Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Kantai Collection, or I'd be able to do this professionally instead of on a fanfic site!
Author's Note: Alright! So, interesting time writing this, and with the diversity of characters that are present I didn't want to screw it up, so... Yeah, sorry it took so long! Credit goes to all of those who helped me out with it via various sources, and hopefully the next one won't be such an arm-twister for me to write up! Thanks guys!
Italics - Radio, Ship names, thoughts, Japanese
Bold - Jarring events
Leviathan looked down at the monitors that had been laid out in front of her. In all honesty, she should have expected this. It made more sense to her that any discussion with an unknown like herself, especially in these circumstances, would be over a video conference rather than face-to-face. The fact that they'd had one of their leaders escort her here in person was more trust than she felt that anyone from ONI would have shown had the situation been reversed... She'd have expected an ONI interrogation team and possibly a padded room guarded by a full heavy weapons team, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. As it was, Leviathan took a seat in the rather plain looking chair at the center of the table, lit by overhead lights and the screens of the monitors themselves. A pitcher of water was set next to her along with a glass, as well as a shaker of salt. That momentarily threw her for a loop, as Leviathan couldn't think of any custom that would require that, but didn't want to seem rude for asking.
During the trip over, the woman had spent a lot of time debating with her AI partner as to what they should reveal and what they shouldn't, with neither of them being truly happy with the end result but in agreement as to whether or not full disclosure was a good or bad idea. In the end, they just had to hope that they didn't overstep their bounds TOO badly... But then again, it would also depend on not only who would be listening in on this, but how they would take the revelations...
For now, Leviathan would simply have to do something that her Admiral was very familiar with and gamble with the odds. Not the most reliable method in existence, but the cruiser was quickly finding that there was all too little choice in such matters. In the meantime, she would simply fold her hands and wait as the various monitors came online...
Admiral Ryan Settle was gritting his teeth as he watched the Abyssal through the closed circuit camera as she eyed the water before ignoring it. It was times like these that he again wished that he'd learned a bit more diplomacy back at Annapolis, but the woman's face was nearly unreadable to him, and it really wouldn't have made him any less perturbed at this whole debacle in the first place. He was far too blunt for anything really sophisticated on the one hand, and on the other, being up close and personal with the woman had given him all kinds of heebie-jeebies. The sense of something wrong still as pervasive as it was whenever he laid eyes on one of the sunken bitches, but flavored with something else. He didn't get the sense of eldritch Evil (Capital 'E' and all) that most of the others gave, but that wasn't new either... It was something else, something that definitely raised his hackles as the sheer strangeness of the situation settled over him. It was like someone had covered his eyes and yet he could STILL sense the finger a half-inch away from his skin in a childish 'I'm not touching you!' sort of way.
Looking out of the corner of his eye to another camera, Settle watched Arizona stand as a silent guard outside the bunker that Leviathan had been led to, and he knew that he wasn't the only one that was on edge. The redhead's hand hadn't left the butt of her revolver since Blue Ridge's landing, and while her rigging wasn't deployed, he could swear that the phantom form of it flickered in and out invisibly with the slight breeze. Honey-brown eyes flicked back to the camera, seeming to match his own gaze, a curt confirmation that her admiral wasn't changing his mind before returning to the bunker where the pale-skinned woman masquerading as a naval officer sat.
"The Shit-show start yet?" Hate said as he walked in, carafe in hand as he sipped at it, the cannon-turned-rifle he'd named Fenrir slung over his plate carrier as his eyes gleamed with an unholy glimmer.
"You're just in time. Decided to take your Raifu out for a stroll already?"
"Pays to be prepared asshole," the marine replied. "Your handler's keeping an eye on things up close too. Her idea?"
"You know her. She insisted."
"Yeah... How much you wanna bet this is another of those damn suicide boats of theirs?"
Settle looked over at the Marine Captain, his brow furrowed and eyes half-lidded. "Fifty fifty. They put a LOT of resources into that attack, only to have it blasted away... but they've got the numbers to make it up, and they've pulled tricky shit before. On the other hand, who the fuck really knows with them, you know? Could be some infighting or territorial bullshit too."
