Disclaimer: I still own neither Halo nor Kantai Collection.
Though she did her best not to show it, Nagato could feel her heart pounding in her chest anticipating the fight to come. Here we go, she thought, praying the fight to come would go smoother than the previous big operation.
The last time Japan's kanmusu sortied in force like this had been for the Midway raid, and that had come far too close for comfort. CarDiv 1 had been heavily damaged—Akagi herself might have been sunk had Fubuki not downed that last Abyssal plane in the nick of time.
Nagato looked to her left at the carrier in question, who sailed along with Kaga and a new addition. Nagato had been surprised how well Akagi and Kaga seemed to get along with Yorktown, especially considering who the latter's younger sister was. In fact, listening in on the carrier's conversation revealed that was indeed who they were talking about now. Yorktown is probably trying to reassure them Enterprise will not, in fact, hunt them down and kill them, Nagato thought sardonically. But over the past month, she had noticed that every time Enterprise came up in conversation, the light in Yorktown's eyes seemed to dim a little.
At first she thought it was embarrassment, but Yorktown didn't seem like the kind of person to be bothered from being overshadowed by her little sister. Finally Nagato asked Saratoga; sounding as uncomfortable as Nagato had ever heard her, Saratoga said that Yorktown was having trouble reconciling the Enterprise she remembered with the Enterprise she came back to. Upon further inquiry Saratoga stonewalled and refused to say more. Though Yorktown flatly denied anything when Nagato finally worked up the courage to ask, her body language told the opposite. If nothing else, Nagato thought, it will be very interesting seeing them reunited.
The subject of interesting things to see brought Nagato's thoughts down to the small kanmusu sailing beside her. Harvest's kept up with the rest of the force sailing into battle, but her tight grip on her weapon coupled with her stiff limbs betrayed her nervousness. She'd confided to Nagato last night that her duties as a ship never included fleet battles, and the fact that so much of the assault plan rested on her made her feel out of her league. Nagato wound up moving her futon next to the frigate's to help her sleep, and placed Kongou in charge of the battleship force so she could hang back and offer moral support. Nagato knew that one less battleship at the front, no matter how experienced, would be far less of a loss than if Harvest's nerves cracked under the (admittedly high) pressure the plan put on her.
Simply put, the UNSC frigate would make the difference between victory and defeat for the Alaska plan. In spite of the massive force Japan committed to the north, and in spite of the American and even Canadian reenforcements coming in from the east, the Abyssal bases amongst the Aleutian Islands would present a tough foe. Before Harvest's arrival, clearing the Aleutians was a task only thought possible with the entire Fast Carrier Task Force deployed against it. To ask a single frigate, no matter how powerful, to replicate the combat power provided by the Big Blue Fleet (as the FCTF was often called thanks to their distinctive Civil War uniforms) was a daunting task.
Tenryuu assured them all Harvest was more than up to the task, but Nagato knew the frigate had to be. Building up for the fight, Harvest had consumed enough food to supply several aircraft carriers; if the plan failed and the convoy following the Americans had to turn back, Nagato wasn't sure Japan could stretch its supplies long enough for the ships to take the roundabout southern route.
As she watched CarDiv 1 ready their bows and Yorktown her musket, CarDivs 2 and 5 on the horizon following suit, Nagato sighed one last time. This was it, time to do or die! She sent her last orders to her kanmusu, and steeled herself to…sit back and reassure a very nervous looking frigate.
"You all know what to do. Remember to designate any command-type Abyssal you see, and we'll take care of it. Good luck to you all, and do your best!"
Harvest gulped as Nagato spoke next to her, multiple affirmatives coming back before the girls seemed to jump into action. The archers nearby loosed arrows that turned into planes, zooming off towards the horizon to do battle. Yorktown loaded her firearm, but did not yet fire. After a moment of confusion, Harvest remembered that Yorktown's planes could not go as far as the others; she must be waiting to get into range.
