CHAPTER 8 - Discovery
"I don't see anything of importance here. What could possibly be the reason that we are searching here for?"
"It's the Instructors orders. We have to follow them either way we look at it."
The girls had only gotten to the hole entrance of the craft when they began to have feelings of self doubt. The mass of metal and steel had a strange aroma to it, as if it had been burning for sometime now. Inside its darkened heap of metal wreckage, there was a visibility increase with a few beams of light coming through the crumpled roof, clearing the dark gloom with a flash of white. The interior of the craft appeared to still be in somewhat good condition. The appearance of old monitors lined the metal walls with broken switches and button lying beneath it.
One of the commanders spoke aloud. "Well, it looks pretty human to me. There's regular chairs and computers and everything."
"Even so, that doesn't mean that there is nothing mysterious about this craft."
Up ahead, the girls saw Jagdpanther-Chan continuing her search through the desolate hallway, picking up and sorting through every pile of scrap that was in plain sight.
"What are you looking for, Ritakio-san?" Koume called.
"Where is this? I'll find it..." mumbled the Jagdpanther Commander in her troubled scrounging.
"Maybe with us helping we can find your things?" Erika asked.
Ritakio slowly shifted her attention to Erika who was catching up to her. At first, the short haired girl stood back with an empty stare but started to approach Erika again.
"Oo...okay." she answered uncomfortably.
Erika looked back at the others before calling Koume to tag along with them. The girls all began to split up and search the craft for more clues. Maho, Tammy and the Ferdinand Driver, who wandered away from her team, searched the remains of what appeared to be an engine room.
"This is so strange. How can this be a man-made vessel if its shaped like a cylinder?"
"Perhaps its foreign but I wouldn't put my money on it." Tammy said.
Maho nodded, "Whatever this craft is came from here because it had Japanese codes on a few of the papers back on the tables in the back chamber."
The Ferdinand Driver exhaled loudly and halted the others.
"You don't think this is some secret weapon that our government was hiding from us is it?" asked the driver, "I've heard of weird stories about things like this appearing around the internet."
"Theories." Maho couldn't help but question the other girl, "Some of those theories that you have read provide no proof at all, let alone any facts that help us solve the thing that is here now."
Tammy remained silent the whole time. While searching a corner of the old console board, she noticed something underneath the broken floorboard. Something shiny and glittering with silver texture. Reaching for it, Tammy was stopped by the sound of yelling coming from elsewhere in the vessel.
"Someones in trouble!" exclaimed Maho, "Follow me."
Tracing the source of the noise, the three stumbled across Erika getting yelled at by Jagdpanther-Chan for not giving her what she possessed in her arms, which appeared to be a small holder containing a few glass vials. Inside the vials themselves were tiny samples of a strange serum which had an odd tint to it.
"Come now, what is the meaning of this?" Maho sighed.
"Tell Ritakio-san to ease off of me, please." Erika said holding back the case.
When Maho approached Jagdpanther-Chan, she was taken back by an unknown force that caused both her and Erika to let go of her. The girl grabbed the vials from the holder and turned suspiciously to the others.
"Do you know what sort of possibilities are within these vials!?" she growled.
The whole chamber went dead as the voice of Jagdpanther-Chan echoed throughout the skeleton remains of the aircraft. Some of the girls that were in the near area of the conflict stepped out. Those who saw the incident firsthand stared at one another blankly, trying to process the situation that was rising. Still on guard, the short haired girl held the vials up above her head for everyone around her to see. Again, she spoke with a shaky and uneasy tone.
"This is what I have been looking for." she croaked loudly, "These vials contain something that is precious, more precious than anyone or anything that is aboard this ship."
The others didn't know what to think of it. Either the girl had gone completely mad from her bed rideness or she was absolute that these serums had a life saving purpose to them.
"State the purpose of these serums." Erika muttered with irritation.
There was no answer. By now, Jagdpanther-Chan had backed herself into the back of the cold room, pressing herself against a broken wall. Her eyes had taken on a sickly appearance as she held the case closer to her chest, having her fingers clasping onto two of the vials closer to her bosom.
"It's something for only me to find out."
Maho by now had dusted herself off. She made a non-verbal gesture that signaled the rest of the Panzerfahren Team to make room. A second afterwards, Jagdpanther-Chan eased up and came towards the center once more.
"Whatever is in your hands is causing you a great deal of trouble. Perhaps it would be best if we turned it in to the Instructor as a-"
"No!" shouted the girl in front of her, "I found this! It's mine for keeps!"
