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Chapter Text

"Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder where the hell you are..." Nicole Brennan's top replayed video of the year so far was Isaac's drunk karaoke record, of course, made before things went pear shaped. And she was watching it again right now, when the Ishimura crawls closer to Aegis VII's dig site.

Planet Anxiety VII was an unpopular but accurate nickname that circulated in small talks of CEC's mental professionals, ever since its first prospecting in 2505. People were notably uneasy right now already.

"Dr. Brennan, they need us at the hangar, it's the pod they caught." One of her coworkers, Anne, knocked at the door to her office. She was a junior level med tech newly rotated to the Ishimura like herself, working in the operating rooms as an organic mechanic like Isaac tends to call them. Anne sounded exhausted, "This should have been Dr. Mercer's job, but he's occupied."

"Meditation? Confession? Anyway I'm always fine to lend you a hand."

"Thanks, Altman be praised." Anne shrugged with irony, "I've got the bio-scraper kit ready."

They arrived at the hangar, where a small crowd has gathered around the so-called pod for free amusement, or morbid curiosity. The pod came across Ishimura's path less than a day ago when it was spat out from a Shockpoint anomaly. It was only a broken chunk of unidentified old machinery, possibly SCAF design, that needed decontamination in case of alien pathogens hitching a ride. Once it was passably clean, the engineering team would try to open it - and then whatever frozen, desiccated poor bastards inside would need to be DNA-sequenced. The Church of Unitology made a vow to identify every lost soul of the Earth Revolution War they ever come across, whether SCAF or Earthgov, and find their next of kin.

The pod was made of a pale white compound metal, flaking off left and right, and looked like the dismembered torso of a giant humanoid. There was even a boxy, oblong head on top of its angular main section. The construction was remarkably advanced, having very few screws or rivets, as if it was all molded from large stamped pieces.

"Hey, doc. There was some pink foam sticking on some seams, we've burnt them off." Security chief Alissa Vincent waved at Nicole, and pointed at some armored guards applying plasma cutters to the pod, "Just wait till the team peel off some more armor, then you can have what's inside."

"Pink foam?" It sounded concerning.

"I guess it's just self sealing material for the fuel tank, something like that. It's gotten brittle after floating for so long. No worries, my gorillas didn't eat any."

Twang! A bolt of plasma beam impacted a connection part on the pod, but scattered right on impact.

"Guess the metal didn't deteriorate, then. Load the Line Gun!"

CRASH!

The line gun did little visible good either.

"Should we call the Bench guys to take over?" The guard who operated the Line Gun asked, "It should be their job."

"How about you get a spoon and take over, Johnston? They're working their asses off prepping the gravity tethers."

"Fine. Ladies, this will take a while, Mike Johnston is taking over for Rousseau and Temple!"

A rusty squeak emerged from within the pod, startling everyone in the pressurized hangar. Knowledgeable professionals from security and engineering began hushing other onlookers away, anticipating a decompression or explosion inside.

Then, a duller metallic creak. Movable parts began shifting on the giant limbless torso, while aiming lasers from all directions danced on them.

"Doko koko? Nande?" A human voice followed, speaking old Earth Japanese. Nobody expected it, bot fortunately the RIG automatic translation programs all kicked in to help, "WHERE HERE? WHY?"

Nicole watched a grimy figure in a ragged old spacesuit climb out under a well armored hatch at the torso's center. He stumbled and nearly faceplanted into the aim of a plasma cutter.

"He looks human, right?" Mike needed an educated medical opinion.

"Tanikaze, wait." Another voice came from the presumed cockpit, a female one also speaking in Japanese, sounding like both a child and a machine. The call made the man in old spacesuit to turn around clumsily.

"My eyes! She's wearing nothing!"

"I think they need medical attention." Nicole said, and Anne gave her a confident thumb up, a line at neck level, "Yeah, clothing too."

////

Tanikaze Nagate, pilot of the Guardian Type 17 humanoid combat vehicle, from colony ship Sidonia, year... 3395. Discovery of two newcomers finally warranted Dr. Mercer's attention, alongside Dr.Kyne's. The possibility of Shockpoint phenomena connecting to the future or other parallel worlds could make the biggest cosmological discovery ever since Altman found the Marker; it energized both of them no matter what they were thinking about an hour ago.

By all means Nagate was a top shape specimen of a human, his vitals and scans looked all normal, while he talked like an upright member of society. Though, he looked borderline unkempt and the artificial slime mold in his spacesuit gave him a lingering trail of odor. Who could have taken "biomechanic" that literally and use slime mold as a part of clothing?

Nicole did appreciated how much he cared about the girl in his cockpit, Hoshijiro Shizuka. Nagate was extremely concerned about two things simultaneously: First, she was not human, and second, he wouldn't let anyone touch her. Emphasis on the former: She was not human, at least not fully human.

The vocabulary used by Nagate and his cockpit operating system was old, not just pre-Earthgov old, but practically extinct before humans settled on the moon: A word they mentioned often, 奇居子 Gauna, is from a dialect of Okinawa. It meant hermit crab, but uncommon in both pronunciation and kanji characters. It should have been 寄居虫 Gouna, "bug that borrows a home", not "kid who live in a strange way". Neither Of these were still commonly used aby the times of Ishimura himself! They were the ultimate unthinking, uncaring nemesis of all humanity.

The pink foam was the main component of the Gauna, a homogeneous substance formed from some Hyggs particle called 胞衣 Ena. It would be Kyne's job to determine whether Hyggs particle is a form of the Higgs boson, while the idea of Ena would keep giving everyone present a headache - the name could mean both placenta, and maybe charitably, plant endosperm.

Hoshijiro Shizuka was a Gauna, built from this substance. Or, she used to be an appendage of a Gauna, reconstituted into a human like shape with this substance. Yes, an appendage that became fully humanoid when it touched him, but didn't bother to grow any socially accepted clothing. Now, severed from the Gauna core, she appeared just as human as him but still had the power to accidentally or casually brush whole armor plates off Alissa's combat armor.

Anyway, Nagate wasn't good at the sciences nor communicating technical details. She was a complicated entity of un-life, although she showed no signs of aggression since emerging from the cockpit.

At the end of the cross-briefing, Dr. Mercer decided from his position of authority to keep Shizuka in a stasis chamber while Nagate would have a temporary room in the medical section. Dr. Kyne would take over the onboard computer.

"Excuse me, Doctor, I'm starting to feel hungry."

"Sorry, Nagate, it took a while longer than expected to record this audio log."

Chapter Text

Chapter 2, Surface tension

////

& 53%

& Data radiation detected in proximity, patter unknown

& Activate data extraction and datamass conversion

O& Starting firmware self-repair...

O& Load OS identity

"Dr. Mercer, we saw an energy surge in the stasis chamber holding... Subject H." Anne reported, "Vitals all remained the same yet. The surge happened just after..."

"Yes, I know. When the Marker was lifted onboard. Its esoteric substance has many unique properties, disturbing the magnetic field is not a major concern."

"Permission to leave Subject H for now, sir? There are a lot of requests from colonists for mental counseling." Nicole sighed. Aegis VII has deteriorated from Planet Anxiety to Planet Aggression. Industrial accidents, suicides, fights, murders, they were snowballing. The Marker ship came with a few violent Prisoners and two dozens of flatlines.

"Sure. I don't see any further progress with Subject H until we're back on Earth. Just keep your chats onboard."

Nicole had to agree with Mercer even though he was dismissive towards finding out anything that could help their not-quite-human patient. Hair and blood sample taken from Subject H, Hoshijiro Shizuka - or as Nagate sometimes concernedly calls her Benezuzme - all appeared to be fully human down to the DNA level. Though, under closer inspection, the molecules from these samples didn't reflect light from a spectrometer the normal way, and their atoms were bonded in a homogenous system never seen before. The cells seemed to store energy all across the spectrum once exposed to, from artificial sunlight to X-ray.

To the average crew member, even most who watched the pod being opened, Nagate's story of a parallel universe was covered up: The two kids simply had an unlucky Shockpoint malfunction in an unidentified private spaceship.

"Hey, do you think her eyes are glowing a little after the power surge, or was it just me?" As they left the observation room, Anne asked Nicole.

"Maybe. You sure it's not just the stasis field?"

"She's giving me very weird feels, not creepy, not like the organ babies... Just very off." Once the door closed she lifted her voice a little, "I can't imagine what's going on with the guy she showed up with. She's dead, she's cloned by aliens, he thought she's alive again, but Mercer doesn't allow him to see her for more than an hour a day."

"You're really picking up a lot of information, Anne."

"I can't help it! We're the first people to see visitors from another universe and they got a fucked up love story. You should come too tomorrow Kyne have me check on Nagate."

"I will, if the workload allows me.... He's reminding me of Issac a little."

////

The captain has declared a no-fly order for the duration of planet cracking. There were arguments about whether it was reasonable, and one small commuter shuttle has left the surface apparently just to debate him on it.

"The craft is registered with Colin and Jen Barrow onboard, guess they want to let Earth know they're the ones who found the Marker first." Mike Johnston briefed Nagate, who was lending a hand to the security team, "You know what is the Marker, right?"

"Yes, like the Kabi." Nagate answered, the RIG attached to his old pilot suit translating for him, "The word Kabi isn't mold or wheat germ... Alien artifact."

"Barrow said his wife has a medical emergency." Zoe, another security officer, reminded them.

"If he's lying, I will brutalize him." Mike tapped his knuckles together, "I've always wanted to beat up a planet cracking foreman. I got an uncle who used to be a rock cutter, he kept getting beaten by foremen. You good with fistfights, pod boy?"

"...No. But I'm trained with spears and sticks." Nagate held up a rubber mop he borrowed from the science department.

"That will do, this should just be a shouting match. I've got the Johnston family special here if we need a bluff." Mike pointed to an old SCAF relic weapon, two electromagnetic submachine guns arranged in an over-and-under system, "It's not loaded, but heavy enough already. Don't use Zoe's pulse rifle if you need a blunt object."

"Roger that. Wait, is that..." They can see the rapidly approaching commuter shuttle racing to squeeze through the hangar doors before cutoff.

"He's gonna make it, thumbs up! Oh shit." Mike commented; the shuttle lost control and slammed into the hangar floor, sending debris and sparks into every corner.

Zoe grabbed a fire extinguisher and started running towards the cockpit: "Lying or not, I'll save him and then shove this up his ass."

The other two followed her to the spacecraft's door, running with magnetic boots; it was scratched and jammed, the whole shuttle almost in even worse shape than Nagate's Type 17 Guardian. In their helmets, they heard the bridge crew quarreling about what to do with the Barrow couple after this reckless flying.

They opened the door with a few extra slams and kicks, then began searching for signs of life. The interior was completely unpowered after the crash landing.

Woosh!

In the pressurized interior, something pierced the air and sailed at Zoe's forehead. She turned reflexively barely in time, the sharp object glancing off her helmet and made her tumble back. Had she not activated zero-G mode on her suit, she would have lost balance and slammed into the floor.

"Huh?" Mike looked around, "Don't get up!"

Another sharp, pointy object emerged from the dark, dashing towards the center of her torso. Both security guards cursed CEC's choice of small linked armor plates over large articulated ones.

Clang! Just before impact, the blade was knocked off its path, bouncing onto the shuttle's interior wall. Nagate floated into view, fully utilizing the long reach of the mop. He sank to the floor, deactivated magnets, then leaped like a released spring, pinning whatever was hiding the shadows onto the ceiling. The rubber tip of the mop snapped from impact, and the broken handle stabbed deep into organic tissue. He has pushed the thing to a relatively safe reach when the other two regained their posture and brought their gun flashlights over.

"Kill it! Answer questions later!" Mike dropped the family special and reached for his standard issue machine pistol, while Zoe flipped off the safety on her pulse rifle.

