Aerial floated on, the counter on the Heads-Up Display ticking down each second as the two women were left with their own thoughts, the food and water they gathered and the guns they carried. Around them, the debris field's many pieces danced erratically, to the point the slightest puffs of their directional thrusters were necessary to adjust so they didn't bump head-to-metal with one of the chunks of what appeared to be a Titanium alloy.
Miorine, her helmet sitting beside her, chowed down on the cold lunch they'd found in the cafeteria of the Trafalgar, thinking of the alien fleet only a few thousand distance units away from them and this debris field, not to mention the starfighters orbiting the place and the capital ships with enough firepower to vaporize them ten times over. What they faced here far outdid even Plant Quetta and these DAWN OF FOLD terrorists they met there.
It was now, in this situation, that she hoped Suletta could find it in her to spill blood again. Because if the aliens showed themselves, or if they were spotted, their sole hope of even barely scraping by to get out alive would be to fight. She looked over toward the timer, noting they were less than one hour away. And, indeed, through the zoom of Aerial's cameras, she could make out the UNSC ship they were heading toward. It seemed to be a somewhat smaller vessel than the Carrier they were aboard.
Scratch that, it was much smaller. Miorine thought to herself that it was, at least, a form of shelter. Even without her engines active, the Frigate ahead would very likely provide a nice bit of downtime. Hopefully, it would even provide some form of way out of this mess. If humanity had managed to make some form of space colonies out in other systems, maybe that meant some form of Faster-Than-Light travel... Ugh, Miorine knew she was just hyping herself up for nothing. She frowned and continued eating.
Suletta had noticed this, however. Though her hands were sweating at the controls of Aerial, she knew better than to let her bride stew in her own thoughts. She looked up and whispered, "Aerial... Can you take care of our travel for a bit?" before a chirp echoed. Suletta smiled, "Thank you..." as she stood up from her seat and grabbed food, too. Miorine looked up at that and wanted to jump into the chair herself, but Suletta showed her to wait.
Miorine's groom approached, gently taking her hands into her own and taking a knee as she asked, "Are you well, miss Miorine...?" her usual stutter seemingly gone. Had she picked up that Miorine was a bit downtrodden? An impressive show of awareness, the Heiress thought as she looked at her hands being clasped by her supposed future groom. She chewed a bit more on the piece of chicken in her mouth, then swallowed and shook her head, trembling a little. Suletta leaned closer and asked, "What's wrong?"
"... I think the Adrenaline of our wakeup has finally worn off. I'm processing things and..." The white-haired girl stated, looking up at Suletta's piercing blue eyes as her shakes intensified. Suletta, worried beyond belief, seemed to forego her usually shy, stuttering demeanor, holding onto Miorine's gloved hands as if she was keeping her from falling. Suletta may not have known, Mio surmised, that she was in fact keeping her from spiralling into what one would account for a deep depression.
They were in unknown, hostile territory, floating amongst hundreds of thousands of corpses of human soldiers and seamen that could do little to stop the enemy fleet that had come down upon their world like an apocalypse of biblical proportions. What her little redheaded groom had managed to do was seemingly stabilize the girl, who simply stared back at her cute, yet determined face with awe. The redhead smiled softly and stated, "We'll be fine... I'm sure rescue will find us. We just have to hang on and make sure we stay put... And if push comes to shove, I'll keep you safe. I promise."
Despite the warm smile, the Heiress saw something else in the bumpkin's eyes. A resolve of steel to get them out of there safe. Strangely, mere hours ago, she had seen Suletta wear the exact same fearful expression as her. Now, it was like she gazed upon a different person. Someone entirely dedicated to keeping both of them safe. At that fact, Miorine could only nod to her Groom, offering a weak half-smile and a whispered, "Thank you..."
Suletta's own smile grew as she said, "No problem. Now, let's eat!" before plopping herself down and picking her own food up. Sure, the stuff was cold, but to both young women it felt like the best food they'd tasted in their lives. So far, anyhow. They were still alive for however long that would last. And knowing Suletta, Mio mused to herself, that would be a long while now.
