Disclaimer: I own neither Halo nor Kantai Collection.

"Yay! Food!"

Tenryuu smiled as her destroyers dashed into the cafeteria. Early on, Tenryuu and Tatsuta had agreed on the importance of setting a routine and keeping to it, something the destroyers seemed to appreciate (though that wouldn't stop them complaining sometimes). The destroyers never liked getting up at six in the morning, but the smell of food never failed to make the little girls resigned—even excited—to be awake.

Having gathered their food and claimed their usual table, the six ships set down to eat. Tenryuu always liked to keep an ear out for the other ships filing in. Some early risers—secretary ship Nagato and her assistant Ooyodo chief among them—were already finishing up and making their way out of the cafeteria. Others kept to different routines; Fubuki, for example, liked to go for a morning jog before eating. Tenryuu had no idea how Fubuki had enough fuel to run without eating, but applauded the destroyer's commitment nonetheless.

The past month and a half, however, had seen some ships that garnered interest simply for defying a routine: Yorktown, for example, seemed to like to sleep late and shower before going for food. For the past week, one ship in particular stood out from the rest. And judging by the sudden quiet that seemed to spread through the dining hall, that one ship had arrived.

Tenryuu turned to see Enterprise grab a food tray and make her way down the line. The varying reactions to the American ship never failed to amuse Tenryuu; in many ways she just seemed to defy everyone's expectations. Many of the battleships—the two largest chief among them—had expected the American to be a grand and regal lady worthy of being considered a symbol of her nation, like Yamato or Hood. The aircraft carriers—Akagi and Kaga chief among them—had feared the American to be a monster, the "Gray Ghost" whose story is whispered with a flashlight framing ones face. Many cruisers and destroyers had imagined the American to be a swashbuckling corsair, one who embodied the motto to "Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit Often". Sendai had hoped the American to be as excited for the darkness as she, a fellow "Yasen Baka".

Reality, Tenryuu reflected as Enterprise moved towards a table in the very corner of the room, had left many confused, relieved, and disappointed kanmusu in its wake. The battleships found the grand and regal lady to be small and unassuming, her lack of interest in her appearance made obvious by everything from her oft-patched coat to her short-cut brown hair to her visible lack of makeup. The carriers had found the Grey Ghost utterly uninterested in settling historical grudges: her incredulous stare in response to Kaga's challenge to competition soon after Alaska had been the talk of Yokosuka for the past couple days. The smaller ships had been disappointed by their swashbuckling corsair as well: it was a rare moment anyone got more than a sentence out of Enterprise that was unrelated to business, and facial expressions were even more strictly rationed than her words. For such an extraordinary kanmusu, the Japanese were eternally shocked how incredibly ordinary Enterprise was.

That said, Tenryuu thought as she watched the American eat, her mannerisms were anything but ordinary. Kanmusu typically couldn't wait to get out of their equipment when returning to base, but Enterprise was never without her weapon. Entering the bath/shower area after the Alaska fight, Tenryuu had been surprised to see an ammunition belt hanging off the towel hook next to the shower, Enterprise's rifle right next to it, but even more interesting had been the fact that the towel itself was underneath the belt, as though the American truly feared an enemy attack so much she was willing to grab her weapon and dash into battle naked. Enterprise was also surprising in that she seemed to reject routine; though she was always an early riser, she'd appear in the mess hall at different times and from different paths. In preparation for their American guests, Nagato had also made sure the cafeteria served traditional western fare, but Enterprise seemed to vary, picking up fruits and unbuttered toast or bagels, disdaining syrup on pancakes or waffles and instead eating them plain. She'd even occasionally grab a rice ball or a small piece of meat, though she always seemed to eat those first. No eggs, no soups.

It had been Hibiki who finally deciphered the common theme on day five: everything Enterprise grabbed were things she could stick into her pocket to eat later if there was an emergency.

It wasn't until the American carrier raised her finger and started moving it right and left like an eye exam that Tenryuu realized Enterprise had stopped eating and was giving her a quizzical look. The eyepatched cruiser blushed hard, her eyes dropping to her plate faster than a falling bomb.