Once Nagate dove down, pressing himself flat onto the floor, they opened fire in full auto. Blood, skin, bone splinters and scrapes of cloth rained from the heavens. Both guards emptied their magazines before checking on him.

SPLAT!

The pulverized torso of the attacker fell and colored his white space suit blood red. He tried to push it off, but it disintegrated into sickening chunks.

"It looked like a corpse, even before you killed it." He spoke from his split-second firsthand observation, "A corpse. It even looked like a human sized Gauna."

"Gaunas have these things for hands?" Zoe picked up a bone blade that nearly punctured her.

"Not all of them, some have beams and tentacle missiles." He stopped himself before adding that Benisuzume had a massive bone lance, although he wanted to. Kyne and Nicole told him not to bring any unwanted attention to the demi-human girl.

"Jesus fuck, Altman fuck. Boss, command, we have a shitshow on hand. A living corpse with knife hands jumped us." Mike called the bridge, "Wait, we need a repeat on that. Medical deck?"

Nagate's first reaction was to fear for Shizuka's safety. And then, one instance later, he thought he heard a whisper of doubt from himself: Could she have anything to do with the thing in the shuttle?

Chapter Text

Chapter 3, Seeing Red

Because the Ishimura would often operate between different mining stations as a mobile hospital, the Church of Unitology also paid CEC to reserve spaces onboard for an interplanetary hearse service. The medical deck had an outstanding capacity for bodybags and coffins, but today the crew found it hard to keep track of "flatline intake"s from Aegis VII despite the no-fly order. Ever since the power surge after planet cracking, the light system inside the morgue sections began to malfunction sporadically.

"Dr. Mercer, did you issue any request to make room in the morgue for Aegis? My team is on your assignment to take brain tissue samples, but we can't find the subjects you asked for."

Well, one of the subjects was still there, but it seems he has been haphazardly dissected, missing his spine and lower torso. His head was nowhere to be seen either. The medical professionals were not feeling very enthusiastic about searching for the loose cranium before the lights could be fixed. It was visceral, unsanitary, barely possible to think straight at all.

"It was emptied already? Pardon me, Anne, I must have forgotten. You can come back now, I've asked for security to move them into deep freezer already."

"There's a lot of blood and loose tissue everywhere... Security team, huh. You sure we don't need to decontaminate it first?"

"Altman be praised, there's a time for everything before convergence comes. Just... Tend to subject H for now. None of us wants her to be... Stirred."

As the med techs were about to leave the morgue, the door was opened by security chief Alissa Vincent, a few underlings behind her, guns and security batons all at the ready. She asked: "Anyone saw the escaped prisoner, that miner called Leggio?"

"Escaped? We got no update on him from inpatient." Anne shook her head, "Wait, Dr. Mercer told me someone from security was here to move his samples earlier, they saw nothing? Pretty rough handling though, tell them to decontaminate before leaving."

"Nobody on my end received any call to transport flatlines. Shit, we're getting more and more slip ups."

As if the powers of the universe were listening, there was a clunk somewhere behind wall plates. Everyone listened for further movement, suspecting it could be the criminally insane escapee. They heard no heavy breathing or panicked shuffling through the vents, only some oddly wet flaps and distant scraping noise.

"Our creep could have climbed a vent..." Alissa scanned around the room, and there were more than one ventilation cover missing. She asked: "Hey doc, you got a portable heart rate monitor?"

"Let me check - most of these are with the mine rescue crew. Will send you one in a few minutes." Anne answered, "I'd recommend we just fumigate the whole morgue complex, but sanitation is still busy with clogs."

"Ha! Shit happens." One of the security guys joked as the med techs left, then pointed his gun flashlight into the nearest vent, "You heard us! Either you come out, or we fucking smoke you out!"

"Cut it, Dobbs. If he's in the pipes, schematics say he'll climb out around stasis or inpatient. You and Hanson wait here for the heartbeat monitor, we'll check the other exits."

"As you say, boss. Hey, did someone else see light coming out from there?"

PLOP.

"Are those eyes? Shit, all gone."

////

& 60%

& Datamass energy conversion operational

O& Firmware re-install complete, safe mode engaged

O& OS identity active

By now, Nicole could confidently recognize the existence of an alien tint of red added to the stasis field's familiar blue light. Inside, the eyes of Subject H - Hoshijiro Shizuka, Benisuzume - were glowing red like indicator lights of unknown but complicated machinery. The non-human was floating is stasis energy without a stir or a twitch, still wearing the patients' gown brought to her on the day the pod arrived. The red lights has not flickered once.

"More evidence for theory 4, stronger since the marker have been moved onboard. Better ask Dr. Kyne to patch Nagate over, see if he knows what this meant."

There was an annoying static in the background of her audio recorder; was this also from the same lingering electromagnetic disturbance? What other explanation could it be, except the marker interfering with electricity and radio across the ship? The Unitologists must be even bigger cheapskates than public health if they couldn't put up enough effort to send a hardened ship of their own, instead of borrowing from CEC.

On second thought, the rock worshippers really loved taking over works in progress from other people, always just swooping in for the credit near completion. Mercer rotated Brant Harris off her, and Kyne reassigned Hans Leggio. Which one of them will try to claim Hoshijiro as their own? Jacob "assmunching" Danik himself? Though, Nicole remembered seeing Mercer whispering to Kyne about Gauna being "cosmologically incompatible".

Clang. Bzzzzzzzz.

The noise was hard to locate because of all the regular machinery in operation. Nicole flipped her RIG interface for quickdial. Mercer wasn't picking up, so she settled for voicemail: "Dr. Mercer, it's the stasis room again. Please get engineering to lift the priority here up a tier ASAP! If the circuits get blown, it will be the rest of our osmium down the drain, and everyone have to take turns feeezing subject H manually until we return to Titan. Or, would there be anyone to ask in your worship group?"

THUNK!

A vent flipped - crashed open, and she could smell something far from sterile as anything in the medical deck should be. It was worse than old blood or decayed organic matter alone. She picked up a can of disinfectant spray and searched for the malfunctioning, offending vent.

Zzzzzzzt. Thump.

The whole stasis observation room fell into darkness. Was there a fuse blown nearby? All she could use as a light source was her RIG's projector and Subject H's glowing eyes. Poor thing, now lying on the floor without stasis. The situation was creepy, disheartening, disorienting, but still manageable if she needed to look around for the emergency lights.

There were another pair of glowing eyes. They were more orange than red.

CLANG!

Then, another pair, on the opposite end of the room. At least one more pair behind it. They began moving, and something sharp dragging on the floor left long trails of sparks.

& Transmission intercepted

& Photoelectric warning: Hostile signal attack order

O& All energy transfer to defense system

Bright red particles began to materialize in the air, gathering into rays and burning white hot, lighting the pitch black room. There was warmth, and the center of it was the humanoid inside the stasis chamber.

Without moving one human muscle, Benisuzume lifted herself into mid air, back where she floated in the tank.

& Beam cannon not ready

& Projectile guidance not ready

& Solid state datamass megastructure creation nominal

O& OFFENSE

The iris of her right eye flashed gold, then split into a scanning array of coordinated dots. Her left eye focused, an aperture of similar golden dots forming then settled into a steady orbit. She locked onto the closest threat, a triangular flying organic un-life form accelerating at her cranium. It would have the least mass out of all the hostiles, and energy stored within could possibly provide more than the amount spent to dismember it.

With a resonating howl of heavy Hyggs particles cutting through displaced air, she directed propulsion behind her diminished physical existence and unleashed the traditional Gauna method of aggression: Overwhelming kinetic energy.

BOOM!

Nicole was half-deaf from the shockwave. Blood rained from where the sound barrier has been broken, while more dancing specks of light danced around. The thing that looked like a little girl was entirely splattered with organic fragments, but the red stains on her were visibly shrinking and reforming.

"Hoshijiro, marking one destruction." The same emotionless voice that called for Nagate chilled Nicole to her bones this time. Marking one destruction? Yes, the half-destroyed Guardian meant they were both child soldiers on Sidonia.

There was now enough light from the Hyggs particle reaction to let Nicole see the entire room. The undead mutants howled, charging in for an attack. They approached, slashing at everything.

A ceramic-like material formed into gauntlets on Benisuzume's arms. She flexed her fingers, all of them coated in heavy armor, their ends sharper than the Slashers' mutated bone blades.

Another circular ring of particles ignited, sending her to meet the nearest hostile. Her speed this time was much slower than supersonic, to save both fuel and her spatial awareness. Ironic, a perfect fighting machine like her was forced to rely on human ears inside this enclosed atmospheric box. She needed to keep taking more energy from the hostile un-life and their wireless source of power to rebuild herself. The broadcasting source kickstarted her energy collection reaction, but it also started directing all its combat forces against her existence.

The edge of a bone blade caught her raised left forearm, giving her an opening to swing the monoatomic claws on her right hand at its torso. The claws cut right through the slasher's mutated yet still human torso, silent and clean, giving Nicole an unwanted opportunity to examine it's still fresh components.

Oh fuck, those things used to be human? The doctor thought with her medical instincts, covering her mouth. Keep calm, your current bloodstained ally in purpose used to be human too. An average child soldier in a galaxy filled with superpredators.

The Slasher's upper torso kept crawling on the floor, settling for Nicole if its knife arms couldn't reach high enough. Then, the claws on Benisuzume's hands extended in a flash of bright red, each finger becoming a scalpel the length of her forearm. In a casual swipe, the bisected inhumanoid was further cut lengthwise from its spine.

"Hoshijiro, marking two destruction."

Spheres of ghostly, almost oily orange energy flew from the glowing eyes into the red ceramic armor. ZZZZING! Another boost, followed by another frictionless swipe at a mutant.

Splotch. The only way for Nicole to recognize a successful dismemberment on the next Slasher was the meaty sound of its armless body dropping to the metal floor. All the killing left to do in the room were well within a fortified, blade-fingered arm's reach.

One thought made her filter out Benisuzume's further killcount reports: What about me? She stuck close to the floor, now coated and plastered with blood, trying her best not to vomit. On all fours, she inched towards the exit hoping not to catch the killing machine's attention.

Her hand touched something jagged and dense, feeling its warmth through her glove. A guttural roar was just above her.

& Beam cannon ready

O& ASSIST

& All energy to beam cannon

SSCHAAAAAAAACK!

Nicole was deafened and blinded by the instantaneous outburst of Hyggs particle beam from Benisuzume's left eye. The circle of rotating dots were speeding into a continuous circle as she fired, then slowed down back into an idle orbit.

When the doctor successfully regained her sense, she saw a partially melted mutant, still standing with its upper torso gasified. It was propped by two displaced human legs on one side, and one freshly rebuilt structure to give it extra stability. She shook her head, these things were getting more and more biologically abominable.

The floating red lights were going out behind her, and she looked at her dreaded savior. Benisuzume's armor was disintegrating into flecks of light just like when they formed, but they weren't all reabsorbed back into herself, many of the particles simply floated off and vanished. The Demi-human had a hard time staying airborne, or even standing.

Her training as a doctor clicked in the back of her head. Nicole stood up and dusted herself off, then took the much smaller girl's arms, now human looking as before, over her shoulders: "Let's go to inpatient. I hope you like glucose and water... Wait, don't tell me you eat power nodes?"

Chapter Text

Chapter 4, Attrition

Shizuka was alive and in control of herself, truly feeling both for the first time since many reconstructions. She was not mentally prepared for the experience in any way; understandably, she did not welcome it.

"I was not supposed to come back from Gauna assimilation, and Nagate should never have chased after me a second time."

The thought that occupied the center of her head kept echoing off every metaphorical wall; it was the first coherent idea she formulated after her Gauna firmware's combat mode subsided. It took her a long time to understand she was now surrounded by people and man made machinery, instead of incomprehensible biomechanisms. Though, the things that attempted to swarm and eviscerate her - the source of her signal - were all from a new kind of biomechanism.

