker and had somehow gotten Leah to relinquish the emergency luggage from her cargo bay. He was actually quite appreciative of the clean change and made a mental note to thank the captain when they weren't on the verge of battle. What made him hang his head was the way Samari had looked at him since the little street fight he had had a half hour before.
She usually looked at him with a kind smile, even when she was angry with Tsuruuchi for his inappropriate advances, but before she just gave him a wide-eyed, confused look, and didn't look at him again. James was used to being ignored but this felt different, somehow.
He walked into the red lit low gravity airlock leading to the garde hangar when both doors slammed shut with a hiss, causing him to start out of his slightly depressed musings.
Samari was there, in between the doors, her hand held on the door controls. Her impassive expression looked at him for several moments before she took her hand off the controls and walked over to him with a slow, thoughtful grace. She put the hand not holding her helmet on his shoulder and pushed his back against the air lock door and held his eyes until she spoke.
"What was that?" She asked, her voice level but her eyes pleading for answers.
"What was what?" He asked back, looking sideways as he laughed nervously. She dropped her helmet and put that hand on his other shoulder and shook him lightly.
"Look at me," He looked up, "What was that?" She pleaded again, her voice cracking slightly. James sighed before looking down.
"You know, the marines in my fleet have a saying. 'Semper Fi.' It's a shortened version of a phrase in a long dead language that means 'Always Faithful.' Now I'm not a marine, but those words ring as true for me as any other." He looked up at her, his face determined. "I will remain faithful to my comrades in arms, whether they're from the Fleet or Sidonia, whether I've sortied with them once or a thousand times or not at all, I will remain faithful. I will protect them, I will defend them, come good or ill." He started to smile a bit, "Tanikaze is my comrade, so is Tsuruuchi, and Izana, and Yuhata… and you." He said the last two words under his breath as he looked back down.
Samari looked down as well and smiled a little wryly. She leaned down and tapped her forehead to his before picking up her helmet and turning around.
"Stay in formation this time." She said without looking back.
"Aye Aye, ma'am." He replied
"There are three enemy gauna." Yuhata's voice came in over the tac-com as the twelve gardes decelerated to a zero-zero intercept. Leah had had to tone down her power by a fair margin to avoid tearing the other gardes in Samari Squad apart. Samari, Tsuruuchi and Seii where undoubtedly grateful.
"Samari Squad, your target is GA-489; Imada Squad, you have GA-490; Kunato Squad, GA-491. These gauna have created placental garde units, be prepared for anything." She paused and affirmative responses came back from all gardes. "Good luck, and good hunting." She said the last piece in English and James smiled at the ancient terminology.
"Hooyah." He said over the net as the four-palm formation jerked into final deceleration.
"Target in sight!" came the call from Kunato Squad as the long range ladar pasted an image on their screens.
"W-what is that?!" Someone said as the near-perfect placental gardes became clear.
"702? Is that the gauna that ate Hoshijiro?"
"All three of them are trying to mimic Hoshijiro's garde!"
"Look at that thing dangling below the cockpit!"
"They even replicated the pilot!"
"Cut the chatter!" Samari nearly yelled over the comms, "It's just placenta, don't get worked up over it." A few seconds passed, "Disengage palm formations!"
The three four palm formations broke apart into the three squads of four gardes.
"The gauna are scattering!" Kunato came over the comms.
"Samari Squad!" Samari cut over, "Serial palm formation, pursue GA-489!"
"Roger." James, Tsuruuchi, and Seii replied simultaneously as the gardes joined hands in a line, quickly catching up to the gauna.
"Disengage!" Samari said as they began to overtake, and all four garde broke off and deployed in an arc over GA-489. Tsuruuchi popped off two missiles but the gauna jinked and they both flew off into space, unable to catch up. The jink also brought the gauna straight into Seii's crosshairs, who fired off the Heigus particle cannon. The shot connected and blew off the back unit and the head, exposing the core just behind where the cockpit would have been.
"GA-489's true body is exposed!" came the call from the bridge.
Anguished cries of pain came over the comms. James' systems identified them as Unit 702, Hoshijiro Shizuka.
"Leah, cut it off." James asked quietly.
"Yes sir." She replied and the screams of agony cut off into an earie silence in 917's cockpit.
"No matter what happens, the fact remains that you are fighting gauna. Do not relent!" Kobayashi's voice was hard but crystal clear over the comms just as Samari dove down on GA-489 with her Kabizashi held forward. Placental disintegration was almost immediate.
"GA-489 destroyed!" The bridge called out.
"Samari Squad, move to assist Imada Squad." Yuhata ordered over the comms.
"Moving." Samari replied as the squad curved in to engage GA-490 along with Imada squad. After a few moments another comm from the bridge came through
"G-Gauna-491 has used a Heigus cannon! Heavy Damage to unit 706!"
"Sidonia, this is Samari Squad!" Samari started, "Should we move to assist Kunato Squad?" A few moments passed before an answer came through.
"Negative, GA-491 confirmed killed. Continue to assist Imada Squad." Yuhata replied.
"Roger that." Samari said, her squad holding course. Another few moments before the next communication.
"Placental erosion warning from unit 139!" A bridge crewwoman said over the all-hands circuit. "Damage to cockpit, chest and auxiliary engine unit! Vitals have flat lined!" A split second later the lead garde of Imada Squad disintegrated.
"This is Hoshijiro, one unit down." Came over the all hands circuit along with a laugh that made James' skin crawl.