"What's wrong, Tenryuu-san?" Tenryuu looked back up to see her destroyers all facing her, honest curiosity on their faces. But she couldn't just say that Enterprise had caught Tenryuu staring at her; that would give the wrong impression! And giving the destroyers that wrong idea was the last thing Tenryuu wanted to do; Tatsuta would kill her, and that was if she didn't die out of sheer mortification first.

"I was just thinking…Enterprise looks so lonely all the way in the corner over there." Phew, that was close, she thought as the destroyers stood atop the benches to see across the room. A glance at her sister, however, showed Tatsuta's right eyebrow perfectly perched. Tenryuu smiled nervously. Gulp.

"Yeah… She really does, doesn't she?"

"I got an idea; why don't we invite her over to sit with us!"

"Horosho."

"Alright, let's do it!"

"Hey, wait! I'm supposed to be the leader! Wait for meeeee!"

The whole exchange happened so fast that Tenryuu and Tatsuta barely had enough time to whip their heads around before the destroyers were off into the breakfast crowd. Staring at the vacant seats across the table, Tenryuu whispered fearfully, "There's no way she'll say yes, right?"

Tatsuta started to shake her head—the American seemed like one of those people who just seemed to prefer being alone, after all—but all movement halted immediately as the four destroyers popped right back out of the crowd…with the comparatively tall figure of USS Enterprise following sedately behind them.

Oh. Oh, dear.

The destroyers were quick to clear enough space for Enterprise to set down her tray—not nearly as much space as, say, Akagi would need, but significant nonetheless—and the five ships sat back down at the table, the carrier flanked by two destroyers on either side. The American nodded in greeting at the two cruisers before going back to her breakfast.

Well, now what? Tenryuu and Tatsuta looked at each other, as though daring the other to speak first. There was never any question who would win that fight. Tenryuu gulped. Well, damn the torpedoes—an American phrase she loved the moment she heard it—time to break the ice!

"So…how's it going?" A voice inside Tenryuu's head started slow-clapping. Outstanding, Tenryuu. Out-fucking-standing! Real stellar intro, there! Keep it up!

"Nothing much to say," Enterprise responded, swallowing her toast. "Harvest continues to remind me of your First Carrier Division, and any attempts to persuade her otherwise—or for that matter, that she'll be better used in orbit rather than stomping Abyssals to death—have been rebuffed." She might as well be giving a report, Tenryuu thought.

Still, any conversation was better than none, she supposed. "How does she remind you of First CarDiv?"

"She believes herself invincible. She knows her training is superior, her equipment is superior, and her protection is superior. But because she knows she is superior, she believes anything the enemy might do to counter her will fail as a matter of course. And that worries me."

"But she's so powerful!" Ikazuchi interjected. "She laughed off a battleship oni! Nothing the Abyssals have can hurt her!"

"She is certainly very powerful, I cannot deny that. There is little question her armor and weapons show the effects of five hundred years of advancement, but that does not make her invulnerable."

"Harvest says she knows that, but that the enemy will have to swarm her in numbers, nanodesu."

Enterprise paused long enough to take a sip of water. "At the end of 1941, the Japanese navy was larger than any other force in the Pacific. You had more aircraft carriers than we did, and they were all concentrated in one ocean rather than split between two. Our battleship line was sunk in the mud of Pearl; yours was alive and kicking. Your pilots were hardened veterans, ours kids who had barely completed flight school. Your fighters could fly rings around ours, and your planes could strike far beyond the range of ours. Not only did your torpedoes actually work, but they worked far better than we thought possible. And the end of December, 1941, the Japanese navy was, without question, the best."

The American stopped and took another sip of water. "The problem was, you were the best, and you knew it. And because you knew it, you were blinded to the thought that we might try to counter it. And we abused that blindness, frequently and maliciously. Japan was blind to the thought that we might break their codes. Japan was blind to the thought that our fighters might adapt tactics to negate the Zero's advantages and highlight its disadvantages. Japan was blind to the fact that the destruction of our battle line forced us to develop strategies that would account for that lack, and minimize that loss. And Japan was blind to the fact that every American survivor came away with precious experience and insight that was immediately spread across the fleet, whereas every Japanese loss was a dearth of experience and training Japan could never replace."