Firmware? Biomechanism? She startled herself thinking over these words: I have been subconsciously forced to pick up these concepts from the Gauna, haven't I? Have I learned to think like one of them now, or am I reduced to one of them that attempts to copy my behavior using an alien system? If it was the second case, the Gauna better have an endless bad time doing it.

Across all the sterile reflective metal surfaces nearby, she could pick out the red light from her own eyes. As her back tensed from the thought, her eyes also fixated on the clearest reflection, provided by a stainless steel water cup. In plain sight, the scanner array and accelerator in her eyes were following the contraction of her pupils. Gold sparks on red iris - she once liked such a color combination, back when she bought her precious red festive dress with gold patterns.

The replacements, reconstructions and disfigurements were too integral to her existence now.

Existence not as a human, or a pilot, but as a primal unthinking killing machine. Shizuka felt she shouldn't deserve any of the hospitality and friendliness she experienced right now. Who were these people and what do I mean to them? This seemed like a hospital, they should be checking on Nagate. He was hard to look after, but he always paid back more than the care spent on him.

Those people tending to her all spoke a language she could only understand pieces of it. English was an elective in Sidonia, a functionally dead language preserved by katakana and legacy data in centuries-old programs the ship struggled to replace. She once even had plans to learn it if she could go to officer school. Was this on another Seed Ship?

Still fixated on her reflection, she felt an oversuit being put on her back, and something on it clamp onto her back and shoulders. Instinctively, she put her arms through its sleeves.

"Hello, Shizuka? Can you understand me?" A built-in speaker on the RIG translated for her while a projector set down a line of floating subtitles. The voice came from a blonde woman who shared the pilot school doctor's age, and her warm attitude. Was the doctor called Kobayashi just like the captain? What a strange fact to suddenly remember after a literal eternity.

"Yes? Yes, I'm Hoshijiro Shizuka..."

"I'm Nicole. Thanks for saving my life back there, we'll make it through together. Nagate is fine, and he on his way."

It was like the time where Nagate followed her escape pod again, Shizuka thought, leaving behind more people who needed him. Maybe I stopped being a living weapon for humanity's greatest threat, but I still took down Sidonia's greatest hero.

"It all started when I activated eject after the Gauna with Eiko's face hit my Guardian."

"Hoshijiro! Hoshijiro!" Nagate charged through the ICU section's door, stopping himself before crashing into the hardened glass on Shizuka's operating chamber. He looked genuinely overjoyed to see her, clumsy and passionate like every day she saw him before. He wore the same Sidonian pilot uniform, but...

"...Is that blood on you?" She asked, then blinked as she looked around. There was blood on herself, too, not Ena but actual organic drying blood.

"Yes, not my blood." A Sidonian regular pilots' katana was on his back, something radiating or vibrating from its position giving her a strange pressure.

& Dissolution information data in physical volume and mass

& MODULATE AND ASCEND

Shizuka shook herself out of a daze and tried to stand up. Nagate opened the operating room's door, grabbing a hand of hers to help her balance. Their eyes met again, him paying no attention to her altered pupils:

"This ship is in danger, and people need me. Another enemy instead of Gauna. Stay here as you recover, I'll make things safe."

////

Dr. Kyne knew a trial of his faith is at hand, and he would be forced to make a decision with absolutely no room for regret. It was 24 hours since Barrow's crash landing.

First of all, the Marker madness existed beyond doubt. Altman's own eyes saw the weak spirited people being tested. Mathius must have been blinded by the same power that caused Hans Leggio to snap. The captain still occupied the bridge, indecision snowballing towards bigger disaster than on the colony below. In the first place they should have built a protective shell around it like the housing of the First Marker on New Horizon, but the whole Aegis VII operation was never licensed.

And then, the situation with the living dead - attacking everyone and threatening to multiply. Every new flatline made a difference of two in this raw exchange of numbers, not one. He already gave the permission to cremate all bodies, in his position of religion authority, though he knew how demoralizing the idea would be. His most valuable supporters now were the atheists formerly not seeing eye to eye with him, like White and Vincent. Handing weapons to crew for self defense wouldn't mix well with Marker madness. Beyond that, there was a rumor of suspected hostile alien life form latching onto the ship, even back up by asteroid defense turrets' cameras. This could have some precedence in a set of top secret salvaged SCAF documents only accessible to Oracles and Enigmas back on Earth; he has been trusted with a heavily censored and abridged excerpt by Eckhart before the mission, but through reading has been postponed by the obvious difficulties.

The ship couldn't immediately return with its circuitry still highly compromised; even if the colonists and overseer Eckhart were all formally written off dead, escape meant more than discarding the tethered rock and activating Shockpoint. The communication system was barely usable, life support and the reactor requiring emergency re-evaluations. To check up on any of these would need a dozen or more crew backed by at least half that number in guards. The security department's 90 staff were already spread out between everywhere that needed them, and brutalized by the mutants.

The obvious and heartless solution would be to remove the Marker, drop it back to surface; but to speak out the idea would cause immense friction or even violent schism right away. Only good news could give all the believers onboard the unity they needed.

Outside of all these life-and-death dilemmas was the pod recovered ahead of the Marker! It could be interpreted as a sign of any good news. It could be extremely symbolic as a message of Convergence: Machine and life, male and female, human and alien, living and born again. For the Marker's incomprehensible extraterrestrial power, the kids from another universe must have been its chosen messengers. Shizuka or Benisuzume's esoteric subatomic composition could well be a new form of existence waiting for mortals to achieve.

"Holy creatures, transform me into your humble servant. Show me the path to enlightenment as you alter my flesh and free my soul." This line could have referred to the whole earth biosphere, the creatures Altman once saw in out-of-body experiences, or the Enigmas which Unitology's ceremonial masks were based on. What if they're Gauna?

Most importantly, Nicole's report and security cam all showed that Shizuka was fantastically effective in combating the abominable re-animations. Nagate could be a viable security chain on her, a decent fighter himself.

Kyne scratched down a list of propaganda bullet points condensed from his observations and started a group call to all the clerical staff onboard. They have taken losses in the past day, but they could still pull their weight.

"Brothers and sisters, we have received the first glimpse at our true potential after Convergence. Watch this video of harmonious cosmic power blasting away infection of mind and body; Help me spread the glory of our new Marker's new herald."

////

While Nagate joined the security team's effort in containing the hostile reanimations, Shizuka gingerly accepted Nicole and Anne's plea to study her Benisuzume side. She was afraid of losing control, but they persuaded her with the more urgent existential threats from the vicious undead. To save people, they needed her back in the fight as soon as possible.

& Datamass auto-extraction and conversion: Malfunction, system reboot required

& Datamass source identified as hostile

The Gauna firmware that carried her identity and consciousness could be accessed from her mind as strings of disembodied ideas and images, providing little help on how to regain energy. Hyggs particles and radiation existed in this universe like her own, and she could absorb them like a Guardian's built-in recharge system does, but the bad news was she recharges much slower than a Guardian.

For her safety, she was moved to an office next to the imaging room. Nicole as a doctor was qualified to provide advice on both mental and physical wellbeing, while Anne, the lower ranked medical professional, did handiwork and check-ups.

On the bed she sat on, next to her were a variety of chemicals and batteries gathered by the security team. The test was simple: Touch something and try to "absorb" energy from it.

Glucose, no effect, better just eat it and hope body heat could transfer to the eyeball particle cannon.

Plasma battery, no effect. She decided against having one cracked open and touching the reagents inside.

Pulse round, no effect. The security guard assigned outside their office, Mike, has suggested putting one hand in front of a pulse rifle barrel and pulling the trigger with the other. This idea testing Benisuzume's indestructibility was vetoed right away by Nicole and the security chief both.

Power node, no effect. "Not even Issac knows what's inside a power node, it's not a capacitor nor a can of nanobots."

Stasis recharge pack. As soon as Shizuka's hands touched its electrodes, the energy inside began to glow through its casing, brighter than the meter light.

O& Refill energy

The bright flecks of Hyggs particles emerged from the recharge pack, floating in the air like stars outside the ship. She was exhilarated; talons of megastructure began to condensate and solidify on her fingers, blood red over her pale fingers.

CRUNCH

"Sorry!" The recharge pack was sliced open by her finger blades, and collapsed within itself, releasing all its energy. She imagined retracting the blades and extending them; they all shaped themselves exactly as she wished. She stepped off the bed and high-dived the air triumphantly, careful not to hit anyone, "Yes! It's working!"

To her surprise, Anne skipped over to meet her high five. Shizuka awkwardly waited till the armor plating disappeared; the discovery felt like the moment Nagate successfully filtered water from the Guardian's machine oil.

"Boss, we just got a very expensive savior." Mike reported the success to Alissa, "Hope she's worth every Creddy."

Chapter Text

Chapter 5, Pieces Fitting Together

Nagate has fought well with his artificial Kabi sword, but its reach was a problem he would struggle more and more to overcome. The undead were becoming bigger, stronger and more complex in every encounter; chopping off their weaponized limbs would still guarantee a mission kill, the main issue would be getting through the blades and hardened skin.

Luckily, Dr. Kyne directed Samuel Irons, one of the ship's resident fixers and a fellow believer, to help him figure out a solution. Spending some hard-earned time at a Bench, the two built a well-balanced sturdy connection handle for the katana, turning it into a makeshift spear or long Naginata.

"I swear to Altman, even a Line Gun won't break this weld. This is the same formula they use for armor on a Level 5 suit."

"Thank you, Irons-san." Nagate gave the spear a brief whirl at a safe distance, "I'll be ready to go with the hydroponics repair team in no time."

"Chief Vincent said you should take one more shift off, gather your pubescent brains before you exhaust yourself."

A third of the security team has been incapacitated, killed or mutated since the crash landing, and Benisuzume has been practically deputized as a high value core asset for quick response. She went through stasis packs at roughly the same speed as Security consumed ammo, although she has learned to prevent herself from breaking more packs.

The mission from first mate White was to keep every major system operable by protecting the key staff members running them and responding to calls, until the communications system is repaired. Fixing the Shockpoint drive was essential, but the captain said returning home would only be possible after reconfiguring the gravity tethers to ditching the landmass from Aegis VII first. They need more manpower, preferable a combat ship or two from Earthgov.

"The sooner the hydroponics section is fixed, the sooner I can get extra food. Extra oxygen for the ship, too."

"Cab't argue with that, kid. The air has gotten unnatural, unfit for the Marker's creations since the creature outside latched on."

Oh, right. Many people here believed the Marker, their Kabi equivalent, created intelligent life. There were people that worshipped Kabi and complained when artificial Kabi were mass produced, while others wanted to artificial Kabi swords as religious idols.

Thanks to some broadcasts from Dr. Kyne and preachers in the crew, people were ecstatic about the "Messengers" that arrived before the second Marker - Nagate himself, and Benisuzume. He struggled inside on whether to still call her that or Hoshijiro, like in the old times. She said he can just call her Shizuka now, though those videos of her could only remind him of her previous life as the murderous, skeletal, red entity of raw power. She was still a strong disturbance in his tight-strung brain constantly on the lookout for Gauna intrusions, while the mutated undead were more recognizably human-sourced. Flesh and blood, not physics-defying Hyggs substance.

Once in a while he would catch himself thinking: "I'm fighting alongside a Gauna, against things that used to be people."

Some Unitologists on the ship were very open to her following Kyne and Irons' example, too open for his sensibility. For example, they've claimed that since the red Hyggs particle cannon disintegrated the dead - and undead - it touches, Benisuzume possesses the power to take their souls nearer to Convergence with the entire universe. It was completely different from the flamethrowers used by the security team.

