Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Kantai Collection, please don't sue me.
Author's Note: Okay, enough procrastinating! Now, I've had several issues over the past couple of months. Been hospitalized twice, sick again after that, dealing with issues at work, and then bouncing back and forth between places… But the real issue was that I had set myself to wanting to post chapters in excess of five to ten thousand words each from now on… And I think that that might have been a bit too ambitious at this point in the fic. Now, that doesn't mean I haven't been writing, but trying to put multiple scenes into one cohesive at this point I think is too much to chew on at once. SO! I'm breaking them into smaller chapters so that I won't feel overwhelmed and not doing good enough, and also so that you guys aren't waiting another month or so for me to have the free time to post it. I realize that that might be a bit of a letdown for some, but… meh, what can I do? I don't want to burn out and have the story end before it gets to the good parts, so I'm doing what I have to. I also updated chapter 3 to fix some errors that I meant to do. In the meantime, enjoy! And pardon the language!
[Fucking... cunt… mothering... barnacle… birthing... shit...steaming... FLYING... BITCH!] came the enraged mental voice of a female, along with the sound of chunks of concrete powdering itself from a series of angry kicks. [I HAD that fucking city! I HAD IT! IHADITIHADITIHADITIHADITIHADIT! Abyss take it! I nearly had the entire fucking battle and that... SLAG just... fucking… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGHH!]
[Enough Lusoria, we get it. It's been nearly a week since the battle, we've all heard already...]
[Oh fuck off Drum! I'm allowed to vent if I damn well want to! This was my chance to shine and now it's been RUINED!]
The two speakers each had the pale skin of the Abyss, as well as the glowing eyes of their kind. Both of them also wore a more roughened, battle-worn version of an army's combat uniform, tattered and and with nationality marks removed. However, that was where the similarities ended. Lusoria wore a helmet upon her head with two glowing eye sockets spilling silver light from them on either side, while a row of teeth made up the brim of the headgear. Her uniform lacked sleeves, revealing toned arms while a set of horribly scratched dog tags dangled from her neck, while short white hair framed her angry face. The other, Drum, wore a scorched and salt-soaked jacket that was opened enough to reveal the ample curves of her bosom, accentuated by the cracks that extended upwards from her heart that glowed with an inner fire. Her hands were scorched black, and left little burning trails along the concrete walls as she poked at them, while her legs had similar burning cracks going down where they weren't covered by knee-high black leather boots or her short skirt. Lusoria's eyes were a sky-blue, while Drum's turquoise ones were framed by two locks of black hair that escaped from the ponytail that she wore it in underneath her cap.
[Vent all you want, but don't do it while you're in my halls, got it? I'm busted up enough, thank you very much,] Drum said, lifting a cigarette to her lips while tapping the tip to light it, causing her comrade to fume for a moment before plunking herself down onto the floor.
[Ugh… I'm surprised that this place is still standing. You'd figure the humans would have blasted you to pieces already just on the off chance, you know?] the shorter of the pair said, motioning for a cigarette herself.
[I suppose the fact that I haven't manifested enough to attack them makes them hesitant to give me any reason to do so. I'm fairly certain that they know we're using my location to spy on them, but as long as they don't see any provocation, they've got enough to worry about without giving me reason to become aggressive,] Drum said, handing a cancer stick to her fellow Abyssal. A year and a half ago the Abyss had managed to call her to their aid, using her not as a stationary battleship or base like the humans had in previous years, but instead as an observatory outpost. She observed the various comings and goings of the human fleets from her rusted, burnt out shell, eyeing them all with a combination of jealousy and scorn. Yet during the times that the humans would send a patrol near her, she hid her consciousness deep within the tunnels below her, hiding from even the senses of those shipgirls who would occasionally plant booby traps or the like, which would be disabled by her upon their leaving. These tunnels also served another purpose, as they allowed for a hidden supply depot to be placed on the seafloor at her roots for use by the submarines, as well as temporary holding cells for those times when they managed to grab a prisoner.