"So why didn't we do this out at sea instead of here in the fucking port? I mean, if she DOES go up, that piddly ass bunker won't do fucking shit given the amount of boom they can do."
"Not my call, nor Goto's. Someone in the Diet pulled some strings and now we've got to deal with it. But if it goes tits up, I'm going to be finding someone's ass to break my foot off in even if I have to claw my way out of the grave to do it..."
The video monitors came on one by one as the JMSDF's Admiral Hitoshi Goto, as well as Chiefs of Staff Katsutoshi Kawano and Tomohisa Takei. Settle knew there were more, but those were the ones who'd been able to set the time aside for this, or at least the ones visibly participating. Another set of screens popped up to show First Sea Lord Admiral Philip Jones as well as Admiral Collingwood from the British Royal Navy, both of them looking like they were trying to burn a set of holes in their webcams. It was only matched by the Deutsche Marine's Admiral Thorsten Kähler and flanked by the Battleship-girl Bismarck. These two were a bit of a surprise, as Settle figured they were some of the busier leaders of the various navies. The European theater, from what he'd heard, was less of a surface engagement zone and more of a submarine feeding frenzy. With U-boats having cropped up on both sides of the war in enormous numbers there, as well as other nations adding their own submarine and anti-submarine ships to the mess, it was a hellish zone to go into. He didn't know the full details, but he he'd received more than one memo suggested that he get their U-511, or Ro as the Japanese called her (Rosy as she was called by the American ship-girls), to help out with anti-sub tactics before she had to return. Harder hadn't liked it at first, but between him, Ro, and Iku, the Yokosuka branch had set up a decent rotation for training both subs and ASW girls before the German-born ship-girl had returned to her homeland.
Several more screens came on, with both officers and dignitaries from various nations, including a surprising addition of China's Vice Admiral Liu Yi. Settle hadn't met the man personally, but he'd had a decent reputation, especially with his handling of some of the Chinese Returned. Some of the last ones to show up were God aka the CNO, who looked more intrigued than anything else, and the French Battleship-girl Richelieu representing the Marine Nationale, who just looked pissed. With each monitor that clicked on, Settle watched the pale-skinned sea-witch's eyes snap to them and visibly memorize the faces on-screen, head tilting and twisting only enough to show that it wasn't nervousness that was causing her to do so.
Leviathan waited patiently as one of the officers cleared his throat to speak. "Greetings. My name is Admiral Halloway, United States Navy. Forgive me if we at any point come across as somewhat rude, but I believe it is safe to say that this is somewhat of a new experience for all of us gathered here," the American CNO said diplomatically, to which the Abyssal nodded.
"Understandable. And I think we can agree that this is something of a... unique challenge for everyone as well," she said, hints of an accent Settle couldn't place leaking through as Halloway nodded.
"Very well. For the record then, will you please state your name as we do introductions? As well as your place of origin?"
A frown teased at her pursed lips, which didn't go unnoticed by the others, but the woman nodded anyways. As each of the dignitaries gave their names with varying degrees of warmth or cold tones, she waited until providing her own. "Leviathan, Marathon-class cruiser, hull number CA-684, Epsilon Eridani II."
"Epsilon... Eridani? Is that the name of the base that built you, or something else?" Halloway asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It was where I was constructed, yes," she replied neutrally as the Chinese Vice-Admiral spoke next.
"What nation did you originally come from?" he asked, a look of both suspicion and curiosity on his face.
"No single nation. I was built specifically for UNSC use."
"Hmmmm, thank you," Yi said as he seemed to tap at something in front of him. "If I may ask then for clarification, you are coming to us here of your own free will, yes?"
The woman nodded at that. "That is correct."
"And your reason for doing so?"
"Repair, rearm, refuel, and exchange of information."
That caused a few of the dignitaries and leaders to grumble a bit.
"What information do you have, and what would you request in exchange?" Kahler spoke up next, causing Leviathan to look over at the man before replying.
