The Review Box:

KCNederland: To be honest, I subscribe to the 'they don't really need to learn skills cause they're ships' school of Magical Sparkly Shipgirl Bullshit (trademark). Besides, the differences between an actual sword and just swinging a projector around to someone who can literally bench-press a tank is minuscule.

Tenryuu winning would make some form of sense, minus the fact that I explicitly said that Aqua picked up Plasma Sword combat techniques from the Sangheili, i.e. the race that made the damn things, who would know their way around swordplay with their own weapons. Tenryuu's training is in more of a 'typical Warriors-style game' combat style, while Sangheili fighting emphasizes different ranges and attacks from Samurai (presumably) teachings. Also, in terms of using the sword, she's maybe had a week, and even veterans will fall into the 'wide open' feint trap.

I also wasn't entirely sure how to write the damn scene, but that's more a 'me' thing than not researching my stuff*eye twitch*.

(one PM later): To your observation on the Energy Sword, it's designed off of Forerunner designs, and also made for Sangheili hands (three talon thingies), which is why it looks like that. Plus I added in the interdiction field line, since the whole 'straight path to the hand' bit would be ridiculous. Granted, it'd be hard to actually do, but still, it's rather stupid to have otherwise.

Ender001:...I think you might be forgetting what exactly PR can do to an organization.

And if your military is blowing up it's own citizens, it's either really falling down on the job, or is a tool of a totalitarian regime.

By all means.

Journal of Admiral Steele, January 11, 2558

I swear, it feels like I've been here three months already, and it's only been about two weeks. I don't know whether to complain or not.

Eh, fuck it. I stopped caring forever ago.

Thankfully, I did not wake up with anything else in my bed besides me, a fact I relished, and when I usually wake up, something that was becoming, and would likely remain, less and less common. Hood had somehow gotten inside my bedroom, but instead of climbing in with me, had leaned herself in a chair next to the door.

Thankfully, she wasn't snoring. Though she looked like she was drowning herself in drool. Eh, she's probably fine. Goes out in space and all.

"Oy, Hood." I rapped the door frame above her head.

"Msnsmh… speeledwrong…" She muttered, turning her head and swallowing to mumble at me. Setting my face into an unamused scowl, I slammed her chair legs back to the floor, tossing her off.

That woke her up.

"Wake up, Buttercup. Got things to do." I deadpanned as the battlecruiser rubbed her ass.

"But couldn't you have let me sleep?" She whined. I raised my eyebrow.

"I did that yesterday and you almost tackled me in the mess hall." I pointed out. "So which is it, bodyguard?"

"Fine." She pouted.

"If it helps, drink caffeine. Though start small." I advised. She followed me like a sleepy puppy to the mess, where she became a disciple to the mug.

"How have I never had this before in my life?" She marveled as she held her poison aloft, the rays of God falling upon the blessed chalice with a backup heavenly chorus of nicely-proportioned female angels with assault rifles.

"You had sleep." I muttered. Then I reached up to feel my bangs. They were starting to get in my eyes, and the back was getting a little long, but hell if I was going to ask any shipgirl here to cut my hair. If they did it wrong, I might be sans head, something I would rather avoid. If they did it right, they might put it on a shrine to me and pray to it or something, which I would also rather avoid.

I'm either dead wrong, or way too savvy.

"Choo!"

"Bless you/Gesundheit/Amen." The gathered shipgirls chorused.

"Apologies." Yamato apologized with a small blush, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. "Now where were we?"

And the shipgirls of Forward Operating Base Ascendant returned their awed gaze and fervent prayer to the candid image of their Admiral holding her sword to Tenryuu's spine, lit candles surrounding the shrine to her badassery.

Aw, shit, I just provoked Murphy.

The last time I did that the end result was a Covenant fleet being destroyed in a super supernova. Hypernova? Really big-ass star explosion because I had to destabilize a planet's orbit and send it flying into its' star. With nukes.

Hey, Cole was crazy, I'm crazier.

"Though I bet he's laughing at me." I muttered around my coffee, now ensconced in my office. With Ooyodo on duty and Hood standing guard outside my door, I fully expected any visitors to be announced before they entered.

So I checked email.

Hmm, Phoenix sent. Okay, Abyssals are getting along fine… they're working on translation… Iso and Amie are being picked up today… and they're sending something special?