The ecstasy of meeting Shizuka again has subsided very fast, after they parted their ways on different patrols cross the maze-like interior of Ishimura. With some alone time, he thought he could start to understand how those scared of Tsumugi felt on Sidonia, though it was unfair to compare the two demi-humans. No, Benisuzume wasn't a hybrid, only a flawed copy built from physically unspeakable materials. Or worse, a reanimation.

Didn't he always hope to see a reanimation of Hoshijiro Shizuka's own body and soul one day, ever since he recovered the first Ena humanoid from Gauna-491? Now seemed like the dream has come true, her being alive and retaining her compassionate and humble identity. If she could truly become the first speaker between humanity and Gauna, then it would be her dream coming true too.

Something pained Nagate every time he tried to solidify these arguments in his mind about true Shizuka surviving in the altered frame of Benisuzume. Worse, glances of his worst memories would resurface to dissuade him: Gauna 487 assimilating Yamano Eiko then wearing her face, whose radio desperately calling him simultaneously to save her and kill her; Benisuzume's finger claw blades cutting Honoka Hou into bloody ribbons in her cockpit, then reporting in human language; an entire spaceship assimilated by Gauna, its crew visibly melted together into their seats.

The spear in his hands felt much friendlier and easier to emphasize with than the "Messenger" in a shroud of red particles. After all it was made with artificial Kabi, the solution against all Gauna.

"Hey! Good looking pig sticker there, Nagate!" Mike has returned from his patrol, "You sure you're going on the next trip?"

"Yeah, I'll get going right now. Shouldn't keep Ramirez-san and Zoe waiting."

"I'll buy you a mango Dejarta once food processor is fixed. Which one your girl gonna like, how about Saffron?"

Nagate was out of the room before he finished.

////

Third day after the outbreak, it was long enough for Jesus to return from the dead and Altman to see the times of the Dinosaurs. Dr. Kyne has finished the SCAF book of blacksites and sent some choice sections to Mathius, along with his advice on immediate operations. They were all left unreplied on "read".

He made his way to the bridge with the last sliver of hope to resolve things gentlemanly. Still, he had a sedative syringe ready.

"The SCAF was simply unready for their test before Convergence." Turns out Mathius has read his notes, "All I see is we need to be stronger than them."

"Benjamin, are you strong enough to leave behind your pride, then? Forget the honor of discovering this Marker. We had enough data for the church to analyze back home, but the window for us to make a run for it is smaller and smaller."

"The church back home! What do they know? It's me crossing the galaxy to pick up the Marker, and they called this errand a reward for years of my loyalty. And you?"

"Please, look at what happened to Barrow when he tried to claim the Marker. I can already feel its wrath. Cut our losses and drop it, it has been three days."

He held back the quiet part: The captain was effectively using the crew as hostage unless he was allowed to take credit for discovery.

"If it takes forty days, if Convergence comes to us, I stand by the Marker. Do you? Trying to get me to leave the Marker, you said you want to let your so-called "Messenger" fire her laser at it You're too proud of her."

"Subject H is a completely new life form from a different universe. She's cauterizing the wounds left by the Marker. For the red Marker, there's nothing about it we haven't observed from the original. Nothing!"

"How much faith have you lost, Terrence? Oh, if I let brother Eckhart know, every Paragon will be cursing your name till Convergece happens."

"Eckhart is long dead by now. The shuttle port below is all fucking blown! All we can do for him is dropping the Marker."

Mathius took a long breath, maybe it was him finally seeing reason.

"Navigations, we're going. We have all the time to talk on Earth. Lock every bulkhead, then activate Shockpoint."

Kyne saw White shudder.

"The holy artifact must be delivered to the Church, if humanity is to be delivered into the welcome arms of the universal awakening!

"It's giving our dead extra arms, and making even more of them. Don't you see what the SCAF experienced in their awakening? The crew can't stand another day, another hour being murdered by reanimations. They could even lose their faith in the Marker! The Messenger can destroy it if you don't want to stain your hand, she is our only way out!"

"The faithless want to destroy the artifact because they fear it. I won't allow it, Kyne, I will not allow it! Altman watches us."

"The Marker is making us paranoid and delusional; it's the only explanation for the irrational behavior that has been plaguing the colony, the crew, and now the officers." Kyne made a brief wink to White, who gave a shrug.

"Your sudden loss of faith is delusional. I'm not going to allow you or your devil-spawned "Messenger" to destroy the Marker. White, have the Doctor restrained! Nobody onboard feeds that thing again, that power is nothing more than temptation."

"Sir, he's right." White gestured for the other crew members to listen.

"Is this a mutiny? He's speaking heresy! The book on SCAF research is simply jealousy trying to deter the faithful. He's a spy, planted on my ship to destroy any hope we have of transcending death."

Talk was no longer an option. Kyne pulled out his syringe and readied it: "By Maritime Law Article 54-69, I hereby declare Captain Benjamin Matthius unfit for duty. Gentlemen, carry him to his room and set the lock for remote access only."

"The Marker's true home is Earth! Bring it back, Terrence! Please!"

"I'm sorry, Ben, but I can't let you do this... Shit!"

The captain deactivated magnetic boots and lunged at him, shaking off the two men holding him. A hair-raising dance of fists and syringe movements followed, ending up in the needle sticking into Mathius' eye. The others tried to prevent permanent damage; though, after one poorly balanced dodge, Mathius fell onto the floor. It was just enough momentum upwards to drive the needle all the way into his brain.

"What's done is done, then." White slowly managed the words as Kyne tried and failed to revive Mathius. When the doctor finally gave up, both thought of the next step in this new normalcy, "Is Subject H ready? Can we call her up to send Ben off on his way?"

"She's too busy." Kyne sighed, "Plus, the church wouldn't be happy if he's unceremoniously evaporated by the kid I chose. Just... Put him in deep Cryo."

Chapter Text

Chapter 6, Old Blood

Shizuka tried to remember how many times she saw her friend Yamano Eiko's face since the unexpected resurrection. Eiko had the abysmally horrifying luck to be the first human not only killed, but assimilated by a Gauna after more than a century since the unliving abominations invaded the ship. It was an unforgettable downturn for everyone's mood when an enlarged picture of her face was put on the cemetery plaza; a typical Sidonian resident's normal uneventful life suddenly annihilated by an unspeakable space monster. She wanted an officer job after pilot school because it would let her enjoy stargazing. And then, exponentially more people started dying, even Shizuka herself shouldn't have a chance of survival not for Nagate putting his own life into a double gambit.

When she was still Benisuzume, was she able to detect any trace of Eiko's existence in the Gauna's collective database? The communication methods used between Gauna was a mystery her firmware failed to elaborate. She had a sliver of hope that a form of afterlife could exist for every human soul assimilated, judging from her own dubious individuality within the Gauna Mass Union Ship. Every Gauna core had the same potential to become a perfect killing machine, what did the core that upgraded into Benisuzume gain from having a pilot?

"Why did you have the privilege to be born again?" A voice that sounded like both Eiko and herself asked, "Was this what you meant by wishing to understand them and finding a way of coexistence?"

The price of Gauna conversion and reconstruction was paid in blood, dozens or even hundreds dead in every fight Benisuzume took part in, not all of them assimilated. Holding remnants of her destructive powers in her human-sized new form, no matter how small, no matter the use, was sickening.

"Do you enjoy killing, now you're allowed to kill?"

The mutants and reanimations have received an official label from Dr. Kyne and the science department: Necromorphs. Dead and changed, the name sounded very relatable. The medically recommended combat method was to cut off their limbs.

"What else am I allowed to enjoy?"

"Talking to Nagate?"

"He's afraid of me. Eiko, if it's you coming back from Gauna assimilation, how much will I be scared of you?"

"It wasn't fair you were the Gauna with the most humanlike face. Do you want to assimilate him? Make him yours, because he always belongs to the whole ship. Make you two whole."

////

"Congratulations on fixing the fuel issue, Temple." White said as the remaining or acting chiefs of the ship's assorted departments communicated in a secure channel, "In the mean time I've done some calcs with the navigators and Kyne, it turns out we can't fly on our own even if the landmass is dropped. It will prematurely destroy the planet and spray rocks into our orbit."

"Well, fuck... You're right. Our boost is crippled, can't make it to Shockpoint range in time before debris hits. What's plan B before we bleed out even more people?"

"Don't be surprised, I suggest dropping the Marker. Long story." Kyne answered, "Though now there's always dozens of people trying to find refuge nearby, because it seems the closer to it, the less Necromorph activity. Both science and clerical are torn about it."

"Better not to stir this tension." Alissa nodded, "We need outside help. The communication system was overloaded because our fearless captain spammed it with duplicate messages to the church."

Temple sighed: "I see, the pulse doesn't mix well with a softlock. Let me grab my space RIG and anyone with EVA training."

"You see that thing?" White sent a picture from an outboard camera. It was a formless organic cluster that sported a gooey light show of bioluminescence, "Must have climbed here from the landmass. ADS is broken, too, just a while ago another shuttle full of fucking psychos crashed into our hull.

"Hanson and his squad is on the way to check them out." Alissa said, "If they aren't infected, I'm willing to learn how they managed it."

"Okay, okay, I get it. This slow death when everything is just one shock away... Highest priority is getting the word out. We just need to not use our own antenna. Make a radio relay beacon, put it in space, call it. White, please give me a roll call on manpower and resources, once I make my pick, send them all to the mining deck."

This gave Alissa an idea, too: "How about a backup plan to this? Barrow's shuttle still has its emergency beacon. We'll send two beacons, let me get my crew too."

"Give it all you got, ladies and gentlemen." White agreed wearily, "Anything to add, Kyne?"

"On my research on our visitors... They're both immune to the infection, via different ways. The slime mold found in Subject T's spacesuit could suppress ex-vivo pathogens. I will need help from Dr.Cross and the medical department in replicating the effects. Now, where's Mercer?"

"Can't see his RIG. At least he's not a flatline, I hope."

////

The operation in hydroponics was a failure; the section's stock of plants, fertilizer, water, even oxygen and nitrogen were all taken over by the rapidly growing Necromorph organism. It attracted smaller mutants, polluted the air, and even launched biomechanical projectiles at anyone who dared to approach.

Nagate could only help the staff there evacuate. He wished he still had his Guardian, see how the Leviathan would do against a body of metal ten times his size. Let it burn under a Hyggs particle beam!

He was jealous of Shizuka keeping her alien weaponry. Why wasn't she here to lend an armored, clawed hand? He took a deep breath and stopped himself, jealousy was very rare among all his limited range of emotions before.

The spear was good, his experience in cutting off Gauna tentacles translated well to cutting off Necromorph tentacles growing off walls; though, he would need a spacesuit with real boosters instead of his old Sidonian suit, the only modification being a spinal RIG replacing its survival backpack.

After some calm, wordless minutes on the tram, his squad and Dr. Cross arrived at the medical deck. Mike waved them in, then asked Zoe over for a few words on the situation.

Kyne waited for them in Shizuka's room, alongside Irons. Both men looked tense, somewhat depressed. Neither Nicole nor Anne was in the room.

"Brother Samuel, sister Elizabeth. You two have done justice to your work on this ship that would make Altman proud, before or after the outbreak. This is why I need you to read my notes." Kyne passed them two surface tablets, "You will reach your own conclusions about our experience with the current Marker, but all I can say is, it isn't the first time."

The room fell into worse silence than the tram, and Nagate looked at Shizuka. Her bloodied patient's uniform was replaced by a white CEC crew bodysuit, almost reminding him of the Sidonian uniform. Her red-and-gold eyes, also lacking a proper subject to stare at in the room, ended up resting on him too.

She smiled, like a machine that didn't fully understand the context of humans doing so. She awkwardly made a reserved wave.

"I'm not whole." A gentle, apologetic voice sounded like Shizuka or Tsumugi said. He blinked, seeing no sign of activity on her... Benisuzume's lips.

Nagate found a wall to sit down next to, and closed his eyes.