"Knowledge of an impending threat that the rest of humanity has already been facing, threat assessments and known counter-tactics that have proven effective against them, as well as various technologies that you appear to be missing in order to aid in your defence and other areas. As for what I require in return: Astronomical charts of local space are my primary need, as well as information regarding this Abyssal threat, along with any... related topics."
The German officer frowned thoughtfully, but seemed to take it somewhat in stride as confusion started becoming more apparent on some of the gathered faces. "We'll see about getting you what you require. Now, when you say 'impending threat,' you mean another, besides the Abyssals?"
Before Leviathan could respond, another dignitary from the Russian contingent spoke up. "I'm sorry, rest of humanity? Missing technology? And why would you need astronomical charts of local space specifically? I mean, aren't those only used for horoscope predictions? Or the like?"
"Navigation of celestial bodies is not an easy matter. Unlike traditional astronavigation, there are a lot of other factors involved in travelling between the stars. Constellations make for good points of reference however, as long as the stars that make them up are properly mapped and catalogued."
The conference was quiet for but a mere moment, incredulity on the faces of those facing the Abyssal, before one of them spoke up. "Are you... Are you honestly trying to claim that you're a god damned SPACE ship?"
"Isn't that rather obvious?" Leviathan replied snappily. "Do you know of any OTHER type of ship with the capability to fly into orbit and beyond?"
Scalding hot coffee spewed along the back of the head of the poor man handling the monitors as the liquid blew out of Hate's nose and mouth, and if he hadn't been equally gobsmacked, Settle might have found it a marvel that the marine could actually feel shock as such. Or maybe he had just failed to stop himself from laughing. The glasshole did have a sense of humor that ran towards bullshit like that... As it was though, Settle had to shake himself to keep flies from flying down his throat as he looked at the others to ensure that he wasn't hearing things, and that yes, she HAD just said that...
"What... The... Fuck...?" Parker said as he looked at his own laptop monitor, Nagato looking over his shoulder at the screen with an equally shocked expression on her normally stoic face. The look didn't change at all when the German admiral paled like a ghost before speaking.
"Then... When you say you were built for the 'UNSC', you meant..."
"United Nations Space Command."
"A fucking space ship?"
"The damn tabloids were right... Holy fuck..."
"Goddamn, the scientists are going to go insane over this..."
"You can't possibly be serious... You expect us to believe that?!"
"Sweet Mary and Joseph..."
The next few minutes were spent in a slowly rising level of irritation, with Leviathan frowning at the explosive commentary of the dignitaries her statement had apparently brought forth. Between each of them muttering at each other or at her in various languages, and the sheer shock that was plain on all of their faces, the spaceship-girl knew she'd have to take control of this now or else it would only get worse. Closing her eyes as she took a breath, Leviathan turned over her wrist to tap away at the Tacpad attached to her forearm. She really would have rathered that this be done more delicately, but she knew that she didn't have the patience or time for that right now...
The display beeped and meeped a few times, before a cone of light began to rise up from the device. Within this field, an inhuman face appeared, the head conical and shark-like, but with four protruding mandibles coming from the sides of its snout-like face. These mandibles moved with an eerie semblance, like a hybrid between a true jaw and a squid's tentacles, while dark eyes gleamed out from widely-set cavities within its skull. The whole of the head was encased in a silvery armor, with fins along the back, sides, and dorsal radius, giving the otherwise beastial entity an air of ostentation and technological civility at odds with the predatory gleam in its eyes...
"27 years ago, the colony world of Harvest was attacked by an unknown group of aliens. They'd given no prior messages, no first contact that we ever recorded, and until then had left humanity alone. On February 11, 2525, they broadcast this message to us, in our own language, just prior to the attack..."
Hitting a button on her pad, the holographic video played out, the creature's fanged maw hissing as they moved in a parody of human lips, as words slithered and croaked from within the alien throat in a way that sounded odd, almost formal and calm... yet was laden with rage and malice...
"Your destruction is the will of the Gods... and we are their instrument."
For a moment, all was quiet... The holographic image of the Elite's menacing expression frozen for them all to see... And then the conference EXPLODED!