Okay.

I sighed. I hate it when people do that.

Absently, I reflected on how there hadn't been any new shipgirls recently. It was almost starting to feel like Phoenix was done with what they had summoned.

"But then, here we are." I finished my thought out loud. Hood side eyed me for a second, before shrugging it off. We were standing in the hangar.

The battlecruiser held her new shotgun, recently painted with the color scheme of the Union Jack, in a position where she appeared as non threatening as you could possibly be whilst holding a shotgun, but could sight and fire in seconds.

I forced my mind off the details like that and onto the opening door of the transport ship.

"Hey there, Admiral! USS Iowa, reporting for service!" A tall blonde with… ample fuel tanks greeted me energetically, saluting somewhat lazily. And that was certainly not a USN service uniform.

I suppose I should explain. See, all of the shipgirls I have wear either uniforms based off of their navies' (the Japanese destroyers), a school uniform (Tenryuu and Tatsuta), or dress uniforms (the UNSC ships). About the only exceptions are the stronger ships, like Yamato and Hood, though Yamato was going for a 'shrine priestess' look, and Hood had started wearing black vests over her old red coat.

Don't ask me why, I just wear whatever the hell when I don't have to wear my uniform.

Back to Iowa.

She had a blue-grey corset that only accentuated her fuel tanks and the subtle musculature of her stomach. A rather short skirt was connected to her leggings by straps. The leggings themselves were striped, red and white on one side, blue and white on the other, like the old American flag. Plopped atop her head was a cap that looked a little too angular to be a navy beret. And she had literal stars in her eyes- they're her pupils. A little unnerving.

"Enjoy the view?" Iowa smirked, drawing her left hand up her side a little.

"Amusing." I drawled. "But welcome to the fleet. Battleship dorms are over there." I pointed.

"Thank you! Cya around!" The battleship walked off, glancing back at me with a wink and…

"Is she purposely doing that." I flatly stated as she put a little extra bounce in her step.

"I think so." Hood stated just as flatly, though I detected jealous undertones.

The bottle is calling, but more shipgirls are here.

"Greetings, Admiral." The next shipgirl bowed respectfully. "Ark Royal. I hope to be of assistance in our mission."

"Hey, Ark." Hood waved.

"Ah, Hood. I see you arrived before me." Ark Royal greeted the battlecruiser.

On a closer look, the dress she was wearing was, like her hair, strictly to the sides and back. A large compound bow hung on her back, a quiver of fighter arrows, no doubt, at her side. Unlike Iowa, she acted with the grace of a Royal Navy ship.

Although I'm not entirely sure what I was supposed to expect from Iowa. On the subject, an Iowa lookalike landed in front of me.

"What's up, New Jersey, ready for action!" New Jersey saluted.

She looked a lot like Iowa. Actually, she looked almost identical to Iowa, though with her corset being a dark green and blue instead of Iowa's blue-grey. Like her sister, I directed her to the battleship dorms.

"What did I miss?" Hood asked as Ark Royal walked off.

"New Jersey." I replied, already noticing two new Iowa clones entering.

Missouri has a yellowish-tan scheme, and Wisconsin had a white scheme. But the two were a little more demure that Iowa and New Jersey- sure they were casual, but they weren't as free-floating as their two sisters.

But it was the next ship that was the real focus of this shipgirl…. shipment.

"Hello. My name is Constitution. Please take care of me." The next shipgirl looked a lot different than any I'd seen up to that point. She was wearing a tricorn hat with a blue long coat. A dark blue ruffled shirt and brown leggings completed her ensemble.

"The USS Constitution?" I asked. "It's an honor to meet such a storied ship."

"Why thank you, Admiral." She smiled. Then she held out a crystal chip. "I was told to deliver this device to you at the soonest opportunity."

I took the chip, already expecting what came next.

"Hi there, Admiral Steele." A woman, colored black and gold, popped up from the chip's aperture. "HIGHCOM figures you'd need a smart AI to help you run things out here, so they sent me. Call me Equinox."

"Good meeting you, Equinox." I replied. "Ready to fight aliens with girls that are the spirits of ships?"

"Oh, is that all? I thought this was a strenuous assignment." Equinox smirked. I returned it.