"You left me to die. Gauna drilled holes in my head to look inside."

The bleak, unforgettable picture taken by his Guardian's camera flashed before his eyes. He gripped his spear tighter, its blade tapping on the wall above his head.

"You failed to kill Benisuzume again. You're no hero, Nagate. She doesn't have a Mass Union Ship to escape to this time, though..."

He felt the spear slip in his hand; opening his eyes, he saw it has idly changed direction, pointing at Shizuka. He blinked again; Kyne was kneeling next to him, a scalpel in hand.

"Hey, easy, little big man. I just need to borrow some more organic lining from your suit."

He nodded and unzipped his collar, the organic lining's bacterial smell making the older man feel. It was comical, like reliving his own first day as a pilot! Until a Gauna ate Eiko and took her face.

The humanoid Gauna in his spontaneous strike of memory suddenly morphed, it's face changing into Shizuka's.

"Tanikaze... Activate the mining rig... Kill me."

Back then, he had a dream of stomping on a tiny Eiko in Gauna form, which kept regenerating. He gulped and coughed.

"I can imagine how bad it felt wearing this into battle every time." Kyne packed the scraped artificial bacteria into a sample bottle, "Cheer up, we'll start reproducing this in the lab next door and use it on the alien biomass."

"Thanks, Kyne-san."

"Time for payback from the living manure monster for ruining hydroponics!" Cross slapped Kyne across his shoulder, "Brother Terrence, let's get to work."

Irons took out a disassembled device from his tool belt, then clipped them onto the connection and handle of the artificial Kabi spear: "This is a stasis projector I took from the broken stasis chamber. For safety, i set it to only activate on contact, but it can recharge itself if you don't have charge packs ready. The will of us all is with you and our Messenger, protect her well."

"Thank you, thank you."

"Nagate, Shizuka, we have an important mission for you two, and only you two have our confidence." Kyne helped Nagate onto the office chair in the room and pushed a tablet across the table, "Take 90 minutes of rest time, read the instructions, go over them together, relax."

"Copy that, sir." For the good of the ship, he would carry out every mission as the order required. The Operation was simple: Protect Benisuzume, conserve her energy, then step 3, then step 4.

"Hoshijiro, mission received."

"My deepest thanks. See you then, until Zoe Hampton picks you up. Once this is done, we will have a lot more breathing space on the ship, no offense to Dr. Cross."

There was a sting of urgent light taps on the door. Irons opened it; it was Anne, a RIG communication window floating in the air from her arm terminal.

"Dr. Kyne, it was the new shuttle crash. Director Eckhardt was onboard and he survived, he wants to see you."

"Altman be praised! Let's show him the security videos first."

Chapter Text

Chapter 7, Blitz

The USG Ishimura's many hangar and cargo sections were designed as a maze, to separate different loading operations that may react poorly when close to each other. Ore, the Marker, the Type 17 Tsugumori's torso and Barrow's shuttle, they were all blocked off each other for one reason or another. Worse, there were still a good number of unsorted bodybags from Aegis VII left in one of the near-zero kelvin storage sections; security cameras showed they have already started reanimating long ago, against the unforgiving cold.

Even after Alissa's team split off heading for the shuttle, Nagate and Shizuka still operated with a handful of seasoned and heavily armed security guards: Mike, Zoe, Shen and Hanson from the chief's own squad, and Gabe who left for the planet before planet cracking but miraculously returned on the second shuttle.

The plan drawn by White and Kyne was ambitious while singleminded: Strike at key positions, gather survivors, release two emergency beacons simultaneously.

A Leaper crawled along the ceiling, then coiled its rear body into a spring, propelling itself to dive at Nagate. He dodged left as he activated the newly added stasis module on his spear. The blast of less-than-optimized stasis energy only hit the Leaper's left arm blade, slowing the edge down to a crawling speed - and snapping it in two like a brittle bone icicle. The broken shard flew off sideways, while the Necromorph maintained its charge. Nagate swiped a long horizontal cut in response.

The stasis shut itself off just after impact; pulses of disruption in momentum rippled at the spearpoint, cutting into undead muscle like a chainsaw through clay! A sick rain of organic matter was let loose as the Leaper was cut open in less than a blink, showering the formerly white Sidonian pilot suit. It had went through decontamination for every previous fight, but when the run for the hangar began, it was visibly beyond the medical department's effort to clean.

He felt relief at the Necromorphs' inhuman looks, unneeded tissue all deformed by super high metabolism during reanimations. The living dead looked like nothing less than miniature Gauna to him, must have also made fighting back feel much further from murder for the security team.

"Can you still see human faces on them?" He thought he heard Eiko ask, "Did you see mine?"

Above him, a red flash darted across the air and hit the volatile sack of biochemical compound on an Exploder. As its content began to rapidly evaporate, a short burst from Zoe's pulse rifle ignited It into an oily fireball.

"Thanks, Shizuka!" The security guard cheered under her helmet.

"Hoshijiro, proceeding mission as normal."

Benisuzume sported a new look; she accumulated enough Hyggs energy to materialize a suit of armor all over the CEC indoor uniform given to her by the medical staff, all made with the red ceramic-like hardened Ena that once covered her gigantic skeletal combat form. It was like a cross between the same skeleton and the eponymous insect, joints articulated well around her human body. Her head wore a helmet like Nagate's, its front a titanium-white mask that resembled her own face. The aesthetics were entirely designed by subconsciousness, the only external opinion was her "first apostle" Dr. Kyne recommending white for the mask. On her back was a simulated RIG meter for humans to check on her particle reserve, two rows of round orange lights along her armor's spine.

In her right hand, she held a massive dual-projectile launcher that could fire both Ena bolts and Hyggs particle at high velocity, shaped like a medieval knight's conic lance, and perfectly usable as a melee weapon. She has been slowly gaining her Hyggs particle intake rate, so she could afford more expenses on both defense and offense.

Shizuka was an icon for the cosmic power of justice, in Irons' words; pictures of her fully armored form were distributed all across the ship's remaining RIG network to both boost morale and help survivors identify her security detachment.

"Dr.Kyne seems very knowledgeable on the concept of Convergence. If he said the Marker has given me power to send all souls trapped in these reanimations to Convergence, I'll trust him. Made me feel a lot better."

"Are you really needed? You are not whole... You're not the real me." She saw the reflection of her old self on a patch of still-fresh blood, "Make is whole."

"...I want to talk to Nagate when this is over."

& Hostile signal transmission

& Hostile energy source in close proximity

Covered by Shen and Gabe, Mike charged forward into the passage cleared by the explosion. His Johnston Family Special was now modified for the changed times; a Line Gun took over the place of the submachine gun mounted on top. Moving into cover, he fired two wide cutting arcs into the darkness ahead.

Heavy, fleshy thumps echoed in the hangar floors, its source slowly but steadily pacing closer to the center of the action. It was rhythmic like a synchronized goosestep, yet also felt like it had the dense core of a charging animal. Rhinos were a rare sight on earth, just a few decades away from joining the Extinct Animal Friends collection; the thumps made the security team wonder if the ship was also carrying an entire preserved, and easily ressurectable, rhino for some art exhibition.

A wave of lighting failure washed over this part of the hangar; several pairs of Necromorph eyes appeared in the darkness. Mike made a brief calculation of limb height, then fired his Line Gun above the mass of eyes.

The arc of energy fizzled as they were broken by two massive bony biomechanical scythes. The residual energy and flashlights illuminated the massive undead: Each blade taller than a human, no, even taller than a Slasher. They looked like they were formed from an entire Slasher, connected to a torso made of many semi-dissolved humans. Apart from these blade arms, the thing stood on four thick legs covered in segmented armor plates.

"Jesus fuck!"

"Brace for shock, switching to grenade mode!" Hanson announced, Zoe following suit. There was an inviting target on the composite Necromorph's center mass, a mouth constructed from at least three ribcages, located below the sensory array of many heads. It even had a tongue longer than a human arm.

Plop! Plop! BOOM!

Two pulse rifle's half-full magazines flew straight into the gigantic mouth, exploding on the tongue as a blue cloud of energy. It created a fine mist of biomass - but before it settled, the undead giant pushed through with only a little blood to show. A dim yellow glow of bioluminescence lit up inside the cavity.

"Did it work?"

"Scatter! Scatter!" Shen pulled Nagate behind her, heading to a large container for cover together with him.

"Oh you fucker..." Gabe readied his stasis and kinesis modules, anticipating the incoming spitting attack. As the organic bomb was launched he activated stasis, but his aim was disrupted by the constantly moving tongue, and only managed to freeze half a tongue. The incoming bomb flew towards Nagate in an arching path.

BOOM! A flash of red energy pierced the bomb, imploding it, spraying burning organic fuel onto the giant composte undead and every surface around.

& Warning: Ammo reserve low, requesting energy diversion from defense megastructure

O& Protect Nagate

"A good time to die draws close!" The voice in Shizuka's head said, she looked around, suspecting that others may have heard their own equivalent of it,

& Reminder: Death is a concept exclusive to [DATA INCOMPLETE] form of existence

& Quality assurance: OS identity security level against hostile signal adequate

The stubborn assurance made her hold down a bitter chuckle against her Gauna firmware, couldn't these rock-brained tentacle bacteria understand she had biologically died ever since they tried to connect fist-sized wiring onto her skull, and then every time she was reconstructed as a component of Benisuzume? What's once more?

"He will never feel safe to expose his back to you. Do you want to test him, see whether he would care if he sees you bleed for him? Disengage your armor."

Nagate has left the container, and occupied himself right away: An infector flew at him, maybe seeing him as the easiest prey with the lowest number of metal armor plates. He swatted with the stasis spear in his right hand, and sprayed it with the centuries-old SCAF submachine gun Mike shared with him. Shizuka felt a spark of pride seeing him in action with a natural flow, applying fine motion controls used in Guardian piloting to personal combat. She had a hand in teaching Sidonia's greatest hero since the day he emerged, and she served as his greatest nemesis.

Oh no. Shizuka blinked as she realized where the smooth chain of motions would end up. Nagate was trying to make a way to the giant Necromorph!

Humans, including a genetically enhanced super pilot, could feel enticed at attacking the apparently many weak points on the composite mutant's body and limbs; however, to the scanning array occupying Benisuzume's right eye, the bone plates were moving too unpredictably and there were too many defense mechanisms hidden under the melted skin.

& Gravity repulsion active

Several pairs of wing-like armor on her back switched open, lifting her off the deck. A small ring of Hyggs propulsion ignited and adjusted their boost direction. In a resounding metallic howl of particle reaction, she charged between Nagate and the colossal undead, her lance held horizontally like a sword or cleaver.

SNIKT! The lance impacted off one of the overhead blade arms of the monster, making a clean, deep cut, but not enough to break the organic blade in two.

"Out of my way!" Nagate said in his helmet radio. He attempted to sway around her; a cluster of the seemingly redundant vestigial heads on the giant composite's back escaped their sockets, branching off one by one, snaking towards him on lanky enhanced necks. Just like tentacle missiles from the Gauna that ate Eiko.

Three of these heads on endless long necks escaped his stasis spear swings. Their lower jaws divided and latched onto him, then began to pull him apart limb from limb. One head was cut off by a lucky cut; it's eyes flashed orange and exploded right after separation, slamming Nagate into the nearest wall. He stood still weapons in mid air, concussed into a dazs.

"Stasis! Everyone, please!" Shizuka sprouted a statement with notable urgency and emotion, a rare occasion. The security team fired their stasis modules, doing their best to avoid the red-and-white duo.

She blasted away the remaining two skulls and scooped up Nagate from where he stood, then mentally pushed her booster to maximuml They returned to the humans' improvised defense line.

"Sarge, we need to leave! There's no getting through the big fucker, but we can still find another way!" Gabe addressed the detachment team's leader, "How far are we to this waypoint?"