"The who, did what, where?!"
"Colony world?!"
"2525?!"
Leviathan closed the file before staring into the monitors, practically daring those displayed to look her in the eye as they shouted. Tapping at her Tacpad again, Leviathan brought up a hologram of several figures with a variety of body shapes. Most of them stood up on two legs, while one floated in the air. "The Covenant, as we have found they call themselves, are a religious theocracy of 7 different sentient species, with at least another 2 that we've seen hints of, but have had no visual proof of yet. They apparently believe that a previous alien civilization was able to rise to God-hood, and that by following this path, which roughly translates as the 'Great Journey', that they can accomplish the same thing. For some reason that we have yet to identify, the Covenant believes that Humanity is a kind of obstacle to this. That Mankind's very existence is a 'blasphemy'. As a result, for 27 years they've been waging a genocidal war to try and eliminate us from the stars, destroying world after world in their wake."
Closing this file as well, Leviathan folded her hands beneath her chin as she glared into the camera. "Can we dispense with the falsehoods please? I do not know why you thought it best to pretend that the last 500 years hadn't happened, or when the choice to do so occurred, let alone why you continue to act as if this were Earth in the first place. You've done a fair job at making yourselves seem like the Colonial Expansion never happened, but this is getting tedious... With things as they stand, it's only a matter of time until the Covenant find this world, and if that happens, we may as well kiss the entirety of your culture and peoples goodbye. You may be on the outskirts of colonized space, but that's no excuse for letting yourselves remain blind to the greater goings-on in the universe..."
Richelieu was looking increasingly perturbed as she worked to cover up her previous shock. "What? Do you expect us to believe that you're from the future or something? That this isn't our homeworld?" Richelieu scoffed, "We have the fossil records to prove you wrong. Also, if this were a different planet, wouldn't the stars be different, Ms. Levi?"
As Richelieu looked like she was gearing up to continue her tirade, the Chinese vice-admiral calmly steepled his fingers and looked directly into the camera as he interrupted his French counterpart. "And what makes you think that this isn't Earth then? Do you have any proof of this?"
"If this had been Earth, I wouldn't have found only a bare satellite network welcoming me in orbit. I would have found the Home Fleet, and an array of defensive installations and orbital cannons all readying themselves for the fight. In addition, the Naval Shipyards would have been pushing to finish every last ship they could build, and the Orbital Elevators would have been shipping troops back and forth in preparation... Instead I find nothing but a handful of fucking TELESCOPES aimed outwards while you war with some native monstrosities. You have my sympathies for being in a pinch, but we have a duty to the entire SPECIES, not just a single planet!" Leviathan said, her voice taking on more of a growl as she suppressed the urge to crush the top of the table she was sitting at with her fingers, taking a deep breath through her nose to calm herself, then looking to Richelieu.
"Before my arrival here I was in a battle for one of our installations. The Cole Protocol states that whenever Covenant forces are sighted, all navigational archives regarding Earth or the Inner Colonies are to be wiped. As a result," the cruiser said, suppressing a growl, "I am unable to ascertain my current location, and thus I cannot offer you an argument in that regard, but also cannot therefore find anything to prove YOUR claim to be correct."
"The only thing I CAN deny is your claim at this being some kind of time travel. Such a thing is beyond any science we know of, and furthermore, if this 'Abyssal War' had in fact been in Earth's history, I wouldn't have reason to ask about It, would I?" she said, crossing her arms in front of herself on the table, leaning into the primary monitor's camera in an almost challenging manner.
"Ms Leviathan. I have two things to say about that statement..." Admiral Collingwood said as Richelieu glared at the not-Abyssal across the screen. "First, I'm going to assume that you have the equipment to do something like carbon dating, or at least, the understanding of what that means. So considering you said that your date was '500 years ahead of us'... That means that if we used carbon dating on all our archeological discoveries, then nothing should be older than at most 5 centuries?"
"200 years of human colonization amongst the stars, if that's what you were wondering about. Over 500 years from the date recorded on your calender," Leviathan corrected.