"I think we are going to get along famously." I said, walking towards my office.

"Oh god, there's two of them…" I heard Hood groan in despair behind me. Constitution just started laughing.

"This a common occurrence?" The new smart AI asked, watching me drink from the bottle.

"What, drinking?" I replied. "I've been doing less than I expected to… Which is still, what, .20% BAC?"

"That's 2.5 times the legal intoxication rate. And near lethal quantities of alcohol." She noted.

"Don' care. My space station." I returned to drinking. "And I have a stupid high tolerance."

"That you do." Equinox deadpanned. "So, you've got a fleet, you've got me, and you've got a sortie to plan. Can I help?"

"What the hell." I shrugged. "Go hog."

"Oh, this is fun! No wonder Roland likes to be a part of ops!" The black and gold girl began to read holoscreens only she could read.

"Roland?" I asked.

"Infinity's onboard AI. Occasionally chips in on SPARTAN-IV ops." She absently answered.

"Oh, boy, more of the armored fucks." I moaned, draining a hearty amount of booze. "What now, more child soldiers? Fucking sex offenders? Psychosomatics?"

"Volunteers." She replied. "After the whole Parangosky debacle, UNSC and ONI figured it would be best to keep this iteration above-board. So if you want to, and are capable of being a SPARTAN-IV, you can be a SPARTAN-IV."

"Feh. ODSTs earned their crazy. We didn't get no fancy-schmancy armor first." I snorted.

"Alright, here's what I've got." Three large screens appeared before me, each with an image and details. "There's a squadron patrolling subsector Charlie with an Abyssal a lot like the Armored Carrier you captured a few days ago." The image was of a humanoid Abyssal with a tail leading a group of weaker ones.

"Amie." I muttered absently.

"Then there's an odd installation on these asteroids, tethered to each other, floating around in Bravo." Indeed there was. A big, fuck-off tentacle.

"And lastly, there's an Installation type, capital I, hanging around on this planet in Bravo as well." The image was a zoom shot of, yes, and Installation type. The planet itself was desert, nothing particularly missable. I considered my options.

"What's the fleet look like?" I asked.

"Discounting the non-combat ships, Ooyodo, the chefs, and the science ships, the fleet stands at several destroyers, two light cruisers, five carriers, a battlecruiser, and twelve battleships, Admiral." Equinox listed.

"Damn. Though I could get away with trying all three. Shit." I muttered to myself, calculating firepower and energy consumption and gauging the targets. "Split the fleet. Designate Texas flagship for one, and Tenryuu for the other. Texas's squad will engage the Installation type; standard capture if possible orders. Tenryuu's group will engage the mobile squadron, same orders."

"Alright." Equinox saluted. "Sending orders now. Anything else?"

"Weapons hot." I leaned back in my chair, grinning at the smart AI. "How did I get anything done without you?"

"Slowly." She returned my grin.

Once more I found myself on the range, though only after having fun with the PA system, which I had never used, and Equinox.

By that I mean she screwed around with it under the guise of 'learning', and I let her so I could laugh.

But this time I was just… sitting. You could call it meditation, except I don't really put stock in that zen shit.

I'm a woman of action, sue me.

Irregardless, Sangheili say that doing this 'connects one with their ancestors' or something. Or maybe it was something to do with the Forerunners.

I dunno, I only know the basics so I don't piss off an alien race that tried to kill all us puny humans.

So I sat in silence (increasingly rare) for about two hours.

I may have fallen asleep at some point.

Once the fleet returned, things got loud again.

Tenryuu's group had succeeded in capturing two new types and their leader. None were Installation types, and still no translator patch, so all I got from them was 'growl, grr".

An enlightening conversation.

Tenryuu has put her energy katana to good use, as her report stated. No casualties, minus minor injuries that were easily fixed.

Texas's group had also pulled off their mission. The Installation type they'd been sent after, Southern Sector Princess ('South') had surrendered after a demonstration of the Particle Accelerator. Currently she was sitting in the medbay with the other Abyssals.

But the real focus of after-action was something the Japanese shipgirls had brought up after Akagi got out of med for burn damage.

Repair baths.

According to them (and backed up by Akashi), we could set up a sort of communal hot spring full of water with nanomachines floating around in it. The sample they showed me looked like steaming piss, but dunking Inazuma's burned hand in resulted in an undamaged hand being pulled out.