Her Groom spoke, "We're only thirty minutes away from the ship, so we'll be fine... We'll take cover in there and wait."
"Yeah," Mio nodded, smiling, "Thanks, Suletta..."
The ever-pure girl beamed, "You're welcome, miss Miorine..." and that got the white-haired one's heart to skip a beat. With a flush threatening to appear on her cheeks, Mio cleared her throat and went back to eating. After a few minutes, the two had finished their cold dinners and Suletta had sat herself back into her pilot's seat, while Miorine attempted to figure out the controls of her personal rifle.
She blinked, paused and thought to herself that it was better to remove the magazine and ammo. She did so, removing the box magazine and racking back the charging handle, watching the bullet float aimlessly for a moment before almost dropping back down to the floor due to the minimal acceleration force. She grabbed it out of flight and slid it back into the magazine, before shouldering her weapon and peering down the scope.
Her time working with the security staff in their mansion had helped somewhat alleviate her lack of knowledge in terms of firearms. She was still as blunted by modern weapon advancements as the next person, but this weapon seemed to be far closer to the reality of what Earthians would use during the raid on Quetta, much more, during their rebellions against the Corporations, present or previous.
As she examined the weapon's features thoroughly, she lay with her own thoughts of home. She could hate Dawn of Fold all she liked, but she could not judge them. A rat driven into a corner would bite the cat as the saying went. Earthians hadn't been anything but driven into corners, with the continued exploitation of Humanity's original cradle by soulless corps and their escorting security forces keeping the protests down.
She wondered how Guel was doing. Mister Jeturk had gone missing a while after his father was pronounced dead. For all intents and purposes, as much as she hated the brat's pompous attitude, she could only hope he'd made it out of that mess unscathed and untouched by the attack. With a heavy sigh, the girl set the rifle to the side and slid its mag back, letting it click into place and making sure the safety was on. She had also taken a pistol, though neither she, nor Suletta seemed to recall when she grabbed it.
Gently standing up and trotting to the pilot seat's left side, the girl leaned against it and watched the ground and debris and the dead around them float around. A metallic thunk here, a clink there, the rare hard impact of a Titanium shard against the plates of Aerial, all of them had been noises they'd heard in their travels. The ship lay dead ahead of them, a large vessel. Large enough to accommodate them, it seemed. Her engines had been blown out, plasma having hit the nacelles containing two thrusters each, probably boiling the ignition mechanisms away.
Suletta jerked to the left. Aerial did the same. Miorine froze, then felt a sudden gravitational shift as Suletta powered Aerial's thrusters. Two blue dots winked in the distance, slowly resolving into the teardrop aircraft they'd seen before. The girls slid into cover behind a half of a UNSC fighter, basically one of the wings, hiding there as the two craft passed by, their reverberating engines causing the Aerial to shudder and the girls, to feel like their teeth were falling out of their mouths.
Both let out breaths that they were holding and Miorine could swear she heard Aerial do the same. The Gundam and its pilot pushed them away from the remains of the fighter and grabbed onto the edge of the hull, swinging themselves into the rear hangar of the heavy frigate they aimed to use as cover. As soon as they did, gravity seemed to settle them in, causing the Gundam to land on its two feet with a loud clang as the ship's back sealed and atmosphere was pumped into the hangar.
With a sigh of relief, the two girls popped open the canopy and slowly descended onto the hangar deck, feeling the weight of proper ground under them. Suletta smiled, then gasped and yelped as Miorine tossed her her rifle. She barely caught it mid-air before slinging it onto her back and giving a quick, embarrassed nod. Mio smiled, then motioned for her to follow.
Both unslung their weapons off their shoulders and turned on underslung or shoulder mounted lights as they walked through, Suletta taking the lead with her AR. A scoped rifle would be of very little use in an enclosed space, but Mio had still had the dumb thought of finding it useful to grab one. The fact artificial gravity still operated, along with the distant hum of a generator or reactor's reverbs giving a slight shake to the ship made the girls ease up.