"Well, we've got discoveries that are over 5 milennia old... and then you've got the fossil records going back much, MUCH further. And if we were a colony, none of that would exist, non?" Richelieu said with a smirk.
"However, that doesn't take into account the possibility of your finds being of alien origin, and simply not having enough data to know the difference," Leviathan countered. "That said, I have no means of arguing against it otherwise either, not without seeing it in person in order to utilize that method or any other."
Richelieu gritted her teeth behind pursed lips in reply. "...Fair enough. Secondly, as for the 'time travel' thing... Okay, I have to agree with you there. If your time-line had an Abyssal War, you'd know what was going to happen. So one of two things must have occurred. Either we're NOT in your time-line and something weirder than the new normal has happened... Or whatever sent you back in time has also altered what would have happened. In which case, we'll probably want you to tell us as much about this threat as you can, so when we do get off this ever-so-precious rock, we're in the best possible position for when we run into them again, for the first time"
For a moment, the space-born ship-girl chewed on that. It was tempting, oh so tempting, to believe the possibility that she was now here BEFORE the Covenant had shown themselves, to think that she could single-handedly push humanity into a position where they wouldn't be caught off-guard by the alien menace before being able to fight back. It really was tempting... But temptation did not mean truth, and there was just too much evidence that there was something else going on for Leviathan to just ignore. That said...
"As for how either of those could have happened... Well, my staff has a term for mysteries like this, and I'm sure everyone else here is familiar with it," Richelieu said with an almost sarcastic, yet resigned look on her face. "MSSB. Or in full terminology, 'Magical Sparkly Shipgirl Bullshit.'"
Aaaaand once again Leviathan had to remind herself that she was on a planet full of superstitious idiots... again. Sighing through her nose as she pinched its bridge, the woman resisted the urge to grind her teeth. She'd probably slice her tongue if she did, and bleeding all over during an interview/interrogation probably wouldn't do well. "If 'magic' is all you have to offer as an explanation, then I really must worry for this planet's sanity..." she muttered, causing the French ship-girl to swell up like a rage-filled balloon.
"How...? How can...? This is...?" Kähler whispered to himself in German as his secretary-ship placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Admiral, Admiral, please don't..." she said, trying to keep the pleading from her voice while speaking in the same tongue.
"Bismarck, quickly, I need a notebook," he said, prompting the blonde woman to sigh and pull out one of the booklets she always kept on hand for this kind of thing. "Miss Leviathan, I hope you don't mind if I check on something here momentarily. Is that fair?" the man asked as he pulled out a pen and jotted something down while also pulling out his phone.
Leviathan's eyes slid to the German admiral as well as Richelieu before turning back to Kähler and his ship-girl counterpart. "Certainly, I have no problems with that... As it is though, we seem to have detoured from the original purpose of this discussion, so let us return to it for now."
"What are your armaments, Leviathan?" Richelieu queried, "And are there more like you among the Abyssals?"
"Given that I am still unaware of what defines an 'Abyssal' per say, I cannot say if there are those with similar capabilities as myself amongst them. I highly doubt that any UNSC vessel would countenance it, however. As for my armaments," Leviathan said, looking at Richelieu and the others, "Exact capabilities are classified and thus I cannot reveal too many specifics without violating standard regulations. In the interest of diplomacy however, I do not think it too much to state that I am equipped with mid and long range guided anti-ship missiles, a fighter/bomber wing, point defence emplacements and my MAC gun."
"I apologise for interrupting, but what is a MAC gun, precisely?" asked Goto.
"Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. Standard Anti-ship kinetic kill weapon on UNSC ships."
"A rail gun? I thought those were still in the trial stages," he replied curiously.
"A coil gun actually. More efficient and less materials-hungry than a rail gun."
"If something like that's 'standard' I'd really hate to see what passes as heavy weaponry for you," Richelieu said.
"Given that you said you can... fly into orbit... under your own power?" An officer bearing the Egyptian Navy spoke up, to which Leviathan nodded. "I'm going to assume that because you referred to travelling between stars, that you can also do that all without rapidly draining all your fuel... Are you nuclear powered then?"