So it works, it's just an odd request.

And of course, I had to requisition building materials. Again.

Sometimes, these shipgirls just… annoy me. Or just fill me with resignation.

So now I had Akashi, Luna and Aether designing a system for the water while I had the battleships constructing a frame, and I discussed finance with the smart AI on my desk.

This is what a normal command is like, right?

No, I've pretty much just given up on normal. It doesn't exist anymore.

Now where's that whiskey…

As it turns out, the science girls have a functional matter replicator. Built it two days ago.

And they didn't fucking tell me.

Seriously?

I am threatening them with giving it over to some science division in the UNSC and not letting them have credit for it in exchange.

Christ.

"So is this a normal day for you?"

I glanced over at the smart AI's projection from my bed. Two empty liquor bottles sat on my desk, me trying to drown what felt like a squadrons' worth of irritated despair.

"Sort of." I replied. "The matter replicator was new. You too. The rest of it was normal."

"I'm surprised the place hasn't blown up yet." Hood mused from where she was reading something on my personal terminal. Off the extranet, but still.

"Anyone else would have deemed that a certainty." Equinox absently conceded, then focused on me. "How do you do it? Records show the most you commanded was Infinity's Marine detachment, and that was only a couple thousand. These shipgirls seem like they're harder to handle with only a few dozen."

"Hard liquor and apathy." I droned. "Well, hard liquor and not-really-giving-a-shit, but there isn't really much difference."

"I see." The AI glanced at the bottles before turning to Hood. "And are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Of course." The battlecruiser dismissed her. She'd recently brought her bed from her dorm into my quarters. I mean, they were the same bed (technology), she just moved hers in. Was like moving a box, according to her. "If something breaks in, I deal with it."

"Thankfully, we both snore like chainsaws, so we won't wake each other up, I think." I cheerfully remarked.

"I don't think that's how sound works."

"You learn to sleep in a warzone, you sleep through anything." I replied to her doubtful remark.

Hood got up from my terminal, and dropped onto her bed. "Night, Aqua."

"Night, Hood." I automatically said, before yawning myself. "Night, Equinox."

The AI sighed. "Good night, Admiral." The lights shut off.

Finally, new shipgirls. I hope my introductory style is better than it used to be (it looks like it to me, since I burned an hour on Iowa's alone), but I dunno. It was starting to get stale without new insanity sources.

I will say, it's hard to write a military commander's schedule. Mine is either 'go to school all day, then take care of dogs and do other stuff.' or 'sit around in my room all day and take care of dogs.' on my off days and 'work.' on my work days.

I am the very model of a modern major fan fiction writer. And yes, I know the song.

I recently learned Coke tested Coke with alcohol in it in Japan, and didn't even use it elsewhere. If Coke had alcohol in it, I'd probably drink it. Because I don't like soda, but have a taste for liquor.

As an aside, buy quality booze.

I don't meditate. I have other things I could be doing, but for whatever fucking reason one of my teachers last semester thought meditating before a test would help us do better. I take a twenty question test in about ten minutes. And usually get high scores. So, no, it did not help me, fuck you very much, teacher. I am here to learn, not get in touch with my 'inner self' because we've already met and argue all the time. And there's more than one.

If anyone's willing to explain the logistics of repair baths to me, go ahead, because I'm pretty sure I just gave a bare-ass explanation of it like I do everything else and if there's something I missed I'll just lift it from your reply and use it with credit.

Capitalism. And smart AIs.

The reason I make a distinction is because in Halo-verse there's smart AIs and dumb AIs. Smart AIs include Cortana and Roland and dumb AIs include ODST's Superintendent and Auntie Dot. Smart AIs think like humans. Dumb AIs can only use logical paths. And dumb AIs don't have an expiration date, to my knowledge.

Can't wait for Halo Infinity, by the way. And Kingdom Hearts 3 is finally coming out tomorrow at the time of writing, which horribly dates this commentary. Hype levels are off chart. Really don't like the Prime 4 delay.

Nintendo you know I love Metroid y u do dis to meeeeeeeeeeee.

About Project RWBY: I'm building up a chapter buffer before I post more of it. This isn't very easy for me to do.