A/N: This one's a little shorter than usual, but it felt right to end it where it is. I originally intended to move on to the next act immediately, but I found I needed a bridge between the previous act and the next one for some character development. So enjoy some feels.
Disclaimer: I own neither Halo nor Kantai Collection.
Yorktown forced herself to stand still and take a deep breath before she opened the door. Okay, York, you can do this. C'mon, girl, be brave! So steeled, she turned the doorknob and opened the door to the room she shared with her sisters. And sure enough, there lying on the bed, was Enterprise.
To Yorktown's credit, she only hesitated once before walking in and shutting the door. "Hey, E."
Enterprise's eyes opened. "Yorktown."
Yorktown pursed her lips. "Just got word from Saratoga; the Fleet rescued Harvest. Big battle in the Marshals, apparently. She's on her way back now." That's it, York. Start with business, then ease into it…
Enterprise seemed surprised, but nodded. "I'm glad. She sailing in with the next convoy?"
"No, she's flying in. Apparently she fried some big Abyssal with her main engines and took off into the sky. NASA's tracking her now; apparently she'll be by us soon."
"I thought she didn't see the need to fly anymore."
Yorktown shrugged. "You said the Abyssals would make her pay if she thought she was invincible, and they did. Maybe she's learned her lesson."
"Just wish she had taken it to heart before all this happened."
"You can't fix everything, E."
"Don't I know that." Yorktown cursed herself internally; this wasn't going down the road she wanted it to.
As Enterprise started to sit up on the bed, Yorktown tried again. "Look, would it have made our lives easier if she'd listened to you? Sure. But she didn't. Oh well. That's not your fault." Enterprise gave her a look. "You did all you could, you know?" And now I'm fucking babbling. Christ, I'm bad at this.
Enterprise suddenly looked down beneath her knees. "That's…the last thing Northampton said to me."
Yorktown's mouth opened and closed. This is it, York. This is the time that you push. Now, damnit! Get her to talk! "E…"
A sudden scream, echoing in and out from Doppler, tore the two carriers out of their conversation. Just as Yorktown opened her mouth to try to get back on track again, the scream halted with a loud crash, followed by another impact, followed in turn by something splashing into the bay.
Enterprise sighed. "Ten bucks says that's Harvest come back." She moved to get up. "I should get back to work."
No! Stop her! 'E, Harvest can wait.' 'E, we need to talk.' Something! Anything! But anything Yorktown tried caught in her throat. She finally broke out of it just in time to see the door close again.
Yorktown's hands balled into fists. Coward! Coward! You fucking coward! "Damnit!" she half-yelled half-sobbed. She sank onto the bed her sister had just vacated and buried her head in her hands.
"Well," Yorktown sniffled, trying to keep her composure, "at least I tried." It didn't help.
Harvest winced as her skinned knees submerged into the bath water. She really needed to practice flying more. At least she was able to round the planet without too much of an issue, but her latest attempt at landing had seen her smash the small shed Shimakaze used as an engine workshop, before bouncing across the walkway and into the water.
Aside from a few scratches and scuff marks, her rig was somehow unharmed. Harvest herself not so much. She was covered in scrapes and bruises, and that was before Shimakaze came after her for wrecking her engine prototypes. Thankfully Nagato showed up to restrain the furious destroyer and Ooyodo helped Harvest drop her rig off at Akashi's and make her way to the repair docks.
Fashioned after a traditional Japanese communal bath, the repair docks were a novel experience for Harvest. UNSC ships only had showers on board, and even those were highly regulated, the ship's water supply far too precious to waste on prolonged bathing. For someone so used to such spartan arrangements, a large heated pool with smelling salts and water jets was as alien as the Covenant. Harvest settled into the water with a contented sigh, and relaxed.
"I should have known you'd be in here." Harvest opened her eyes and saw Enterprise standing by the pool side. "You made quite the crater coming in."
Harvest smiled nervously. "Two craters, actually. One of them is that scantily-clad destroyer's workshop." Enterprise raised an eyebrow. "Made it around the planet alright, just gotta work on my landings."
Harvest expected the carrier to start lecturing immediately, but to her surprise Enterprise just grabbed a chair and sat by the pool for a bit, staring into the water. After a short uncomfortable silence, Harvest spoke up slowly. "I'm…sorry. For not believing you. You were right; if I don't remember I'm mortal the enemy will be more than happy to remind me."
"Don't worry about it," the American murmured. Another uncomfortable silence resulted, but before Harvest could speak up again Enterprise suddenly asked, "Your captain was a history teacher, you said, right?" When Harvest nodded, she continued, "What does he know about World War Two?"