"Deuterium fusion," she corrected, causing one particular dignitary to freeze up as though he'd been clocked in the back of the head.
"I see," the officer, one Gamal Abdel Mohamed, replied before looking at her straight with his hands intertwining in front of him. "Then do you carry any nuclear armaments?"
This particular question caused more than one of the attendants to stiffen up, and Leviathan KNEW that this must have been a hot topic of controversy. It was understandable. Weapons of Mass Destruction weren't to be handled lightly after all. "Nuclear weapons are not as effective outside an atmosphere due to having nothing to propagate a blast wave. As a result, such weapons are considered to be ineffective for the most part, and still require specialized permission to be used anywhere near any population centers," she said.
"But you ARE capable of being armed with them, yes?"
"...If UNSC HighCom dictated it so."
Metal screeched and cheap plastic crunched as the back of Parker's chair shattered underneath Nagato's grip. The Intel spook immediately vacated the seat as the ship-girl's eyes fastened on the monitor, her arms trembling in response while Parker started looking for something to calm her down... quickly...
"I believe that that is quite enough," Richelieu interjected, "I believe that I'm not stepping on any toes when I say that this meeting was called to figure out what the hell happened on that island first and Manila second, in addition to evaluating any new additions to the Abyssals' arsenal, not to hear some made-up story by a possible spy that probably ends in her telling us about her committing suicide or having some over-dramatic Alamo moment."
Leviathan's eyes narrowed at the French battleship with a cold glare. "And yet here we are. I have yet to hear any such questions, though I have been expecting them. Your fellows instead asked of a pertinent threat first, as well as my requests and personal capabilities, and I have answered. If you have any OTHER questions, then by all means, feel free to ask..."
"It would be pointless to ask you about the latter, seeing as you yourself stated that you had no knowledge of the Abyssal forces, but, please tell us about Manila, Miss Levi."
The blue haired woman glared in challenge to the other ship-girl through the screen, but relented. "Very well then... Ask away."
"Let's start with what you did to the naval elements," Goto said.
Leviathan gathered her thoughts momentarily, before speaking once more. "After relaying orders to my mobile forces to act as anti-air pickets, I launched my fighters and bombers to do a sweep from the North while I came in from the South. Bombardment was already starting to be fairly heavy by that time, and the buildings surrounding the area I was in were just coming under creeping fire from the offshore forces. While my Longswords took some flak along the way, I found myself under only sporadic fire, possibly unaimed, until such time as I made contact with the Abyssal forces. I opened a clear-broadcast line over radio comms and demanded that they cease hostilities. When they refused, I opened fire upon them, at which point they began actively targeting me."
"Given that the enemy did not appear willing to either surrender or retreat, I continued combat operations against them until their flagship identified themselves, challenging me to an apparent duel. After a short exchange of fire, I was able to sink the 'Princess' as she identified herself, before I became aware of the landing parties."
"How did you know to respond to this attack? Did you have any warnings ahead of time? Any sign of this occurring before the strike?" Bismarck spoke up. Her tone was neutral, rather than accusatory.
"My sensors picked up a neutrino burst along with Cherenkov radiation coming from within the bay. Given those readings are not a common natural occurance, I felt the need to investigate. A second pulse was detected moments before shells started falling on the city," Leviathan replied.
"Cherenkov radiation? Is that the dangerous kind?" Halloway asked.
"Not really. It's a common phenomenon when radioactive elements are placed in an environment where they move faster than light does," the ship-girl replied. "Combined with the neutrino burst however, I had thought that something might have come through slipspace..."
"Slipspace? As in... some kind of hyperspace or such?" Kähler said. "Why would you think that? Can you do that so close to a planet?"
"I cannot, no... But Cherenkov radiation pulses like that are common whenever any fissile material travels through a Slipspace rupture, which lead me to believe either that someone had screwed up some kind of experiment, or that there was a live nuke in the area," Leviathan said... and immediately regretted it as her listeners all went as pale as herself.