A hand on her shoulder made Harvest jump. "You're doing fine, don't worry," Nagato said reassuringly. Harvest nodded, but the butterflies in her stomach remained. This was it; her first—well…first intentional—fleet battle! Back home, getting called into a fleet battle was a suicide mission, literally a call to fire all her Archers and as many MAC shots as she could before eating a plasma torpedo. Keeping an eye on her sensors, which showed several green dots converging with countless grey dots, she had to fight with all her strength against the instinct to unload everything into the nearest Abyssal. All her eating had resupplied a couple MAC shots, several hundred autocannon rounds, and a precious thirty Archers—one pod worth. Her weapons officers and AI had a fun time over the past month reconfiguring her fire control to fire one Archer at a time rather than entire pods at once.
Harvest was so tightly wound, in fact, that she practically jumped when one of the grey dots suddenly changed to red. Nagato and Akashi had snatched all the laser designators they could get their hands on, jury-rigged them to some of the equipment rigs, and put Yokosuka's kanmusu through a crash course in their use. They were stupidly short-ranged—not practical at all for surface-to-orbit use—but with Harvest barely over the horizon it worked well enough.
As she prepared to fire, however, Nagato put a hand on her shoulder. "Target received, designation…?" Harvest kicked herself, remembering Nagato wanted to first confirm any target before Harvest fired at it, saving the missiles for when they were truly needed.
"Battleship hime," came back Tenryuu's voice, cannon fire filling the background. Harvest examined the red dot on her plot carefully; it seemed larger than many of the grey ones, advancing implacably as green dots swirled and maneuvered in front of it. Just as Harvest noticed the green dots were several different sizes too, Tenryuu continued, "It's tying up my force and some of the battleships too. Wanna get it out of our way?"
Nagato nodded and removed her hand from Harvest's shoulder. "R-Right!" Harvest said. "Archer on the way!" A hole opened in her rigging, the motor ignited with a flash, and the (single, to Harvest's relief) Archer shot away in a trail of smoke.
Harvest tracked her missile all the way to the target; as it impacted expressions of shock exploded over the radio. Harvest panicked. Had it not worked? Was it still alive? The dot was gone on her plot; was it camouflaging somehow? Screaming at her sensor operator to reacquire the target, the frigate stammered, "Is- Is it still there? I can send another!"
"Cruiser Tenryuu. Damage assessment."
"Fuck! What? It's dead; what more do you want?"
Harvest blinked. She called out on the radio herself, "It's dead? I really killed it? Are you sure?"
Tenryuu laughed. "It's dead alright, good work kiddo!"
At that point, if her heart determined her altitude, Harvest would be in orbit.
Tenryuu was exhausted—small surprise, considering how long she'd been fighting—but her fighting spirit was still high. They'd first made contact with the Abyssals early in the morning and it was well into the afternoon by now, but they were making good progress. The two small Abyssal bases on Attu and Kiska were history, shelled into oblivion by the Japanese battleships.
And now onto the main show, Tenryuu thought with a grin, before looking at the small figure not too far away. After seeing one missile blast a battleship princess into oblivion, the kanmusu suddenly started taking their laser designators much more seriously. Targets flooded back, almost all of which the secretary ship promptly vetoed. "The designator is for targeting and destroying Abyssal bosses," Nagato had finally admonished the fleet, "not to spare you all the effort of fighting."
Regardless of the secretary ship's efforts, it hadn't taken long for Harvest to run out of missiles. But in Tenryuu's opinion, that only made the situation better: now instead of only seeing the streak of missiles, the kanmusu across the entire battlefield were now treated to the sight, sound, and feeling of the little frigate's main weapon. Tenryuu found herself grinning every time she heard and felt the *POW* of what she soon nicknamed the "Fuck-you gun." And though she was far too badass to let herself smile, she definitely smirked at the sight of Harvest—far from the nervous wreck she was this morning—charging ahead so fast Nagato was pushing herself to flank trying to keep up.