"What are we going to do?" Akaboshi shivered from behind Tammy. The long haired girl gave no response for she was too focused on the scene in front of her to even realize that Koume was trying to get her full attention. Maho knew that she couldn't force Ritakio to hand over the holder of vials, so she too backed away.
"Keep searching." Maho said, "Leave us be."
The rest of the team filed out of the room and explored the remains of the cylinder. Maho turned herself around and waited for a response from the vial carrying individual. The girl was now staring at her in a menacing manner. It seems as if she was trying to scare Maho on purpose. The cold eyes continuously danced back and forth between Nishizumi and the door, trying to develop a plan for escaping the confinement of the chamber. The frozen wind from outside gave the side room a jolt which threw Maho's attention off for a moment. It was all the other girl needed for her run. Maho didn't follow in pursuit, but just stood there, stuck in thought. Catching up with some of the others, she didn't think about where Jagdpanther-Chan was going. To be honest with herself, Maho didn't really care about where Jagdpanther-Chan was going, figuring that she would be happy if left alone with her own desires.
In what appeared to be the ships main cockpit, a variety of monitors lay scattered on the floor, all of them covered in frost from years of winter exposure. With the screens cracked and no power being supplied to them, the monitors were mere useless to them. The front viewport of glass was smashed as well, supposedly when the craft had crash landed into the earth of the Seawide Justice Vessel.
"All of this makes no sense. What kind of army designer would build something like this?" questioned one of the girls.
"Same for whoever built the school ships in the first place." replied the Maus Commander.
"Be cautious not to touch anything sharp or dangerous."
When Tammy caught up with the others, she sat down and began her violin practicing. The melody was hauntingly beautiful to the ears and a few of the girls had stopped searching to listen to Tammy Matsumoto play.
"Where did you learn how to play like that, Matsumoto?" Erika asked.
"Long time ago, back in middle school. I sometimes ask myself the same question. Who knows, maybe my playing can soothe the dead someday." Tammy giggled.
Uncomfortable with the answer, Erika agreed and kept on searching. Itsumi felt troubled by the playing and tried her hardest to stay focused on her goal. The response from earlier rattled Erika's conscience. Why soothe the dead? It wasn't quite clear. She was interrupted by a girl laughing behind her.
"It's a trick. There appears to be nothing here. Everything looks like it was made by human hands. Can you believe the nerve of some people? Blaming it on aliens and that sort of thing."
Tammy stopped playing, "Who knows?"
"If you ask me, I say that its a top secret military plane, hidden for the time of war. What else could explain for something so big?"
"Strange isn't it." Erika said, "You two are so worried about this craft rather than what is happening on the ship. Sickness, hallucinations and power outages. Sounds like a curse to me."
"Kind of an odd way to put our situation, Erika-san." Tammy responded.
"There isn't much else to say really. I mean, think about it. Why would all these events happen right after one another in such a perfect order. The only exclamation for something like this has to be a curse."
"By who? What kind of..."
Tammy stopped. Her memories returned to the days before the departure, where she received the pictures from the photo shop. She remembered the two other processed photos that revealed the unusually shapes and the sinister positions in which they stand in the pictures. If Erika was telling the truth, then the fact that an ancient entity has casted itself down upon Kuromorimine was overwhelming.
"On second thought, maybe I should consider that possibility." Tammy blankly muttered.
"Something to consider." Erika responded. "Now come on, let's finish searching this metal maze."
The icy winds were finally getting to Shiho. She had to take shelter at the mouth of the wreckage in order to be spared from the bitter elements. Standing in the shade, she couldn't resist the urge of staring at the black shape lying on the ground. Approaching it slowly, Shiho wanted to get a better look at the unresponsive being.
For some reason, the woman could now make out more facial features than before. The nose appeared to be bent downwards into the ground and the mouth was covered by the black layer of skin that was around it. It looks almost like a burnt skeleton.
"A torched corpse." she concluded. "Years of cold could keep such a fossil."
Suddenly, she found herself doing something that she vowed not to do in the first place. She bent down and proceeded to touch the back of the things heads. When her fingers brushed against the rough and rubbery texture of the mysterious corpse, her mind went blank.
A memory came to picture in her brain. Nothing good. Only the smell of smoke and sound of sirens were noticeable. She could not bear but to listen to the unknown voices that were mumbling to her. The words got louder and louder until it seems as Shiho would go deaf by the sound. She closed her eyes and imagined herself after a Panzerfahren Match, in which Black Forest Peak had won the match by a wide unstoppable margin. Following their success, a horde of screams were heard after a tank fired.
Snapping back to reality, Shiho found herself outside in the snow again. Not bearing to stare at the dead being anymore, the troubled woman decided to enter the crashed cylinder. After ducking under a patch of frozen sickles hanging from the door frame above her, Nishizumi came in contact with Jagdpanther-Chan, who was still holding tightly to the vial case.
