Disclaimer: I do not own either Kantai Collection or Halo, nor do I gain any monetary funds from either them or this fanfiction.
Author's Note: Again, co-written by Carlos Andare.
Italics - Radio, Ship names
Bold - Emphasis and general creepiness
The Destroyer Princess heard the sound of metal scraping against metal, saw the rubble shifting, and alerted her superiors via radio before vectoring out to search. There was something buried in the rubble, something metallic, massive. Shifted, compressing itself down into a humanoid form as the air around her thrummed with a familiar energy. Pain, hate, despair, sadness. It was the energy of the Abyss.
One of the other commanders, the Light Cruiser Princess, came over to inspect what her junior had found, then prepared to welcome a new sister to the fold. She was certainly larger than anyone that had come before. Who was this? The two Abyssals worked to pull the rubble away from their sister, then watched as she came into the world, ready to exact vengeance on those who had thrown them away and forgotten them as payment for years of loyal service.
The figure rose carefully, obviously unused to her new form and the shift from death to unlife. The Destroyer Princess allowed a puzzled frown to cross her face though. The new Abyssal's rigging seemed… off. It was angular, as opposed to the more organic forms that normally came from their rise. Squarish plates in thick chunks that spoke of solid strength and endurance, yet there were signs of small turrets all over her, as well as other raised panels that spoke of some function not yet identified. Was she like the Aircraft Defence Princess? It certainly seemed so… But that wasn't what really confused the Abyssal. It was the rest of her.
Her form was feminine, that much was still the same, but whereas most Abyssals were dressed in ways that were -to use a human term- rather risque, this one was covered head to toe. Dark grey cloth covered her limbs between black armor plates, molded and strapped to her limbs and torso in a way that spoke of a more practical protection than the preternatural toughness that contrasted between deathly and seductive they usually aimed for. And her head was covered similarly, a black metallic helm that hid her face behind a silvery visor...
Still. This one had to be a sister. Who else felt that way? [Greetings, sister,] the Destroyer Princess spoke. [What is your name and class?]
The newly risen turned, the helmeted head sighting on the lead Abyssal like a radar locking on a target. As the woman turned, the Destroyer saw that its right arm bore a strange weapon slung beneath the forearm. It looked a cannon of some sort, but the end of the barrel held a triangular head with two narrow, slit-like eyes and a toothed maw… Yes, this one HAD to be a sister. The woman seemed to stare at the Princess for a moment, before speaking in a voice that was clipped, almost contemptuous of speaking. "UNSC CA-684 Marathon-class cruiser… Shipname… Leviathan…"
Leviathan, a fitting name, a proper one for someone risen from the depths. She was probably one of the forgotten British. There was little time to chat however. They had to finish destroying the base before the enemy fleet returned. [Come then,] the Light Cruiser said. [We would appreciate your assistance.]
The helmeted head cocked itself to the side slightly. "Won't you identify yourself first?" she said. "You don't… look like UNSC…"
'United Nations Security Council?' the Destroyer thought with a tilt of her head, before shaking it. [No matter,] she said, [You are no doubt confused as you have just awoken. It will be clear to you soon.]
The woman seemed to be accepting of that for the moment, looking around her at the remains of the base they were standing in, as well as the blue sky above… Wait, blue sky? "Where… are we?"
[We are at Manicani.]
"Manicani?" she said curiously. "What planet is that?"
The Destroyer Princess and her senior exchanged a look. [Earth,] she said. [We are exacting our revenge.] As if to emphasize, the Destroyer Princess trained her gun on a burning bunkhouse and fired, blasting it to splinters.
That one word caused the new ship-girl to stiffen up, the explosion in the bunkhouse ignored as the information and its significance made itself known to her. "And humanity? What is its status?" she asked, showing more focus than she had previously.
A burning seaman's cap fluttered down between them as the Light Cruiser clenched her first. [Humanity will be forgotten. Please, come along with us, Leviathan. Exact your revenge.]
The armored ship-girl tightened her fist around her weapon's grip, and a deep growl came from the jaws on the end of its twin barrels. "Your goal... is the extinction of humanity then?" she said, voice eerily calm. "My revenge?"
[Yes, your revenge...] The Light Cruiser Princess took Leviathan's hand in her own. [They have forgotten you, your service, as they have forgotten ours. They threw you away, only for you to rise here and now. Wield your anger and aid us...]
"Forgotten?" she said, looking up at the Cruiser, then to the others. "You mean… you were sacrificed?" A moment passed before speaking again. "And it meant nothing?"
[We were used and thrown away,] the Light Cruiser Princess said, tightening her grip a little as her body shuddered in sadness and anger. [We thought we would be at peace after we served. But instead we watched as our friends gunned us down, as we were bombed in our slumber, annihilated by nuclear fire, and torn apart and melted down... We watched our sisters die around us at the hands of careless and uncaring men...] Tears began to fall out from beneath her mask as she continued. [We meant nothing to them, not even after our service! Not even as the men who we loved, and whom loved us back, cried out to be saved... and were met with silence or gunfire.]
She squeezed Leviathan's hand in her own. [Strike them down,] she said, [Make them remember you...]
Leviathan squeezed the Princess' hand in her own free one, pulling the other woman close as she spoke quietly. "I'm sorry to hear you say that…" she said, real emotion in her voice as she spoke, compassion urging her words. "What was your name…?"
[...Perth,] she said. [I was Perth.]
"Perth… A good name," Leviathan said. "Very well then. I will remember it, even as I fulfill my oath, you will not be forgotten…" she said…
...And shot the woman amidships with her cannon.
The Destroyer Princess stood frozen as she watched her senior's middle disintegrate, a hand clapped over her mouth. The thanks that had been on the Light Cruiser's lips vanished as a shallow wheeze. The little Destroyer's guns trained on the new target even as she took a step back, shaking her head. Betrayal?
Looking at Leviathan showed that the ship-girl's visor had changed from silver to clear, revealing pale skin beneath as she stared into the Light Cruiser's dying eyes, lowering the Abyssal to the ground by the same hand that she had been holding. It was then that she turned to face the Destroyer and the others.
All those touched by the Abyss could tell one another apart easily. It wasn't just the pallid skin, it wasn't just the feelings that were associated with having risen from the depths, nor the aesthetics that normally were attributed to them. There was a look in the eye, a sort of nihilism that tainted every expression and action. Humans had always claimed that the eyes were the window into the soul, and that was as true for those raised by the Abyss as it was with their former creators. As a result, each of the Shinkaisen-kan, the Abyssals, could tell with a glance whether one was summoned as a sister or who was an imposter.
In Leviathan's eyes there was something there, but it wasn't the Abyss. The Abyss was by concept a cold and unfeeling thing that nonetheless drew its power from the darker aspects of the soul. In her… Those glowing yellow eyes seethed with feelings, but with an intensity that wasn't found in the depths of the sea, or with those the Destroyer Princess had encountered before. They were like stars, burning bright and hot, but not with hope or the silly romantic notions that humans had. Instead this was the heat of roiling gasses crushed and squeezed until they had no choice but to ignite. Of something that had been beaten down and pushed to the brink to the point where an explosion wasn't just imminent, it was inevitable… and the more that it was pushed, the more it fed…
"To protect and defend Earth and her colonies… against all enemies, foreign and domestic…" the woman said, as her cannon's jaws worked themselves open, the lower jaws splitting into two fanged mandibles while its owner grinned with the look of the insane.
"May all of humanity's foes burn in hellfire…."