A sudden eruption of water drew Tenryuu's attention, and she felt time slow down as a battleship water oni emerged right in front of Harvest. Tenryuu felt her blood turn cold as horror spread across Harvest's face, the frigate throwing her legs to the side in a desperate attempt to try to shift her momentum and dodge out of the way. But it was too late; the Abyssal had emerged with her guns already trained, and with a smirk on its face the battleship oni fired into the poor kanmusu at point blank range. Without even time to scream, Harvest was covered in smoke and flame.
And then she sailed right out of it.
Surprise was now on full display on the battleship oni's face, suddenly replaced by horror as it realized it was now directly in the path of a kanmusu capable of tanking its main battery and emerging unscathed. It tried to move, but its tactic of ambushing at close range now meant it was impossible for either the Abyssal or Harvest to get out of the way. Realizing what was about to happen, both Harvest and the Abyssal started screaming at the top of their lungs.
And then one of the most powerful Abyssals ever encountered was so much roadkill.
As time sped back up again, Tenryuu suddenly became aware that every last kanmusu able to had just watched what happened, and were now staring dumbly at the frigate, who was frantically patting herself down as though unable to believe she was still alive.
It was a sentiment Tenryuu certainly shared. "Did… Did that just happen?" The meek question prompted Tenryuu to turn, taking in the sight of her destroyers huddled behind Tatsuta's skirt.
It took Tenryuu a false start before she was able to reply, "If by 'that' you mean a kanmusu literally running over a battleship demon after tanking her full battery and coming away unscathed, then yes, Inazuma, that just happened."
"Heh," Akatsuki smiled, "she's about our size. Think we might be able to—"
"No," five voices answered at once. Tenryuu looked back up at Harvest, who seemed to be finally coming to terms with the fact she was not dead after all by shouting as such, the biggest smile Tenryuu had ever seen shining on her face. Nagato seemed to break out of her own stupor and advanced to check on the frigate.
"Alright," the battleship said after a short conversation. "We've still got Abyssals to destroy, so let's go!" A cheer arose from the assembled kanmusu—Harvest's voice loudly amongst them—before the force continued onwards towards the last enemy stronghold.
Yorktown sighed as she slowly approached what before the Abyssals had been known as Dutch Harbor, Alaska. The major enemy base there had been a quick affair—a combination of support from the east and incredibly high morale after seeing the spaceship pull off that feat had seen the Japanese storm Dutch Harbor like something out of the war, the battleships shelling the base as the rest of the force dealt with the enemy surface vessels. Yorktown had been surprised by the fact that the previously taciturn frigate seemed to take great pleasure in running up to the Abyssals and stomping them to death, much to Nagato's dismay. But now Yorktown was coming up on the part of the plan she dreaded most: reuniting with her sister.
Don't get her wrong—Yorktown loved Enterprise with all her heart, but from the moment they reunited it was clear that Enterprise was…different. The Yorktown sisters (with the occasional addition of their half-sister Wasp, who always joked that she was "the fourth wheel that makes the car run") had been quite the trio before the war: Yorktown, the skills; Enterprise, the luck; and Hornet, the brains. Yorktown never forgot the fond memories, and had jumped at the chance to be reunited at last, looking forward to more of the fun, crazy antics the sisters pulled off in their youth. The reality did not quite match the expectation. Yorktown knew she returned as fun-loving prankster she always was. Hornet was still the brains of the trio, even if she did come back with a slight meek streak that everyone did their best to disabuse her of. But Enterprise…
The Enterprise Yorktown remembered was a Polyanna, who needed no help to look on the bright side. The Enterprise Yorktown remembered was an all-loving soul, who would listen to total strangers to make them feel better. The Enterprise Yorktown remembered smiled easily and often, often with a laugh that spread contagiously no matter how dour you were.