"Yes, we're leaving." Hanson whispered, not to avoid ears of the undead but more like doubting his own judgment, "It's the hangar after all."

BOOM!

The giant Necromorph generated another biological bomb from its chest cavity, intercepted by Mike's Line Gun shot. He fist pumped the air to celebrate, only to be smacked down by Shen. The composite undead kept pressing on.

"Team, reload your weapons, center peel retreat tactics." He raised his voice, "We're going to find a shuttle and get off the fucking ship!"

"Sarge, Sarge, what did you fucking say?"Gabe asked.

"I said we're going! You wanna weigh down the team? You people made me do this!" Hanson pulled out his pistol and pointed It at Nagate,"It's all of you, but especially him!"

"Calm down, we have a mission..."

"The mission is fucking confidential! White and Vincent don't care about us, fuck them all!" His finger moved to the trigger," Nobody's special, we all die!"

SPLAT!

A piece of molten, clay-like red Ena flew onto his gun at high speed, melting on its barrel. Benisuzume pointed at Hanson, her finger briefly exposed by the reforming Ena material. The pistol's muzzle bubbled and melted.

"I nominate Gabe Weller to be our acting squad leader, by his seniority." Zoe said, handcuffing the still panicking Hanson to herself, nobody objected.

"Nagate, lead us to the objective, we'll fucking finish it." Gabe said, "If you book it, if you die on the way, I will stick my hand up your ass and puppet you until the mission is done."

"Understood." Nagate recovered from his concussion just in time, "Please let Benisuzume put a clean shot on the Marker."

Chapter Text

Chapter 8, Crunch Time

The medical deck felt almost safe, already fortress-like thanks to its complex design, now practically clean of undead with the necromorphs' attention drawn away by the 3-direction attack by security and the visitors from another universe.

Radio static disrupted the peace.

"Dr. Brennan, you have a bigger role in bringing the Convergence closer to us, yet you don't know!" Mercer's voice boomed on Nicole's RIG as she tried to catch some rest, giving her a nasty surprise.

"Mercer? Shouldn't you be helping Kyne in the emergency room?" She was past tolerating him. Was he holding a nailgun?

"Kyne is just another false shepherd. He's not in the ER, running away from Convergence."

"I thought the congregation onboard is all fine with the Messenger."

"Never! He and his Messenger takes flesh away from Convergence, but soon I'll change his mind. Open him another eye."

"What the fuck." The Convergence according to the clerical office's emergency broadcast should be a meeting of different universes, like the one the ship just experienced with the Type 17 Guardian. How is Kyne taking away flesh from it...

"Too much blood has been spilled for unfounded fear, when they're all needed for unity."

"Then go back to your office! Stop bothering me, I'm calling security. McNeil? Ramirez?" It all sounded like he was working against the plan to save the ship. How did he survive for this long? Shouldn't White and Vincent at least lock him up? She thought. Oh. Her mind finally began to connect dots that should have been connected since the Marker arrived onboard.

"They're busy. But have no fear, your greater purpose is just outside your door!"

"Are they dead?" Their RIGs were out of signal range, along with Maxine's. ...The nailgun in Mercer's hand suddenly seemed to explain their absence, while raising new questions like how was he supposed to overpower them.

"No, they're just talking to Kyne and Eckhardt. But nobody truly dies, Dr. Brennan. Except the concept of death will die, one day." He shrugged, "Anyway, he's just busy. I hope you can help me with this thing before he's back. Harris? The wire, please."

"Yes, brother."

Brant Harris is here too? His voice sounded like he either broke his radio, or busted his vocal chord figuratively playing doctor. The mental image of him deepthroating Mercer was... Poor devil must be getting worse following the Unitologist's galaxy-brained scheme. His Marker madness was bone-chillingly lucid and expressive, and "the wire, please" sounded like extra bad news.

A burst of electricity blackout as expected, and Mercer was prying open Nicole's door. She sat still at her desk, her hand reached for the electromagnetic pistol hidden in an open drawer. It was live, and Mike told her the basics of aiming.

"The Marker has use for you alive! My professional opinion is, you would be much open to Convergence if you could see it's reformative power firsthand. Please, lend me your authorization code for the organic prosthetics system."

"Who needs fixing?"

"Brennan, the bodies, the advancement of cosmic progress needs more bodies! I need another senior officer's code, the easy way or the hard way."

Clone bodies, dozens of them, and enough biomass to make dozens more, even hundreds more! It was clear as day, which side was Mercer on. She pulled out the pistol and -

A blast of stasis froze her, hand halfway in mid air. Mercer flexed his left arm, an improvised large stasis module mounted on his sleeve, and gave her a grin. He lifted his nailgun and fired at her pistol.

Clunk!

The nail impacted Nicole's pistol in slow motion, sending it and her all crashing into the wall behind. Mercer circled to her other side, then fired another nail at the pistol, jamming its electric rail.

"Dr. Brennan, really." The stasis energy wore off, and he pulled her up by her bruised right hand. Gesturing her towards the door, he asked, "Have you finally acknowledged all the dead trying to talking to you? Or did you try to ignore their advice?"

"There was Olivia Clarke... Trying to ask for more between me and Issac." It was the truth, perfect for stalling. There's an extra layer of absurdity seeing the ghost of her potential mother-in-law telling her she should get more whole with the family.

"The Marker has delivered the best advice for every member of the community, even if it's up to the individuals to listen."

Nicole had an idea on how to continue this talk. An original one, no input from the rock, filled with... A rare spirit of adventure. She pointed at a portable drive on her desk: "The prosthetics room, you say? I've kept DNA samples of myself and Issac for a while, now must be the Marker having her telling me it's a good time to offer our bloodlines for Convergence. The organ babies are never supposed to be born like us, Olivia wanted them to all be family."

"We'll be family. Sure, take it along."

They left the office with an air of passive hostility, Mercer clearly having the upper hand. Around the corner she saw Brant Harris: Deathly pale, his face however looking much less grim, agitated with barely suppressed wild zeal. The same kind of superiority and vindictiveness on Mercer was visible on him, too. He wore a patients' RIG, modified with improvised armor and protective fabric that barely hid his increase in muscle mass. A strange mechanical bracing fitted over his hunching, bulked-up back and shoulders, lined with autoinjectors, more alarmingly one stasis pack tacked onto each side. What have these Unitologist clowns been up to?

"Brant, when did you last take a nap? You look dead tired." She tried to make small talk.

"There will be enough rest after Convergence, sister." His voice off radio was as bad as it was on radio, "Altman told me, the endless still needs to be watched..."

"...Okay. Please lay off your smoking though, for eternity's sake, the stress wouldn't get better if you hurt your throat."

When they arrived in the prosthetics center, Brant had problems fitting through the door with his strange attachments and implants. The bracing and armor were true implants, Nicole realized, connected to his actual skeleton. It was getting more and more worrying! Her fingers clicked for silent emergency auto-dial on her RIG's interface.

"It's fine, Harris. Leave us inside and stand guard."

"Altman be praised, brother."

The two doctors went to work on the consoles, preparing clones for release.

"Have you checked what was different with subject T's examinations?"

"Impressive healing powers down to the cellular level. Though, these are all far from comparable to the gifts from the Marker. He can run from death, but he's not getting stronger. Have you seen what Harris volunteered to test out?"

While he tried to edit, Nicole found the right moment to plug in the DNA sample into the clone template. She nodded and played along until the system confirmed that lateral gene edits were ready to deploy in the current batch.

"The cellular regeneration pattern of Tanikaze Nagate meant his systems are completely invulnerable to the transmission and pathological aspects of this Necromorph infection."

"...So what?"

"So, I have flooded the organ babies with genetic edits that would make them useless to your Convergence."

"You imbecile... You child snatcher!" Mercer engaged stasis on hee, freezing the computer in the process. He gave the screen a good look, then unholstered his nailgun and pressed it on Nicole's chin in an intentionally, comically slow motion, "Fuck! This is nothing less than corruption of our future designed by our Marker! Fine, enjoy your last minute outside of Convergence."

Nicole stared down the barrel, waiting second by second as Mercer's index finger moved closer to the trigger. Suddenly, a flash of silver appeared next to the Unitologist's head.

It was a scalpel; Anne has sneaked up behind him, holding the blade next to his neck. Was she working in this room, or just hiding?

"Put your gun down, Dr. Mercer. I don't believe in the Marker, but I trust Shizuka. My faith spoke of a holy bearer of messages dragging evildoers across the sharpest blades. Do you want to test your faith right now?"

"Easy, easy..." He was waiting for his stasis to recharge, "Harris!"

The door mechanism screeched, wedged open by a pair of muscular inhuman arms that grew behind Brant's shoulders, fortified by the strange braces. As Anne was distracted, he threw off her knife's position and turned her back towards his artificially mutated follower.

She tried to hold him still, but in the struggle, her scalpel sank itself into Mercer's left biceps.

"I'll make them pay, brother?" Brant's eyes were glowing orange like a Necromorph's.

"We'll be back... Time to go!" Clutching his bleeding arm, the doctor latched onto his underling's extra right hand and retreated with him.

Soon, Ramirez reached the prosthetics center, but Mercer's blood trail was too risky to trace on his own. He set a few pulse rifle magazines to landmine mode and began to escort the ladies back to the imaging room.

"You've really saved my life, Anne! I don't know you're from one of the new religions, but I'll be fine signing up and paying tithe to you once we're home."

"Oh. It was just some old thing from the 1800s, a Chinese historian removed it after the SC collapsed. Not an organized religion but I like the mythology, all you need to do is to pray to the holy Brother, his Brother, his Father and the Holy Ghost."

"Hmmm. Holy Ghost pulls people across swords, I presume?"

"That's why I think Shizuka might be her."

////

Nagate's squad was catching their breath in a cargo deck control room after escaping the composite Necromorph through a series of spatially constrained passages.

"They did it!" Mike suddenly cheered as he saw new RIG feed, "Alissa's team will come RV with us, they got the beacon out!

"Good news indeed." Shen nodded, securing Hanson's handcuffs on a chair fixed into the floor, "Have they heard from CEC operations center yet?"

"Yep. It's even better news, they're sending a fixer boat to us first, and then a rescue force. It's cousin Hailey's boat, the Kellion!"

A round of more-than-halfhearted cheers rang among the squad, even Nagate gave Shizuka a reassuring grip pver her tightly clenched fist's Ena armor. The two knew to see their best chances of survival in an organized professional military response, as it always did in the long struggle against Gauna.

"I wanna sing something." Mike released his helmet.

"Come the fuck on!" Gabe moaned, "That big fucking thing will cut through all this metal to politely ask you to shut up!"

The only direct response to him was a middle finger. Mike cleared his throat, set his radio to all-range, then began:

"There once was a ship from the CEC, the Ishimura USG..."

Chapter Text

Chapter 9, Threshold

Shizuka felt her memories pricked to remember the first lecture given to Guardian pilot trainees by vice Commander Seii Ichirou; it was soul-crushing for a bunch of 12-years olds looking forward to becoming regular pilots at 14, delivered in Seii's trademark calm, matter of fact way:

"Welcome to the life of a pilot; you will be the first people to encounter a Gauna if they ever return, and the last people between them and the world inside Sidonia. You are expected to fight every Gauna, but do not presume you can win even if you have a Kabi spear, or even leave the encounter alive."

This opening struggled to left the proper solemn impression on the young audience, as many thought it was just their instructor playing the grizzled condescending veteran stereotype popularized by movies made back on Earth. The man was rumored to enjoy the feeling of exhaustion and insomnia! There weren't any Gauna around for a century, they must have been all exterminated like insects, or driven away! The students taking the message the most seriously were the Honoka clones, artificially designed and grown with acceleration to become natural born soldiers.

Shizuka could see in his expression that he was dead serious and completely earnest of his message, even a little empty inside from the grimness of his worldview. It only took a short time for her to realize existential depression was the all-consuming reality for Sidonian leadership, and it was much better than uncontrolled panic.