Advancing up from the ship's hangar bay, where the Aerial had been parked, the girls entered the ship's sprawling hallways, finding that recessed lights still worked within the ship itself. As they kept walking, the doors they marched past opened, too, revealing eerily empty rooms, a medical bay along the way, another mess hall and a place that was locked, but was apparently the ship's Officer Club.
The space within the Frigate was surprisingly just as confined as the UNSC Carrier they'd been on. That vessel sizes really didn't affect the size of corridors was a hint surprising, but nonetheless welcome for the two as they marched deeper into the place. Another armory lay off to the right, several escape pod hatches that were closed not much farther ahead telling of the ship's perhaps successful evacuation, though it had presumably led them into the aliens' weapons.
Dead in the water, but not completely dead, Miorine thought as they attempted to enter the bridge of the vessel. She sighed, tapping away at the screen, before murmuring, "Oxygen issues... I'm guessing they drilled a hole into the bridge, too..." before looking to Suletta and tapping her helmet. The redhead nodded, making sure both of their helmets were sealed and tight.
The Heiress hit the override button, the hull of the ship letting out a short groan. Both girls pressed themselves against the walls to the sides of the door so that they didn't get sucked out with the oxygen blowing outward. They marched into the bridge the moment the whirlwind settled and looked around, assessing the damage. Two windows had been blown out, only a couple of consoles worked and blood stained many of the consoles on the deck, sparks flying from damaged ceiling panels and hanging wires.
"At least it's habitable beyond the bridge," Murmured Miorine as she slung her rifle over her shoulder and marched to one of the working consoles. Activating it, she saw diagnostics running across the screen in clear-cut English. At least that worked, still, she thought as she started typing away on it. With a soft sigh, she told Suletta, "It has been wiped, too. Probably Cole Protocol again."
"D-Do we have any idea what that is?" Her groom's stutter seemed to have returned, causing Mio to smile a little.
She replied, "Well, I do have a manual here..." as she lifted a tablet up from the floor and opened it, wiping a blood stain off the top corner. She started reading... Then furrowed her brows and summarized it for Suletta, "COLE PROTOCOL, the protocol for the protection of Earth and All Her Colonies, is to be enacted only in case of Code WINTER CONTINGENCY being declared. It contains multiple points in regards to keeping the location of Earth and another planet named Reach safe... Including the total destruction of data should a ship be disabled or captured by 'The Covenant'."
"Guess we know what we can call these aliens," Suletta quipped, approaching.
Miorine hummed, thumbing the tablet. It was someone's personal diary. She read the name of the person on the top of the tablet, "Howard, James, UNSC Gettysburg, ensign. Gunnery officer, it seems..." then continued reading the diary. She narrowed her lips and whispered, "He lost his home. Colony world named Miridem... And as it turns out," as she peered out through the window at the planet below, "That is Reach... The last bastion of humanity before Sol and Earth." her voice solemn.
"... Oh..." Suletta covered her mouth, watching the wildfires raging on the surface...
Mio nodded, then looked over the tablet, thinking to herself just how lucky the crewman must've been that these Covenant didn't yet enter the ship to search it. She thumbed the tablet's copying system and let it copy all the data over, then pulled out a crystalline data storage device and slotted it into a pocket in her suit and proceeded to search for a way to fully wipe the data.
Once she did, she snapped the tablet in half, murmuring, "We'll get your letters home, Ensign Howard..." as she tossed the two electronic pieces to the floor and continued looking through the console. The redhead beside her gave a small smile, still holding the assault rifle close, before deciding to provide cover for Miorine as she worked her way through the data. With a more heavy sigh, the girl said, "Seems she expended all her ammunition in the fight. Probably took down a few Covenant ships... The Mass Accelerator Cannon's still intact, but there's no ammo."
"That must be the spinal weapon," Suletta voiced, eyeing the schematics of the ship, though corrupted, appearing on the screen.