"Ritakio-san, tell me, what is bothering you?" she asked.
Caught in another situation, the younger girl began to stutter, unsure of an answer. After a small whine, the girl opened her mouth to speak.
"I was looking for you, Ma'am." said Jagdpanther-Chan, still planning her way out. "When can we go home?"
Shiho gazed at the holder, "What do you have in your hands there?" she pointed.
Ritakio ignored her question and asked one more for the time to leave, only now she sounded more assertive. Shiho frowned.
"Do you realize that it is impolite to speak in that tone of voice with your leaders? I expect some answers as to why your acting the way you are."
No words came out of the girls mouth. By now, Shiho had concluded that she couldn't be able to force Ritakio to spill out any answers and changed the subject.
"Tell me, how did you managed to recover at such a fast rate? Did the Doctors have a vaccine or something?"
The girl chuckled nervously and grinned, "Oh, they told me that they have a 'Special Vaccine' that only certain sick people like me could get. They filled me up and brought me back good as new."
"Uh."
The girls emotions seemed to shift unusually from one feeling to another. It became obvious that Jagdpanther-Chan wasn't acting like her calm self. In fact, she was acting like a new person altogether, which made the Instructor ponder.
"It's quite cold for you girls, isn't it?"
"Oh, I'm fine. I like this cold weather as a matter of fact. I could just bathe in this cold ice."
"Right." Shiho said.
"What I love more than the ice though is a nice warm room. All by myself, away from everyone who can harm me."
"Wait. What do you mean hurt you? Is someone causing you trouble?"
Jagdpanther-Chan thought deeply for a moment before speaking. "Yes. She is the girl with that silver hair that's second in-command."
Shiho sighed, "You referring to Vice-Captain Itsumi?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Very well, I will have a talk with her about this." Shiho said.
Jagdpanther-Chan took this as her opportunity to flee. Turning herself back around, she ran back into the steely halls of the craft. Shiho trailed close behind, keeping a sharp eye on the girls behavior that she was perusing. Jagdpanther-Chan would occasionally stop for no apparent reason, touch the wall with her hand, mumble to herself and would continue. The odd acting stopped once she arrived back at the beginning with the others.
"I think we have done a thorough enough search." She announced, "Have any of you found anything of value?"
None of the girls responded but from within the patch of heads, Shiho saw no trace of Jagdpanther-Chan's face. Frantically, the woman's eyes shifted from side to side, hoping that the missing girl would show her face to the light of day. Finally, she did come, covered in sweat and carrying with her the vials, which were no longer in the slots of the holder. In her unstable state, the girl jammed the vials into slits that she had torn on her school uniform. It look ridiculous but it also managed to hold the vials in place without any problems.
"Since nobody has found anything of major importance, I suppose that there is no reason of staying here any longer. Return to your vehicles and we will depart from here at once."
The whole battalion silently walked back towards their vehicles. The snow created a challenge but most of them made to their tanks in one piece. Shiho still looked back at the scorched remains of the dead figure on the ground, wondering how she will be able to handle forgetting the sight upon return. The sun that was hanging brightly from behind the clouds was beginning its slow decent across the overcast sky. The girls had made their way out of the area and back towards the urban population where the ruins of the Seawide Justice Girls High School layed. The Instructor wasted no time.
"All teams, be advised. We are to make one last stop at the campus in front of us. Prepare to dismantle once again."
The tanks parked near the hangar and dismantled just as order to do so. The attitude of most of the girls on the team had begun to grow sour by now with most of them complaining about how much longer they would have to deal with the frozen environment around them or how long it will take before they all suffer from hypothermia. On the other hand, Maho was preoccupied by her mother's bombardment of questions about the possible sighting of the girl in the window from the first trip onboard.
Maho pointed to a building to the east. "There. On the third floor and in the fifth window. That was where I saw her."
"Take me there." Shiho coldly replied.
Afterwards, the two began to venture across the icy prairie of what used to be the main scenery courtyard of the campus. Trees had long since froze over and become nothing but rotten sticks of wood coming out of the snow. Flowers that once gave color are now shriveled weeds of useless growth. Green grass now nothing more than black soil under the pale frosty cover.
"All life has ceased to exist aboard Seawide Justice." Shiho said to her daughter. "I believe that your theory of life onboard this vessel is one in a million."
Maho was stunned by such a response but she could only reply with a simple, "Yes, Mother."
"I'm going to need you to lead me to the sighting. If we do find somebody hiding out here, let me do the work."
