The explosion had faded, but the ringing remained. Providence coughed, blood splattering onto her hand from her mouth. Crimson dripped from her wounds and soaked her otherwise olive uniform. Taking a glance at her HUD, it displayed anything but good. Half her batteries were destroyed, and so was her missiles. Her armor was breached in several places, and her reactor has sustained damage and would've had a critical containment failure had it not been for the quick thinking of her faries down at Engineering shutting down the reactor before things got out of hand. Even then, she was limited to her powercells and fuelcells to run, and they had limited power.

Turning around, she coughed again. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth, and a second trail down her head, where she'd taken a bad hit.

"Sitrep," she said. "Anyone ok?"

A shuffling noise echoed as Fubuki staggered to her feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." she said weakly, crimson dripping from over a dozen points all over her body.

Hibiki stumbled weakly before resting herself on Providence. Blood dripped freely from an injury on her head, and if that was any indication, the twisted remains of her rig was.

"Kaga?" she asked.

No response.

"Kaga?" she asked again. A wind shift permitted her to look at where Kaga once was, and lying on the water, was Kaga, crimson dripping from the hole that was her left breast and forming a red trail in the water.

And the Abyssal fired again.

She woke up instantly. Rolling, she fell off the bed before crashing down next to the bedside table, where she'd put her M6H Magnum. Sighing, she pulled herself back up, removing her officer's olive beret and put it on.

Walking outside, she placed the Magnum inside her pocket. Feeling the wind flutter through her pajamas, she sighed, and turned to the sea. While she'd wear a uniform in normal circumstances, she was a UNSC starship and UNSC starships were made to operate at subzero temperature.

Feeling the wind blow past her and chill her body, she sighed and watched her breath condense in front of her in the chilly November night. Removing a lighter, she continuously fiddled with it, the lighter's glow lighting up her hand as she stared into the glow, as if it was her sister.

My sister...

All too soon, it all came back crashing onto her. The sea was replaced by a black carpet of stars. The towers of Yokosuka was replaced by the smoking ruins of a glassed world. A Covenant battlegroup engaged the UNSC in orbit.

Both fleets continuously pummeled each other into scrap as Broadswords swept past, their gyroscope-augmented thruster maneuvering packs strained to the red as their ace pilots tried their utmost to take down the overwhelming amount of Seraphs—taking down a good many of them before being hit and shot down in flame.

The gunnery crews inside her CIC and TC crews inside her bridge worked round the clock as she twirled around to face an enemy CAS-class assault carrier and fired her double Super MACs at it, the 3,000 ton armor/shield piercing depleted uranium slugs impacting the doomed carrier's shields and crashed them in, crumpling the Covvie ship like a tin can. Her Spree naval coilguns rotated and fired in unison, stitching apart a CSO-class supercarrier in a single broadside, ripping apart shields and armor alike, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the enemy ship. A second salvo impacted, ripping straight through and vaporized the center mass on contact.

Locking onto a CCS, she armed a HAVOK. The Harpoon missile slid out of the launching tube, followed by over a thousand Archers. The missiles swept down onto their target like a pack of hornets, overwhelming the point defense with their sheer numbers. The HAVOK went in first, detonating and popping the shields with the resulting EMP, disabling the weapons and leaving the cruiser a sitting duck, and the Archers took maximum advantage of that, silencing the cruiser permanently.

Her bridge crew spotted multiple contacts on sensors, and opened up their high-res binoculars to confirm. These binoculars, however, were not the ordinary type, they were digitally agumented and could view contacts at up to 360,000km, thus making them suitable for situations like this.

Her 52 M910 Rampart point defense guns rotated and began tracking the enemies. Acquiring a targeting solution, she waited until they entered 1,000 km, a hair's distance in space, and then opened fire with her point defense guns. 50mm Disruptor Flak shells exited the muzzle at 6,000rpm, the rounds popping and ripping apart the fighters regardless of wherever they hit.

The blinking sensor contacts on her made out the shape of a fellow Artermis. Taking a glance at her with her sensors, her ghostly avatar met that of her sister—who smiled at her, too. The nameplate UNSC Scarnhost gleamed in the light, as her Spee coilguns sent another CAS-class assault carrier to oblivion.

A screaming plasma torpedo barrage resounded. In the void of space, even then, her special ears could detect them. Evaluating their course, her blood froze.

Scarnhost's point defense spun up, and began spraying the surrounding area with flak. Dozens of torpedoes were plucked out of the sky instantly, but more kept coming. Turning her Ramparts to bear and spraying them with her 50mm rounds, she blasted over a dozen more out of the sky, but it was still not enough.

The first plasma torpedo impact hit Scarnhost on her port side, the plasma boiling through her outer Carbon-C and Titanium-A layer, the spaced armor dispersing the superheated gas. The second impacted on the same breach, boiling through several armor layers and breaching open several decks to the vaccum of space. Scarnhost immediately lurched sideways, and took on a list as the escaping air pushed her sideways, her thrusters struggling to consempate.

The next plasma torpedo struck on her starboard stern, boiling through the first two layers and scorching the third. The next two entered through the breach, boiling open several decks and causing another sideways lurch.

Like in slow motion, Providence stared in shock at the energy projector as it fired, the beam of superheated plasma impacting Scarnhost on her middle. The beam sliced straight through, leaving Scarnhost with nothing save her internal honeycomb armor scructure to hold her together, as the beam slid to the side like a knife. Scarnhost's engines flickered, and then, faded to black, her two halves lurching away from each other as her atmosphere violently escaped the giant breaches.