Miorine nodded, then told her, "Not like we had any use for weapons when the Covenant's still around in force..." as she attempted to scratch her chin, only for her fingers to press against the glass of her helmet. The girl turned off the console and quietly whispered, "Let's go back into the ship's hull. We'll be somewhat safer there..." as she walked back toward the door. Suletta trailed close behind, with the two shutting the door to the bridge.
As pressure equalized between their suits and the shipboard atmosphere yet again, the two removed their helmets and entered the Officers' Club. A large oak table lay in the middle, scored by cigar burns. Behind it was a cabinet of liquors that the two girls really didn't find the ideas of appetizing at the moment. Perhaps, if they got desperate enough, Miorine thought, they could drink themselves silly and die like that.
She shook the thought off as she scanned the walls, noting the UNSC flags on poles flanking each side of the table, plus the artpieces depicting the American Civil War battle after which the ship had presumably been named, men marching in formations and cannons firing their deadly cannonballs at their enemies. She sighed deeply, pulling back one of the leather chairs and plopping herself down onto it as she rubbed her face.
"... I hope someone comes," The white-haired girl let out, then looked to her Groom as she sat down beside her.
"Someone will," Suletta seemed to be trying to keep both their spirits up. She pulled out another container of food and two bottles of fresh water and set them between them on the oak table. The young woman looked around at everything next, smiling as she said, "I didn't think I'd see a navy's officer club, heh... It feels sort of cozy. All it's really missing is a fireplace."
At that, Miorine snorted, "A fireplace. Inside a ship?"
The redhead blushed and shrugged, bowing her head, "W-Was just saying..."
"Heh," Her bride giggled, "Dork."
While Suletta was a bit embarrassed, she could really only smile at the interaction. She had gotten miss Miorine to smile, she thought, so a little embarrassment was worthwhile if it meant keeping both their heads in the game. They could probably try and sneakily repair the ship's engines if they wanted to, though that'd mean stealing parts from other warships around...
... Suletta had decided to take first watch. Miss Miorine had fallen asleep in the comfortable leather chair she'd sat down on, probably overstressed by the situation they found themselves in. She slept so peacefully that the young redhead from Mercury didn't find it in her heart to wake the poor girl up. So, rifle in hand, she patrolled the hallway outside, considering their options for getting out alive. She wondered if the warship had any sort of actual FTL, since there were so many planetary colonies and this was, apparently, a different system.
Her problem solving brain tended to kick in when the situation necessitated it. This was one such situation to her. Stuck around a planet being burned away by an alien naval force, surrounded by said force's fighters and other craft and basically waiting for death to come. They'd find a way, though. They always did, somehow. Even during Quetta... Some part of Suletta did feel remorse for the person she killed, though that part had remained eerily quiet throughout their stay here. Her fight or flight instincts had openly kicked in.
Unlike Miorine, though, Suletta's adrenaline rush didn't fade quite yet. It would probably not fade until they were safe, moving away from this planet in anything that could fly, even at subluminal speeds. She shifted uneasily as she felt a sudden change in gravity, followed by a rumble across the hull of the vessel. She tensed, readying her rifle and running back to the Officer's Club as the rumbling became louder, the ship shaking.
Miorine stirred awake, noting the surprised Suletta, her firearm in hand, then she, too, jumped to her feet, grabbing her rifle. The two took cover, then listened in as the hum grew ever closer, until it was right on top of them. Above, from the ceiling, the reverb of what seemed to be massive pulse engines filtered through. Both girls stared up, beads of sweat rolling down their faces as they kept their rifles at the ready.
... A loud CLANG then echoed across the hull of the ship and caused it to shake. Both girls grabbed onto the wall for support and looked up, the lights around them flickering. Both looked to one-another, put their helmets back on and marched toward the bridge at maximum speed, propping open the doors to the place and holding to the door frame as air blew out again.
They paused, hearts beating in their throats, as they saw a massive alien ship above them, turned upside down, heavily damaged. The bridge consoles that still worked flickered wtih alien iconography for a moment, then flashed back to normal, showing that there was an energy drain in the barely-active fusion reactor aboard. Then, from a strange grey, the consoles flickered to a cool blue...