The Enterprise Yorktown came back to…was not the Enterprise Yorktown remembered.
She was hard, covered in a shell as stiff as armor plate, and the times Yorktown saw that shell cracked (the first time they met after returning, for example) the sheer emotion pouring out startled the elder carrier. Enterprise almost never smiled, and even when she did it was just an upturned corner of the mouth rather than the world-brightening, full-face grin Yorktown remembered. But what had the most effect on Yorktown were Enterprise's eyes, so full of joy and caring in her memories, now pools of grief and mourning. Yorktown understood Enterprise survived the war, but that didn't help the fact that any time Yorktown looked her sister in the eye, she could hear—she could feel—the pleading deep in her mind: Please, don't go. Please, stay with me. Please, don't die again.
Yorktown hated it. She hated how her mood plummeted any time she saw her sister, and then in turn she hated herself for not wanting to spend time with her. She would tease her younger incessantly, play pranks, tell jokes; anything to get a smile or just a reaction other than sadness. She called Enterprise "Little E" precisely because seeing the embarrassment in her eyes was better than the alternative. Even if she was (understandably) the USN's go-to carrier instructor she encouraged Enterprise to get out as often as she could. It had been Yorktown that urged Enterprise to go to Japan, and when the brass intervened Yorktown begged Saratoga to go in her stead; anything to get away from the sadness, just for a while.
She hated herself for that, too.
Yorktown had read some psychology books on a sojourn to the library—apparently the thing to do these days was talk about ones feelings rather than just get drunk to forget them. But Yorktown could never bring herself to go all the way, to sit Enterprise down and force her to get it all out. She and Enterprise were finally able to do so for Hornet, and Yorktown acknowledged it was a big step towards bringing Hornet out of the hole of meekness she'd dug herself into and on the road back towards the sassy know-it-all Yorktown remembered, but any time she started to do so for Enterprise she always chickened out when it came time to push. Yet another part of dealing with her sister Yorktown wasn't proud of.
Yorktown sighed deeply, before making sure her mask was on perfectly. Time to face the music. "Hey, Horny! Hey, Little E!" she called out, waving. She ignored the looks on the faces of all the Japanese ships around her.
Hornet blushed deeply and stuck out her tongue, but Enterprise just gave back one of those smile-but-not-really smiles. Damn her. Yorktown gave no inkling to her thoughts as she embraced her sisters, before leading them back towards Nagato—past the Japanese carriers. Akagi and Kaga tensed as the Americans grew near, but their moods devolved into confusion when Hornet and Enterprise sailed past without a second glance. Sorhyu and Hiryu went through a similar cycle.
Enterprise finally seemed to straighten as they passed the third set of aircraft carriers, her gaze sharpening. Her target, Zuikaku, straightened in response, fear flickering across her face before steeling into battle-mode, but Enterprise just pursed her lips and looked away, her body devolving back into its weary gait. Zuikaku blinked repeatedly in confusion writ large, before shifting into smugness upon catching the envy radiating from CarDiv 1.
The Americans exchanged salutes with Nagato, before looking down at the very confident frigate beaming back at them. "So," Enterprise said, "you must be her."
"Yep; UNSC Harvest. You've probably heard a lot about me!" the spaceship responded, bouncing on her heels in excitement.
"And we'll probably hear a lot more," Enterprise nodded, before looking back at the convoy approaching over the horizon. "The Canadians won't be coming with us," she said to Nagato. "They still have their patrols to run."
"Understood," Nagato responded, comfortably sticking to business. "Let us be on our way, then." They turned and started heading towards Japan.
Yorktown lagged behind a little bit, taking in the fleet reforming in the setting sun. A pretty sight to be sure, but what drew Yorktown's eyes more was the Turkey preening like a rooster, her pride a shield impenetrable to Kaga's returning scowl.
Yorktown smirked. No matter what, leave it to her to find the funny.