The two walked through the dark stairwell inside the campus building, hoping to find proof as to why the pictures showed human life in such a hostile place. It was very easy to get lost in the abandoned buildings and it was entirely possible for one of them to get seriously injured if not careful. The further they went, the more colder it got. Overviewing the courtyard from a high balconey line, the two were almost to the sighting. When they arrived, the mother and daughter came face to face with a tremendous drop.
"This can't be." Maho said blankly, "There was a room here before."
Shiho folded her arms. "You must have been fooled. It is pyhsically impossible for one to levitate without any floor beneath them."
Short of words, Maho could not be able to combat her mothers statement. Thinking too much about her shortcomings, the Kommandant turned to leave. Her mother followed close behind as they returned to the others.
"We need to evacuate this vessel before sunset."
All the way back to Kuromorimine, Tammy and the Maus Commander kept a sharp eye on their short haired friend who was still cradling the vials in her hands. Not one of them dared to question the girls judgment about the serums for they risked the possibility of getting a harsh slur like what was inflicted on Erika back in the downed craft.
"Well, at least we didn't run into any aliens today." laughed a girl over the teams radio.
"I'd like to keep it that way." Tammy sighed.
Approaching the cold campus of Black Forest Peak brought no surprises to the teams, for everything was just as it was before. They girls wasted no time locking up the shop and securing their gear. While all the tankery club members were unpacking, Maho, Erika, Koume, Tammy and the Ferdinand Driver looked out the window of the lecture room attached to the tank hangar. Besides seeing frost gathering up on the windows, there was nothing that can be seen outside the general perimeter.
"Just imagine what it will look like tomorrow when the snow levels double." said the Driver.
"That is no reason to act so negative about the situation." Erika joined in.
Maho closed her eyes. "Please, just get along, my friends. We need to keep together if things are to go south in the future."
Nobody answered. Koume nodded to herself, which gave Maho some reassurance. Tammy eventually did the same.
"What do you think is the situation regarding the disease?"
"For once, it feels like this sickness is no longer my deepest concern, but instead, what we are going to do in the next few days. The snow is doubling and there's not enough people to help clear a pathway out."
"That still doesn't mean that we can't try." Koume replied softly.
"I'll think of something. If we have to dig our way back to campus, then so be it."
Maho pressed her fingers on both of her temples. A throbbing sensation behind her skin was causng her a great headache in which she could hardly stand. She had to report the days debriefings to her mother, something Maho was not looking forward to doing. When she knocked on the door to enter her mothers side office, nobody was there to greet her, except Shiho's back.
"Weather giving you trouble?" Maho asked taking off her uniform coat and cap.
"Quite." The Instructor said back, "The hangar here has its own power supply system, which gives us an advantage over the rest of our school."
"What about food?"
"That is my next assignment." Shiho said turning around to face the captain. "In the meantime, keep yourself and the others occupied until further orders."
"Of course. You have my word."
After dismissal, Maho left the room, only to run straight into Ritakio sneaking off from the other members. The sudden colission caused the other girl to almost lose her balance.
"I beg your pardon. I was just-"
"Move, now." she rudely implied.
The other girl walked to the back of the entire chamber, watching Maho suspiciously the whole time. Once more, she gave the Kommandant that unsettling glare that caused her a great deal of trouble earlier before tending to her own desires.
"She isn't causing you problems is she?"
Maho jumped in shock only to see the Ferdinand Driver standing right behind her. "Not really. Though, she keeps giving me these sinister glares whenever we're alone."
"Everything she has done today has been completely out of the ordinary. I'm telling you that something is up with that girl. I can sense it." whispered the Driver.
"I'm sure she's just not in the upmost of mood because of her sickness. After what this girl has gone through, I would be that stressed myself too."
The Ferdinand Crew Member paused and shrugged her shoulders. "If I were you, I would try and find out what those vials are full of."
Later that evening, 7:30 PM to be exact, the girls were still waiting for food. However, when they received word from Shiho that they had to wait till tomorrow until they got grub, the students moaned with unsatisfaction.
"No dinner? What a shame." said Erika.
"That right there is the problem. No way of really getting a proper meal when the campus is down."
"Will we be able to fill ourselves with anything tonight?" Akaboshi curiously wondered.
"Very unlikely. Sorry to say." Maho returned.
"The sooner it's time for bed, the faster morning will come." Erika said stretching.
Morning was the single word that every girl in that hangar wished for. When the call for lights out came around, not a single person was fully prepared for the darkness that was overwhelming the building, nor were they ready for the chilly air of the arctic circle, nor were they ready for the howling winds outside the structure...or for the hellish screaming that erupted later that night.