"Ittan, let me go on ahead, I can pull more than ten times your acceleration, I might be able to get there in time to help." James said over a closed circuit.
"It's too risky! Stay with the squad!" Samari replied, every instinct railing against throwing him into combat without her.
"Unit 217 destroyed!" Came the call from the bridge.
"This is Hoshijiro, another unit down." Came the call from GA-490 along with another spine chilling giggle.
"Ittan, please! They're getting slaughtered!" James pleaded. Samari closed her eyes and laid her head against the head rest for a moment.
"Semper Fi." She said quietly into the circuit.
"Thank You." James said, the shockwave from his immediate acceleration shaking Samari's garde as she watched him go.
"Unit zero-one-one destroyed. Imada Squad destroyed." Came the subdued call from the bridge as the last person engaging GA-490 was destroyed. James' blood boiled and his mind went blank.
"This is Unit 917, engaging GA-490!" He said over the all hands channel as the two rotary cannons and gamma laser on his back unit opened fire in a high speed pass. The gauna rolled sideways but James kept his arm-mounted rotary cannon on target as they passed, sending several hundred ferrous-cased core-piercing rounds down range. The hollow tipped slugs ripped through GA-490's left shoulder plate, tearing the entire arm off with shear kinetic energy as the core-piercing stage passed through. The gauna screamed as James looked on dispassionately; making a blackout-inducing turn to get back on target.
Samari watched as the battle raged. James showed every ounce of skill he had and pushed his garde to its limit, but it wasn't enough. For every move he made the gauna countered and for every shot he fired the gauna fired back with the same pseudo missiles it had used to take out unit 139. With every turn and jink her nervousness increased.
"This is Kunato Squad, engaging GA-490!" Came the call from Kunato, with Honoka Ren and Hou in close support. As the raging dogfight flew past the three gardes it fired two missiles at Kunato's garde, impacting the left forearm.
"It's aiming for the Kabizashi!" Honoka Hou reported.
"Hou." Ren said.
"Roger." Hou replied.
A few seconds passed.
"Fire!" Ren yelled over the circuit.
The beams of blue light crossed beneath them and continued on.
"We missed!" They cried simultaneously.
"Where'd it go?" Hou asked nobody in particular just before it came up behind her. She turned around and time seamed to slow down. It had the speed advantage. It had the strength advantage. She couldn't run. She couldn't fight. A split second before the gauna took out her cockpit, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. The pitch black garde came in and took the gauna from the side. The impact was so forceful that it carried the gauna clear away from her garde before it had time to actually kill her.
"Not again you bastard!" James screamed as Leah slammed into GA-490, grabbing hold. He had already run out of round for the rotary cannons and the heavy gun, the gamma laser was overheated, and he didn't have any anti-smallcraft ordinance to begin with. He was out of option and began to tear away chunks of placenta in order to expose the core.
In turn the gauna attempted to claw its way to his cockpit. It ripped away his ceramite armor as if it didn't exist and began to tear massive chunks of machinery and electronics from the black garde. The inside of his cockpit began to glow red with the warning lights. He didn't even hear Leah's damage reports. The melee continued for what seemed like an eternity before a voice bashed at his senses. It seemed small at first but grew in intensity.
"James, pull out! Pull out!" Samari's voice it him like a hammer and he pulled up instinctively. Putting his legs between him and the gauna he kicked off, using as many thrusters as still worked to gain some accel. A pair of gardes grabbed ahold of him and rocketed away at their highest acceleration. James was glad his inertial compensator hadn't failed.
"What's going on?! Why are yo…" he said before looking back. A mass union ship that hadn't been there a moment ago filled his canopy. "Ehhe, never mind." He said, properly subdued. The seven remaining gardes formed a palm formation with him in the middle, magnetically towed by the group as they rocketed back to Sidonia.
James climbed out of the cockpit, a little worse for wear. Although he had what amounted to a glorified seatbelt that kept him from getting most of the injuries Sidonia's pilots suffered, the high impact battle had thrown him around like a ragdoll in the cramped space of the cockpit. Everything hurt. He groaned as the elevator hit the main walkway.
"You know," Sasaki began as she looked on his garde, "If this was one of my gardes, and if Samari wouldn't have my head on a silver platter, I'd punch you into next week for this." James turned around to see what she was talking about.
"Holy shit." He said. He couldn't find a single spot on her that wasn't punctured, dented, scratched, penetrated, ripped, and rent asunder. Huge chunks of the outer hull were missing as well as many of the components beneath.
"Could I speak to you for a second?" The voice was death. James turned around to see Samari standing there with an unnaturally pleasant expression glued on. "Alone?" Sasaki coughed as she and Tanba walked off in another direction. Samari lead James off the main walkway behind a pipe.
She turned around and her expression wasn't pleasant anymore.
"You idiot!" She began to rail, "You could have died! And don't tell me you practiced that maneuver back in the Fleet, because that was fucking suicide!" She started to huff, looking to grab more words before simply grabbed his vac suit and looked as if to punch him. James closed his eyes. Nothing happened. James opened one of his eyes to see Samari looking down, her face a little sad and very tired. She let go of his suit.
"Promise me you'll never do that again." She said, looking him straight in the eye.
"Yes, Ittan." He said, pushing a tired smile onto his face. She let out a breath she had been holding since he rocketed off to hell and back and patted him on the shoulder before walking past.
"The team and I are going to get a drink tonight, after everyone's had a chance to shower and take a nap. I'll make sure Leah knows where it is and how to get there." She said, her back still turned as she walked past.
"I'll be there.