"... Crew? Alive? No, I'm not detecting neural laces..." A voice echoed over the shipboard PA, female, surprised, "Hey, you two! Can you hear me?"
Both swallowed, neither ready to make the first step and talk with this unknown voice. The consoles flickered blue again, while what seemed to be shipboard cameras turned to face the girls. The voice stated openly, "Look, I'm not gonna hurt you! I can detect you're humans, just... A bit different. I'm a human AI who didn't know there were survivors aboard. Especially Civilians."
"H-Hello...?" Suletta called out, "Y-You just said you're... An AI?"
They could hear the smile with the way the voice spoke, "Yeah... Hey there! Heh. Get closer to the console. We can talk more normally that way..." as the holographic display to the right of the gunnery console flared. The two girls took steps forward, warily, then watched a deep blue avatar form, that of a young woman. The AI smiled and said, "I'll be... Weird space suits, girls."
"Long story," Miorine voiced, "What... Who are you?"
"I'm Cortana. UNSC Smart AI," She greeted with a wave, "You?"
"... Miorine Rembran..." The girl replied, slinging her rifle over her shoulder.
"S-Suletta M-M-Mercury..." Her groom seemed awed, meanwhile, staring at the AI with wide, blue eyes. Cortana simply smiled at both of them, her avatar glowing for a moment as she seemed to make notes. She hummed and checked the status of the ship, then sighed and turned to them. It was strange, honestly. Two girls who looked so different from your average human, Cortana thought, then there was the piece of alien tech in the hangar.
"How long have you two been here?" She asked them, wary.
Miorine shrugged, "Two hours? Maybe more... I fell asleep."
"About two and a half," Suletta clarified.
"Alright..." She nodded, "I'd suggest coming aboard the Ascendant Justice, since we'll be transferring to Slipspace while I initiate some repairs on the Gettysburg side of things. Transfer should be easy since the ships are linked now, though I'd be careful. I still have transient contacts all over the ship..." as she vanished for a moment, then reappeared, "Seems like the old crew wants this one back..."
"Alright," Miorine tensed, "Good to meet a human AI, by the way..."
"Good to meet two survivors," Cortana shot back, "Now, c'mon... Take your strange alien machine with you. Might be useful, heh..." And she vanished again. Miorine and Suletta looked to one-another, then hummed. She probably meant Aerial, which meant their suspicions on the fact that Mobile Suits weren't known or common tech here, much less Gundams.
Listening to the AI's orders, the two girls returned to Aerial, climbing aboard it, with Suletta greeting, "Hey, Aerial... We're gonna be moving. Connecting to shipboard com system now..." as the canopy closed and the mech stood to its feet. The bulkhead separating the hangar from the exterior opened after all air had been cycled into the rest of the Gettysburg, then Suletta pushed them out of it.
To the sight of a massive alien flagship below them, hidden amongst the debris field. Its hull was damaged, skeletal frame beneath exposed, but they could finally see one of the Covenant's ships up close. Even damaged as she was, her weapon mounts, the many dozens or hundreds of them, were still visible. A single ship could probably flatline an entire flotilla...
The two girls squelched those thoughts, diving onto the hull of the Covenant vessel and utilizing Aerial's mobility to drag themselves to the side of the ship, into the open hangar, which was much larger than the UNSC vessel. Large enough to seemingly accommodate a slew of fighters, or maybe quite a few Mobile Suits if push came to shove. Suletta radioed, "W-We're aboard, miss Cortana. You can go now."
"Roger that... Taking us out into Slipspace now. We have meeting to make later, but we can talk while we wait," Cortana told them. The shield of the hangar sealed and, soon, reality seemed to wink away into a dark spiral, all stars vanishing behind ebbing blue waves. Suletta and Miorine both felt the sudden transfer in their guts, with Suletta gagging as she took her helmet off and jumped down into the hangar.
"Welcome aboard, girls..." The AI told them, "Let's hope we're all safe here, because I have a lot of questions."