Tenryuu could see out of her peripheral vision that some of the kanmusu at neighboring tables turn their attention towards the conversation, but Enterprise did not seem to notice as she continued, "I've noticed some Japanese cling to the idea that they lost simply because we outproduced them. I suppose that is a comforting myth, but it is also a false one; by the time all the new carriers and battleships started hitting the field in 1943, the forces that made Japan such a strong power in 1941 were already broken. The United States won the war by outfighting Japan. We minimized our weaknesses and highlighted our strengths, whereas Japan was too blinded by their superiority to realize what we were doing until it was too late. And that is why I worry for Harvest."

The sudden shift back to the spaceship startled many of the listening neighbors out of their eavesdropping, but it seemed like the Tenryuu's destroyers followed along. "You think they'll come up with a new Abyssal to counter her?" Akatsuki asked.

"I don't know," Enterprise answered honestly, which seemed to surprise the DesDiv 6 destroyers. "They might try to directly counter her with a new design, they might adapt their tactics to try to minimize Harvest's advantages, they might try to just bait Harvest in and spring a trap. What I do know is that as long as Harvest believes she's untouchable anything the Abyssals might try stands a far greater chance of proving her wrong."

As Enterprise sighed again Tenryuu remembered back to her conversation with Harvest the day after she arrived, when she wandered into the bathhouse as Tenryuu was being repaired. "Enterprise," Tenryuu said slowly, "How much do you know about the war where she came from?"

The American ship raised an eyebrow. "Not much; she won't tell me anything, and it seemed like rather traumatic memories for her." The latter part of the sentence trailed off towards a softness Tenryuu hadn't expected out of the gruff carrier.

"The day after she arrived here," Tenryuu said slowly, "she confided to me a bit about the war where she came from. I won't pass on any details—you'd have to get those from her—but from what she told me it seemed like the enemy had such an advantage over her, and that she was paying the price."

Enterprise nodded slowly. "That would start to explain why she feels so comfortable with a technological advantage, but that still doesn't discount the possibility that the enemy could be outfought as well."

"You'd have to ask her," Tenryuu said quickly. "I could…try and help, if you need it."

Enterprise shook her head. "Your patrols are too important. There's been a lot of Abyssal subsurface activity lately."

"There has?" That was certainly news to Tenryuu! But it did explain why she was ordered for regular patrols rather than another resource run.

The American nodded. "They've started noticing Abyssal subs acting up all over the place. Destroyers are having a field day."

Tenryuu nodded slowly, trying to ignore the shiver making its way down her spine. She feared nothing—she knew so!—but she had been sunk by a submarine. But as long as everyone looked out for each other… "Well, we'll give those Abyssals our all. They won't catch us napping!"

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Enterprise responded with a smile. She stood up and gave a small bow to the Japanese cruiser. "Thank you very much for the advice, Tenryuu. I enjoyed spending time with your kindergarden." She rubbed each of the destroyers on the head, picked up her tray, and made her way out.

It wasn't until after Enterprise left that Tenryuu stopped preening enough to realize what the American had said. Her head whirled around to face Tatsuta, who gazed at her sister with a Cheshire grin. "So…Tenryuu's Kindergarden, eh?"

Paling rapidly, Tenryuu whirled to face her destroyers, but it was too late. "Yep, we're her kids, alright!" Akatsuki crowed.

"Hawawawa…"

"Horosho."

Tenryuu buried her face in her hands, her cheeks glowing red. A hand patted her on the back. "There, there," Tatsuta soothed, "No matter what, you'll always have your children."

"God damn it, Tatsuta."

"Tell me about your war."

The question hadn't been phrased quite like that, but Harvest understood it to be the gist of it. And such a change of pace from her interrogator put Harvest on guard. "Why the hell should I?"

Enterprise shrugged; if she was bothered in the slightest by the hostility she did a good job hiding it. "I want to know. You seem confident that you know what you're talking about; tell me how you know."