"Almost nothing," Harvest replied bluntly. Enterprise looked up in surprise. "If Copeland hadn't done some digging for me after I arrived here I wouldn't even know what that was," Harvest went on. "How much do you know offhand about the 1300s?" When Enterprise conceded the point, Harvest continued, "Copeland went on and filled a lot in for me when I was trapped down there; there wasn't much else to do, after all. I know you all are the returned forms of World War Two-era warships. And he told me a lot about you, Enterprise." Made me realize why you sometimes act like a know-it-all, Harvest added mentally, but refrained from saying out loud.
Enterprise nodded, leaning back in her chair and placing her hands atop her head. "I can still smell it, you know? In my nightmares, I can still smell the stench of burning oil."
"Is this when you sailed into Pearl Harbor?" Harvest felt proud for remembering that fact. Maybe her education wasn't a lost cause after all.
The American nodded again. "I was supposed to be there, do you know that? I was supposed to be coming in the channel right when they attacked. I was running late; ran into some weather and couldn't refuel my escorts. Pushed us back a few hours." The carrier shook her head. "What a difference that made. When I heard what was happening, I searched all over for the enemy, but I couldn't find them. I wound up coming into Pearl almost exactly twenty-four hours after the attack. After I was supposed to be back.
"I can still see everything as though it just happened today. Nevada, beached on the sand. Oklahoma, upside down, men with drills and torches standing atop her bottom, cutting out survivors trapped in her hull. And Arizona, just a mass of fire, she burned for days after the attack." Enterprise leaned forward again, gazing into the swirling water. "Any time I close my eyes I see that," she said sadly.
Harvest nodded slowly. "Enterprise, have you ever seen a nuke?"
The American carrier blinked. "I can't say that I have, but I feel that's an experience I don't mind missing out on." The two ships smiled. "Why do you ask?"
"When a nuclear weapon—or anything of that magnitude, for that matter—goes off, it generates so much heat that it literally cooks the ground beneath it. It melts sand, and cooks it into glass."
Harvest took a deep breath before continuing. "The Covenant…always have a pattern. They show up above a planet, and send troops down to the surface, even running through the fleet to do so. Considering they could just blast us all from orbit, why the Covies send troops to the ground is beyond me, but it's like they're looking for something, though no one knows what. Then while fighting rages on the ground the Covenant ships pull back and consolidate, and then fight it out with the fleet overhead. This can go one for weeks or even months, but eventually I guess the Covies get sick of the game and withdraw to their ships.
"Large Covenant ships have what the intel boys call an 'energy projector'; a very large plasma beam. They fire that at the ground, and it turns to glass. And they do this to entire planets," Harvest finished softly.
It took a couple false starts for the frigate to get going again. "The last little bit, when the Covie troops pull back to their ships, is always the worst. Every ship scrambles to load up as many people as they can, and yet for every group you take on you know, you know, that thousands of people are about to be left to die.
"My skipper, back when he was a teacher, came off the planet Arcadia. He was evacuated along with his students, but the rest of his family was left behind. He swore that every time we evacuated a planet, we would take in as many people as possible, wait as long as we could before bugging out. Both planets I evacuated we left with the hangers and hallways crammed with refugees, and we left so late had we stayed even a few more seconds we would have eaten a plasma torpedo or something. And still we left so many behind."
Harvest tucked her knees against her chest. "I can still remember the cries people made when my engines lit. This massive wail rising from the ground that chased me out of orbit. The screams across the comm. channels as the Covenant turned an entire planet to glass. I watched green and vibrant worlds be covered in these red, angry scars, and no matter how many I saved all I can think about is how many I left to die!"
Enterprise's mouth opened and closed a couple times. "You can't save everyone," she sighed, as though she knew that statement would do no good. "But that didn't stop you from trying," she smiled softly.
Harvest felt her cheeks heating and gave a watery smile. Maybe carrier and frigate weren't so different after all.
Yorktown finally finished relaying the story of her attempt to her youngest sister and sighed. "Hornet," she said softly, "I need help. I can't do this alone. I'm sorry…"
Her sister's arms wrapped around her. "You're not alone," Hornet whispered, "and the next time we see her, we'll sit her down and talk to her, together, alright?" Yorktown returned the hug, starting to feel braver already.
The sound of a door opening startled the two carriers out of their embrace. "Enterprise!" Hornet and Yorktown exchanged glances. "…How's Harvest?"
"Fine," Enterprise replied, before she suddenly walked over and corralled her sisters into a rib-breaking hug. Yorktown blinked in surprise; E hadn't done that to her since she was first summoned.
"Enterprise, are you alright?" Hornet said gently.
"'m fine," Enterprise replied, releasing them enough to look at her two fellow carriers. "I just want to say…that I'm so happy that you're here. With me. Again." She gave her sisters a watery smile.
The three sisters stayed in their embrace for a very long time.