"A pilot now is an easy job just like a smelter worker, but paid ten times more." Although she haven't learned the names of all her classmates, she knew this was muttered by Eiko, who gave no respect to anyone pulling less than their full weight.

Seii continued: "Look at this ancient video of Type 5 Guardians from before the Kabi were discovered - they're loading a Gauna core onto a disposable high speed shuttle and suppressing its regeneration. Pushing the core away from our heading, as far as possible, used to be the only method we had that technically counted as removing the threat. Those shuttles have human crews, but not enough fuel or acceleration to return; you can see memorials for them in the graveyard district. You need to remember, although your Guardians are hundreds of years more advanced, they are not better than them in principle or doctrine."

There was a round of gasps; Kunato Morio, whose father was actually the Type 18 Guardian's designer, hid his objections better than the rest - staying still politely, quietly tapping the desk.

"As a pilot, your purpose is the same as them, to put more distance between the rest of Humanity and the Gauna. See the machine and yourself as movable parts of a shield, a drawbridge or a wall. All your training buys more time for people back home, for the next generation of pilots. You need to stop considering personal survival as a requirement for mission completion, starting with simulator battles today. In combat you will be assigned different purposes, do not go against them. Gauna is unpredictable, so do not put any blind faith into something you perceive as a survival strategy."

The classroom was filled was silence. Shizuka caught herself practically reliving the moment; why was she able to remember everything so clearly? Was it a positive side effect of having been corrupted by Gauna? Come to think of it, she may very well have relived her entire life up to assimilation every time Benisuzume was forced to regenerate from its core. Death stopped being a tangible concept for her in such a way, whether she wanted.

"You are allowed to think your life as a pilot is meaningless once the Gauna return. You are not capable to make choices that turn the tide. Experience would make you fight better, but not special. If you are assimilated, you will not maintain sentience. If your teammate is assimilated, do not try to reason with the Gauna wearing a human face..."

She swore she could have just heard Eiko whisper "you left me to die", not from the present, but from the lecture room in her memory. The feeling was not fully new to her, she had imagined things like that a few times since her short exile with Nagate.

& Energy source is hostile

& Aggressive transmission action detected in close proximity

"Soon may the Kellion come, save our souls and take us home!"

Speaking of Nagate, he was humming along to the hysterical sea shanty Mike cooked up on a whim. The atmosphere was very close to hopeful for every human, including Hanson. The only voices of discontent were all in Shizuka's highly overclocked head, so she welcomed more indoctrination from Seii's resigned but resolved lecture:

"Let's make things clear, pilots, your reason to fight is Sidonia. The motivation for you to do anything as a pilot is the survival of humanity. All of it, not you or your personal favorites. Nobody can survive in the cold and barren galaxy without such a cause, remember this truth." Seii saluted the clasroom, and battle hymn of Sidonia played in the stereo above, leaving a strong impression on all the to-be child soldiers.

WHO IS IT, WHO WE ADVANCE FOR

WHO IS IT, WHO WE ADVANCE AND BECOME OBLIVION FOR

Eiko leaned over, snapped her fingers, and asked: "Now that you"re dead, a universe away from home, are you only fighting for Nagate?"

"I see Gauna on this ship. I will destroy all of them."

& Note: Necromorph is not Gauna, do not use terminology for all non-conformal beings

& Note: Core is physically indestructible

& Note: Ascension nor assimilation is physically equal to destruction

"You're good at destroying things, for what are you holding back from breaking the ship? For who?" The face that questioned her became Shizuka's own, fully human, not an emotionless armor plate on a ceramic Ena helmet, "You are losing to your Gauna side. Can you still die as a human? What could make you more... Whole?"

"I know the answer, dying is easy. I'll fight for Nagate until my Benisuzume form expends itself, no rest until I dissolve and scatter." She gestured the team and stood up from the cargo control room's floor, "Hoshijiro, requesting permission to continue mission."

& Warning: Do not commit to physical actions that may break hardware or storage media

& Override OS Identity control in emergency mode?

O& OS Identity is permanent highest level authority, do not override

"I'm glad you asked!" Gabe also stood up and turned on his RIG projection, "The marker can wait, new assignment is a welcoming party for the Kellion. Once they're here, we'll trade in our Johnston for theirs."

"Hailey's cute, but I'm entertaining!" Mike objected.

////

Dr. Kyne faced a new set of uncertain factors for him to sort out priorities: The Ishimura population, Subject H, the Marker, Warren Eckhardt and his Subject M, voices of Amelia that by all means should be Marker insanity, Sidonian bacteria versus Necromorph superorganism, the impeding Earthgov response, and whatever Mercer is doing.

"Brother Terrence, I hate to tell you this, but the kids you chose aren't going to finish their job." Eckhardt reasoned with him in an improvised but secure panic room, "You know they aren't in their top shape, as impressive as they are. I can see them as heralds of the Convergence, but pull them off the frontlines if you want their message to be heard anywhere off this ship, for Altman's sake."

"What choices do I have outside of sending these two child soldiers into the bloodbath? Overseer, they're buying you time. By faith alone I waited for your return, even Ben wrote you off for dead. I saw you and Subject M as Ishimura's only way out! The Messengers are out there saving people, cutting off the infection, keeping you and her safe."

Subject M, Lexine Murdoch, was in the room next to them. Safely guarded by Irons and McNeill, but she was getting anxious.

"Thank you, really, Terrence. Must be hell for you once the Marker is onboard."

"It... Doesn't take long for me to justify reading the emergency book. You can write me up, but we aren't going home with the Marker. In fact, I'm trying to use Subject H on it. If her disintegration beam doesn't work, nothing will."

"Would be a lot to explain for me too, if we make it... The whole ship's attention is on them, better or worse." Eckhardt wiped sweat off his forehead, "If it doesn't work, we have no second take or plan B. I see their potential, don't think otherwise, but can we afford to lose them?"

"You aren't wrong. Brother, use your authority and request the Defenders of Faith, ships' comms channels won't stay operational for too long."

"Trust me, I've actually tried when the beacon went up. But the board of Prime Regents fucking blocked me. Full radio silence going up, I guess they know we need half the solar system's Defenders to contain this shit, but the news of a dozen church ships Shocking out can't be contained."

"Shit. How about CEC or Guild security? Earthgov?"

"White already called Earthgov. Take a guess who's wiretapping? If we're lucky, they'll nuke us. If we aren't, they'll find something in the SCAF scrapbook." Eckhardt hushed, and took a gulp of Kirkwall Whiskey taken from the ship's special space-sickness supplies cabinet, "Even if you slag the Marker, every living soul on this ship has seen too much! You and me, we can't go down with the ship! The Subject M situation is way bigger than just one Marker. Take your kids and get to Ben's shuttle."

Kyne hated to admit that his gutless superior had made a very compelling arrangement of the priorities, along with the least bad solution. Middle management in the whole church is really much more authoritative than middle management in the ship. He knew he had rights to call the ship truly unsalvageable, since day one, even if most of the survivors were only relying on him not giving up. If he can stick with Eckhardt and live to see the truth for another day... And then he checked the ship's network on hangar status:

"Fuck, it's not spaceworthy."

"Maybe Brother Sam can fix it. Or maybe there's another shuttle in the hangar? Worst case scenario, we can still take the one White called in. Scare the crew with Subject H, it's not rocket science!"

"All cold equations narrow down to just fucking run, huh? Forgive me, Amelia."

"I still have someone on my call with the firepower I needed, who can put a lid on questions too. Let's hope they pick up in the meantime then."

"One way or another, our sins this fucking hour will be counted on the day of Convergence." Kyne snatched the bottle of Kirkwall and downed the remaining volume, "Let's go to the hangar, but I choose who else rides with us."

Lexine, McNeill and Irons saw the two senior officers leave their panic room without a word, only gestures for all of them to follow. They took less than an instance to understand the implications and set off for the shuttle bays, which only Irons objected: "I'll escort your journey off the ship, Overseer, but I feel it's a long way till we meet again at Convergence. If you have a seat to spare then I recommend Dr. Brennan, she could help to calm the Messenger."

"It's my honor, Brother. Telling Vincent to direct her now." Eckhardt showed his message to Alissa as proof, "Trust me."

The five of them made their way through the mining deck with minimal friction from Necromorphs. The air was filled by static electricity and anticipation of treachery; soon, both were harvested by one thing.

A flash of light, then the voice of Mercer: "Director Eckhardt, please allow Convergence's humble servant... Excuse me, servants, to lead you to the Marker."

Nathan looked around, realizing they were all funneled into a maintenance and equipment room that favored whoever attacking them from the opposite direction door. He raised his pulse rifle and waved for everyone to take cover.

"Hello, Terrence and Samuel." Mercer opened the door on the far end and walked in, "Glad to see you're at least doing some biddings you were supposed to. Come along, we'll find a worthy shuttle to put the Marker on."

"By my authority, I order you to embark on a new assignment at top priority, Brother Challus." Eckhardt put his hand on his pistol, "Subject Murdoch will lead us on a safe path to reach Convergence."

"Another sign of temptation just like Kyne's Messenger! Harris, give them a quick view of Eternity then."

"Yes. Brother." The words of Brant Harris chilled Nathan to his bones, they sounded like they have been digitally simulated through a mental messaging system, "Rise. Live. Eternally."

Heavy thumps and metal scraping trailed behind Mercer, who stepped away from the door and threw his hands proudly. Lexine trained her guns on the pair of glowing orange eyes in the darkness, and Irons readied his plasma chainsaw.

Brant dragged himself in, figuratively, literally and physically: his parlance was thrown off to his back, where sickly, veiny musle and bone growth formed into two flesh-colored blade arms on his shoulders. The blades were lined with high-tension metal alloys on the outer edge, and a handmade power pack was implanted on the root of each blade arm, buzzing with electricity and stasis energy.

Nathan launched his rifle's magazine as a grenade, hitting Brant's right blade; it blew off flesh and blood on impact, scattering steaming trails of biomass and bones into the air. Everyone's firearms kicked into life, joining the effort to cut off the blade arm at its source.

"It's McNeill! Remember him? He's the small one now!"Mercer was enjoying the showdown, "Try the new one on him."

"Small."

Biomass from the hallways behind formed into thin tentacles and extended into the room, wrapping onto Brant's wounds. In a few seconds, they merged with his original flesh, rebuilding the arm. Somewhere on the new flesh, a growth formed; A circular cyan-blue light blinked at its center, then flashed white; a ring of pale lights flecks rotated in front of it, then focused into a razor sharp monoelectron light beam.

"The Marker has granted us insight into unholy weapons of the intruders!" A wave of stasis blasted the room, sweeping across the five survivors, "Hyggs particle cannon."

With a heavy metallic roar, the beam flashed white and slashed into Nathan's left arm. The beam's extreme heat melted his armor as soon as they touched, then tore into his arm, which has been raised and frozen by Mercer.

Flesh bubbled, blood evaporated and bone burned; the arm was cut in two on impact.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10, Reception

Nagate watched the familiar blinding trail of red light pierce the sky, drawn by Benisuzume as she flew towards an approaching spacecraft. It was a scene he hoped he would never need to see again once the humanoid existential threat blocking Sidonia's path was dealt with.

However, his best efforts on that rock were not enough. Benisuzume survived in 1:10 scale, and this time humans needed to borrow her power to help the incoming USG Kellion pull off its emergency landing into the main hangar. Yes, yet another shuttle is crashing onto the Ishimura, third in a row! He began to suspect this would be the norm for the rest of the operation.

Rest of the operation? How can he define it, though? Something or someone on the incoming ship would help to end the Necromorph infestation, or so he heard, but it turned out to be a very small shuttle that struggled to enter the landing guidance channel properly.