Harvest practically jumped for joy—a reaction she never expected to have when asked to talk about the Covenant, but this was it. Finally, at long last, a chance to show this overbearing know-it-all what it truly felt like to be fighting a war where the enemy held all the advantages. So, without considering the possibility that Enterprise might have an alternative motive, Harvest started from the top.

First contact, how the enemy attacked without warning or provocation, how only one sentence was spoken before the fighting began.

The grinding five-year fight for control of Harvest. The fact that the UNSC only won fleet engagements with a three-to-one numbers advantage, and even then with seventy-five percent losses. (She made sure Enterprise noted down that statistic.)

The additional Covenant advances through the outer colonies. How her skipper was a history professor on Arcadia who was evacuated along with his students. How her skipper's wife and daughter were not so lucky.

The Cole Protocol, and how it was responsible for stretching a war that would have been over in several months into one that lasted for decades. And finally, herself.

"I was born—constructed, whatever—in 2546 at the frigate shipyards orbiting the inner colony of Epsilon Eridani II—Reach. I was in my first battle before a month had passed."

"What did you do?"

"My job was ground support. Light frigates aren't worth much in fleet battles; we don't carry many missiles, and can't recharge our MAC fast enough to be worthwhile. So we're relegated to ground support; providing orbital fire for the ground troops to try to hold the enemy back."

"And how long were you at this for?"

"…A few days," Harvest replied quietly. "I don't remember the name, but it was a small colony. There wasn't much in the way of defense."

"How was the Fleet fighting back? Were they trying any tactic they could or—"

"I don't remember," Harvest cut the carrier off. "I didn't see. I was focusing on my job and evacuating civilians."

"Alright," Enterprise said, holding up her hands.

Harvest briefly skipped past her second battleground—another colony she couldn't remember, but this fight took several months rather than a few days. Still, though, at the end the result was the same: Fleet couldn't hold the Covenant back anymore, the ships evacuated, and the colony was glassed. And then, Harvest progressed on to her last battle.

"Skopje was a large colony world, with a population of several million and a shipyard. During the battle Command decided that evacuating the shipyard's material, tools, and workers and setting them back up on Reach would be a better use of resources than keeping the shipyard working until they were overrun. They dispatched five large transport ships to carry everything, along with any civilians that could be evacuated off the surface."

"Were you ground support for this operation, too?"

"No. I was assigned to guard the transport ships. I dropped off the Marines and the one tank in my complement and proceeded upstairs to get into position. Two fellow Stalwarts were ordered to insert their ODSTs at a castle some guy built that served as a blocking position from the yards. I don't know what happened to them.

"After a while either the shipyards were evacuated or command decided we couldn't stay there anymore, I don't know. But either way we were ordered to jump to deep space following the Cole Protocol. The convoy would make several more random jumps before heading back to Reach. Things didn't go quite to plan."

"What happened?"

"The Covies jumped after us. We were waiting for the transports' drives to recharge when they appeared: two destroyers and a cruiser. Our force numbered four light frigates—myself included—three heavy frigates, and one light cruiser. The Pillar of Autumn."

"So that's eight against three," Enterprise said. Harvest was glad the carrier seemed to be paying attention to the numbers. Maybe her story was having the desired effect after all.

Harvest nodded. "We got lucky; there's a moment delay after the Covenant leave slipspace before their shields come back up, and one of the Paris heavy's managed to sneak a MAC round right through that brief gap and nail a destroyer. It was promptly gutted by an energy projector in turn." Harvest trailed off, her mind back on the memory of that day.

"What happened next?" Enterprise asked. When no answer came back, the carrier prodded. "Harvest?"

"Sorry; can we take a break, maybe get some air?" Harvest asked far too quickly for her liking, but she really didn't want to think about her last day.

To her relief, Enterprise agreed. The two walked out of the office, Harvest grabbed her equipment, and Enterprise stood on the shore as the frigate stepped into the bay—just to stretch her legs, she told herself. Gliding across the water, she breathed as deeply as she could, trying to get her mind off a place where she could be killed by a mere back-swipe, back to the here and now where nothing stood a chance of standing in her way.

Before she had a chance to react, a hand shot out of the deep, grabbed Harvest by the ankle, and yanked her under the waves.