All in all, this meant that the former Fort Drum was considered something of a front-line, constantly on alert yet also laying low so as to not be seen. A bunker upon the sea that, while known, was not acted upon due to the lack of aggression shown. Even after being summoned forth, Drum's turrets remained rusted in their place, silent and useless as the Abyssal had to keep up the appearance of remaining asleep, even having to tolerate the existence of one of the human's radar sets placed atop of her just to keep up the ruse.
[Still, none can deny how effective your troops were in that attack, no? From what the radio was blaring, it was like some video game horror movie come to life for them. I even heard one radio station claiming that the 'End Times were here' and that they should all just lay down and die. That's a rather extreme reaction to get nowadays….]
Lusoria grinned. [Hehe, yeah… I caught that as well. God below, that would have been the perfect cherry on top of it all for me… Just makes it worse that it was taken away though.]
Drum smacked her comrade's shoulder. [Enough with the gloom. If you can get a response like that from them on this occasion, you can lay bets you'll get similar ones in the next one, and the one after that. I doubt that Command is going to forget the type of impact that it's left. So what if some new bitch crashed the party? She can't be everywhere at once, so you'll get more than one more time to shine! If anything, it's a time to celebrate, you know?]
[Yeah, yeah…] the former troopship said as she slumped back and took another puff on her cigarette. [Guess you're right. Even if it went pear-shaped, we still gave a good shellacking to them… They're going to spend years recovering from that, if we even allow them that time.]
[Of course I'm right! You should know that I'm always right by now!] Drum replied haughtily, causing the other Abyssal to snort.
[Suuuuure…. And I suppose that the Australian Harbour Princess not falling for the Chinese Battleship Princess was just a ruse then?]
[SHUSH! She's in total denial that one, I know it!]
[Careful there Drum, I think you're mistaking her for your mirror again!]
As the two Abyssals continued to bicker back and forth, another grinned as she set aside the headphones from her own underwater base, having been listening in through the equipment that surrounded her. Though she wasn't aware of how it worked in full, the equipment was supposed to act similar to a radio's transceiver, but working with dreams and psychic communication instead. Originally it belonged to another, a foe that the current owner had sent back to the deep, yet even with the lack of technical knowledge she'd been able to keep it up and running.
'Hmmm, things are getting more and more interesting…' she thought to herself, tapping a pale yet dainty chin with black-gloved fingers. Ice-blue eyes moved to the side where a young destroyer was doodling on a set of laminate sheets, before giving a sigh. [Thatcher, do you think you could slip over to the docks and ask Corvina to come up here, please? I have something I want her to check into…]
The young girl seemed to startle a bit at the older Abyssal, before grinning. [Sure thing boss! I'll be back in a jiffy!] she said, before heading towards the airlock door at the back, leaving her superior alone for a moment.
Sighing again now that there weren't any listeners, the one known as the Light Cruiser Demon stretched her arms back and let a few pops sound out from her keel, before settling back into her chair. [Ugh… You'd think that people would want to plan out how they were going to replace their numbers after a failed assault, but nooooo… Everyone's gotta obsess over the new and shiny instead,] she muttered. [Though they have been wising up at least a little over the last year… Maybe I should try using a little more deliberate misinformation? Hmmm…]
Looking over at the desk to her right, the Demon shuffled through a few files, noting one in particular that she had been keeping an eye on. Outwardly, the file had only a few sheets in it, depicting a man that had been in the war since day one, and one that she had had a personal theory that he should have gotten help for his issues long before this point. A moment of indecision passed, the woman's eyes narrowing as she weighed the pros and cons of her idea before settling on a decision. [Alright then, I suppose we can see what's to find out from the other side of things,] she said, turning a few dials and putting her headphones back over her ears. [Come on Settle, let's see if we can't shunt those old dreams to the side for one night, hmm? Mama needs some good news for once...]