She was broken out of her trance by a metallic clang. Turning her gaze downward, she stole a glance at the photograph of her metal form, beside the hull of her sister. Their nameplates glistened in the starlight, casting a glow throughout the space station that was well captured by the high-res camera that took it. Her fingers gently caressed the photo as if it was her own sister, and once again, she felt the pain the memories would often bring.

She felt the sting of tears on her eyes again as her mind kept going through the memories, those memories, them all, bringing back nothing but sadness and pain, the images of planets burning kept vividly displaying themselves throughout her mind.

"You ok, Providence-sama?"

Turning around, Providence noticed the familiar form of Fubuki. Her eyes were filled with concern, and her expression was clearly even more so.

Providence felt a surge of emotions weaving past her body, her vision again filled with those memories. The pain, havoc, and destruction that plagued the humanity she'd come from.

Could you suceed?

Of sure dammed course, she responded. The voice in her head, though, kept on pressing.

No, you can't.

There's a big difference between cannot and not yet.

You can't. You left your country, your government.

I didn't.

You did. Traitor.

That hit her hard. Traitor.

She'd always questioned herself ever since she arrived. Why'd she come here. Why'd she agreed to fight the Abyssals here. Why.

And most importantly, why was she here in the first place.

"You ok, Providence-sama?" Fubuki asked again, breaking her out of her trance.

"I'm fine, Fubuki..." she said softly, turning around and heading off in the other direction. She'd only gone for a few steps before Fubuki reached up and gripped her arm.

"You aren't," she said softly. Her hand retained it's aluminum grip, preventing Providence from getting anywhere.

Man, she could really grip.

Sighing, Providence nodded, and stared at the sea. Her short auburn hair flowed and fluttered in the wind, which was completed by the nightclothes she was wearing.

Fubuki seated herself in her lap, her brown eyes staring up at her. She said nothing for a while, before she eventually broke the silence.

"Providence-sama...?"

Providence simply turned her eye to meet the destroyer's gaze. Even now, she thought, the destroyer with her concerned eyes just looked adorable.

"Just...there's something on your mind, correct?"

"Hmm?"

Fubuki lit a cigarette, and Providence did the same. Taking a long drag, they both exhaled, and watched the smoke drift off into the chilly night—for it was indeed chilly. For her, though, it didn't bother her.

"Long time ago," she said softly.

"Over Anchorage. One of our Outer Colonies.

"It was a fierce battle. We wanted blood, we wanted them to pay, pay the price for so many of our worlds burned. We fought them, fought them hard, and took down their entire fleet.

"But my sister, Scarnhost, was struck. By plasma torpedoes and energy projectors."

Directing her gaze at the starlit sky and taking another drag of her cigarette, she exhaled and watched the smoke waft upward and away.

"She didn't make it."

If there was one place Fubuki knew that could make Providence feel better, it was this place. Sipping cognac with Providence on the other side of the table, she took another bite of her meal, only for Providence to break the silence.

"You said you wanted to make me feel better and dragged me to this fancy place?"

Fubuki took another sip of her cognac.

"On the plus side, they make good food."

Providence had to agree. On one thing, the food here reminded her of the cooking back home—during her two years in the Naval Auxiliary Forces—where her sister would often do, whipping up a not-so-rudimentary meal that would be fit for a squadron of Broadsword pilots.

Taking another sip of her cognac and digging into the food with her fork, she took another bite. The lights in the room dimmed, though, and the curtains at the back of the room parted.

She sipped her cognac.

"Late night dinner pays," she muttered.

The pianist on the stage, though, shoved her into silence with the tune. The green lining on her clothes and green skirt caught her attention the most.

Note: play this before continuing. It's my friend Any-Condition-2313's work, you can find his profile on Reddit.

https/soundcloud.app.goo.gl/9a3NK83TBUDA2Hm57

The tune floated out of the stage, leafing her mind through the memories. She suddenly remembered the song that her captain had preferred, and unconsciously began to recite the lyrics in sync.

Underneath a blanket of stars;

There we met, eyes locked, all merged as one;

Sisters known from birth, and sent across the globe;

To meet on diffrent sides of this great war...

Foes, but we shall not drift apart;

In our hearts; our promises we made...

Dark may the road ahead; but still we soldier on;

And in our hearts hope stays alive...

And through, the storm of shot and shell;

We push through, to the end of our trek;

And thus fades the war;

The war that put us apart;

And once again we'll be together...

One day, we shall meet again;

Not as foes, but sisters long apart...

Family at last, to continue our dreams;

The dreams we promised through the years ago...

She took another sip of her cognac, before staring in awe at the stage at the back. The tune kept replaying—many times, in fact, for it was the same tune her skipper had favored.

After the song concluded, the rom broke into applause as the pianist bowed to the audience, and she smiled—and the curtains closed.

Turning back to face Providence, Fubuki eyed her playfully.

"I told you this place would make you feel better!"

A/N:

Sorry for the late update, folks, as I whipped up three different versions of this same chapter. Before deciding on this.

I should note that I'm currently coauthoring with Deathvoltz on his series of Panzer Diaries, and working on with my Reddit friend Any-Condition-2313 on an upcoming Kancolle story, so expect updates to be less often.

Which brings me to the next part.

Special thanks to my Reddit friend Any-Condition-2313 on allowing me to use his Kancolle tribute alternate lyrics for my story, and the corresponding cover (yes that same one played on stage). Good luck figuring out who she is. In the meantime I will provide you with one clue: she is a destroyer kanmusu.

Anyways, donec iterum!