It was Gabe's idea to open the hangar gate in anticipation for the Kellion, since the automated landing guidance system was broken in one of the many power blackouts. Then, the next step became send out the one squad member with the most personal thrust power among them and let her act as a humanoid tugboat. Shizuka... No, Benisuzume, agreed in a heartbeat.

What if she escapes into the untraceable darkness?

"You watched me die!" The omnipresent voice whispered, making Nagate look around. It sounded like both Eiko and Shizuka, and... Himself? No, it should be his clone template, Saitou Hiroki, the man who raised him. The original hero of Sidonia.

"I thought you wanted everything to go like that, granddad?" It was true; the old man's survivalist hideout was physically cut off from all Sidonian emergency services, in case he would be rejuvenated or cloned against his will. Nagate was effectively forced to watch him die and live in the shadow of his mummified face for years, until crashing through some walls and being discovered by Shizuka.

"Why aren't you out there?" The voice asked.

"My suit boosters aren't compatible with theirs."

Before his eyes, Benisuzume has dissolved her lance-like Ena weapon and expanded the material into a dangerously large net to hold the Kellion's front. What if she assimilates the spacecraft then and there? He gripped his stasis spear tight.

VRRRRRRRRM.

The Kellion's thrusters switched off and retro verniers powered on, compressing air inside the hangar, humming along with Benisuzume's booster rings. It was a shaky landing, but nothing was broken on either ship. The red humanoid Gauna pulled back and hovered in the air next to the hangar walkway, saluting the incoming crew.

"Cousin Hailey!" Mike launched himself at the opening door, narrowly missing the retreating Ena substance, barely stopping himself in time, "Welcome to the Ishimura! Make us whole!"

"Fuck off, Mike!" A public radio call said, "Your singing is still shit, my leg just got fucked up."

Two men with pulse rifles exited the Kellion, visibly forcing themselves to pay no attention to the bickering, looking properly like security professionals. Behind them was a man in full spacesuit and a woman who reminded Nagate of Captain Kobayashi.

"Shit, you're all CEC is sending?" Gabe has arrived at the walkway. He continued asking, "Few shooters, one fixer and one white collar?"

"We're the damage assessment team." The woman answered with a stern voice, "Have to check how bad the damage is first, then we call for tug or evac. Kendra Daniels, by the way."

"Gabe Weller. At least you know there's zombie demons from outer space, right?"

"We've got a spoken record from acting captain White, so..."

"Cut off their limbs." Nagate and Gabe said simultaneously, giving Kendra and her team a good shock.

"...Thanks. I'm going to look for a suitable computer, and Issac will go check on the singularity core with the shooters. Our co-pilot is supposed to also watch his back, unfortunately she's injured in the landing, so I'd ask to borrow a hand from you."

"Mike's cousin, right? Sure, me or Shen can..."

A sudden flash dip to darkness, and an hair-raising strike of gravity instability. The unwavering red light of Benisuzume floated in mid air until artificial normalcy returned.

"Shit!" Gabe cursed, "Boss, come in! Mr. Temple! The fuck just happened with the core?"

"Then I'd better have a look ASAP." Issac, walking by them, turned around and tapped him on his shoulder armor, "By the way, what's the situation in Medical?"

"Not the worst, they held it together." He paused, and pointed towards the red humanoid, "Right, our new friend Shizuka, helped contain the situation a lot. Long story."

Nagate did not like this conversation, even though it was all true. His survival instincts were all protesting against any positive association with Benisuzume.

"Remember your original mission?" The voice asked, "Weren't you supposed to be keeping an eye on the marker?"

"I'm afraid of what she can do when she touches it."

"This is Vincent." Alissa finally replied over a torrent of static pulses, "We're still alive at the reactor section, but the... Shit. The composite big fucker came here. Don't have a choice, basically had to feed him into the centrifuge. Temple is keeping the machine up for now."

"Ugh..." Issac groaned at the thought of anything being fed into the Ishimura's reactor centrifuge, especially something described as the composite big fucker. He shook his helmeted head, "Better start working, then."

"She's a Gauna. She's going to assimilate them." Nagate heard a warning from himself, and raised his head towards the direction of Hyggs particles buzzing.

As they debriefed, Benisuzume flew past them towards the flight lounge with both Johnstons, Hailey and Mike, in her arms - the uninjured latter asked for a ride simply because he thought it would be funny. It was a surreally embarrassing display that only Hailey noticed, though she was too scared of falling off to point out.

"They will not be made whole as long as the Gauna is here."

Out of the lounge's door, came three people in a rush; Zoe, Anne, and Nicole.

////

Nicole saw enough indicators of safety in the hangar to allow herself to relax: No mutants, clean air, armed guards, the red porcelain guardian angel, and finally, a Shockpoint-capable spacecraft that can ferry her back home right away.

She couldn't fully believe the last part; thoigh, she has Kyne's message telling her she's top priority for evacuation alongside the Messengers. His contacts have sent for more help, and they'll pull everyone else on the Ishimura. It sounded too good to be true, but she was too tired to carefully think over the implications. Besides, the safest place in the entire galaxy right now would be next to the friendly killing machine that imprinted on her like a newborn goose.

Outside of the flight lounge, Gabe was transferring his extra gear to the fixer who just arrived on the Kellion: "Hey, Mike! Give us your modules if you're staying here, no time to get Issac one from the toolbox."

Wait, Issac? Nicole looked at the fixer's helmet. There were too many models of CEC engineering suits and not enough space for personal markings.

"Sure. You want the Line Gun too?" Mike began taking off his kinesis module after landing.

"Probably needs a frame for it..." Gabe was interrupted as the masked fixer gave him a thumb up and knocked his armor lightly.

The newcomer headed towards Nicole and disengaged his helmet: "Fuck's sake, you're okay!"

"...Yeah, Issac!" She had a lot of words in mind for him when the Aegis VII mission still seemed like a normal soul-crushing corporate medical desk job, but now they seemed to have all evaporated like... Biomass in front of a particle cannon.

A rational part of her subconsciousness analyzed herself: It felt just like the case of Norman Kleiss, a classical trauma psychology example in the workplace counseling course she took a long time ago. Norman broke up with his girlfriend Eunice in 1941, shortly before Pearl Harbor - and when the war broke out, they immediately started an inseparable letter correspondence. His diary was filled with the word "survive" in the the hectic days before the battle of Midway, which he did survive. The couple literally lived happily ever after!

Zoe stared at her latching onto Issac, who awkwardly fumbled with his kinesis module, unable to fully snap it on. She shrugged and gave him a hand.

"Nicole, I can't believe what I said to you. ...But I was so worried when the ship went dark."

"I know. You don't need to come here, Issac. Did they brief you the details?"

"No. We knew there's a blackout, then a call from the acting captain, and... The song."

"The song?"

"...Shitty one. Wait till I fix the centrifuge, I've done this for Perseus." He was about to put his helmet on, but Nicole grabbed him by his cheeks and gave him a light squeeze.

"Nobody sings worse than you! Come back intact, you've got this."

"Yeah, you'll always make me whole."

She thought this was the weirdest thing he could have said, but she appreciated the dark humor while it lasted. Where's Kyne, though?

////

Gabe and Hammond huddled next to the ship terminal used by Kendra as a workstation. The status update they just received from the bridge was a worryingly fast development.

"Good news, the Necromorphs have retreated from main survivor holdouts." White spoke to them, face full of cold sweat under a defunct heating vent, "The thing designated as contagion source by Dr. Cross is crawling away, too, seems the bacteria solution worked."

"You said retreat." She caught onto his phrasing, "Tell us where they're going, sir?"

"The hangar. We can't reach Kyne for the last hour or so, but Cross and Vincent all think their goal is the Marker. I think you need to prepare for the worst."

"Jesus fuck." It was rare to hear an old earth religious curse instead of a unitologist one, though nowhere as rare as Anne swearing by a "Brother" attached to the trinity.

"Gabe Weller is next to you, right? Listen then. Son, Kyne borrowed you people, and then he re-routed you before he went dark. Now the source is heading your way, kill it."

"No problem..." He was interrupted by a localized earthquake. Yet another gravity system failure? A few seconds later another one followed; it sounded like someone or something wet was dragging heavy cargo across metal, just a few floors away.

"The Marker is moving from its holding area." White said in a perfectly calm voice, "We're all fucked."

////

As of the cosmic powers we're trying to deteriorate the emergency even faster, a newcomer to the main hangar announced its arrival with great spectacle: The doors opened for shuttle arrival, alarms at max volume, debris in the air, not enough time for the hangar's air stasis barrier to frilly activate.

Nagate activated his magnetic boots, held onto the nearest handrail with his left hand, reaching out his right arm and spear for Nicole and Anne to grab onto. The decompression was hard for those with no spacesuit.

Keeping his head low, he saw Benisuzume firing her Hyggs particle booster ring in front of her, balancing the air pressure. She flew towards them like the namesake insect, punched into the metal floor in front of her, then used her spare Ena to create another net. The energy counter on her back had only two lights on out of eighteen!

He gritted his teeth; finally the feel of of vacuum in his face subsided with the buzz of retro engines and the gate shutting again. Looking up with his fellow survivors, they saw a shuttle labeled M23 parking onto an empty lane at a glacial pace. Its door flew open, and a human shape stumbled out with hands in the air - almost mistaken for a Slasher, he thought, as he noticed himself reaching for the submachine gun on his belt.

It was Dr. Kyne. Following him, all with their arms up, were people he heard Anne and Nicole talk about: Lexine Murdoch, Eckhardt, and McNeill who has a hand missing, only a bandaged stump. They all looked devastated and deflated. Cowering from certain doom.

& Datamass reaction identified

& Datamass source hostile

Pilot suit PDA: Hyggs particle reaction detected

Behind them, was the doctor whom other doctors warned him about: Challus Mercer.

"Praise the Marker, the Kellion is not one second late for Convergence." Mercer said, and casually launched a stasis blast onto McNeill, pushing him aside on the walkway.

Mike and Hailey raised their guns at the doctor, who waved at them dismissively.

Pilot suit PDA: Gauna

Nagate instinctively pointed his gun towards Benisuzume. She has retracted her safety net and formed two katar blades on her forearms, the miniature versions of her gigantic skeleton form's infamous melee weapons.

"Brothers and sisters, an honorable duty is upon you!" Mercer announced, his voice echoing in the hangar, "The Kellion is chosen by the holy Marker to ferry its physical form back to Earth! Bow and serve for this glorious purpose."

"It's my boat, you rock sucker!" Hailey's trigger finger moved towards the magazine ejector switch on her pulse rifle, barely considering bystanders within the explosive radius, "Your church has no authority on me!"

"The intergalactic power of the Markers always provides." He wagged his free hand's finger, "If you can only see brute force, fine. Harris?"

The disfigured biomechanical man emerging from the door of M23 made her evaluate.

Brant Harris' upper body was practically dissolved and reconstructed around his bone blades and improvised power modules. His own biomass, Necromorph biomass taken from stray growth on the ship, and metal all blended into one another on the surface, lights burning sharp just like his orange eyes.

A red beam pierced the air and sliced through the cyborg's right limbs in a crescent shape, filling the air with the smell of burning organic matter. His arm blade fell off while his leg was cut halfway through; his intact left blade sank deep into the metal walkway for grip. Benisuzume has fired her particle cannon straight from her eye, without any pretense of a humanly comprehensible handheld weapon.

Nagate re-balanced his spear and began planning for the worst case scenario where he needed to take on both humanoid abominations. Then, he saw white and pale blue auras of Hyggs particle reaction forming on the cut surfaces on Brant's limb stumps. Soon, flesh-like Ena replaced the lost flesh before his eyes. It was Hyggs materialization just as a Gauna was capable of!

"Brother Terrence Kyne." Mercer stuck the barrel of his nailgun to the back of Kyne's head, prodding him to turn around and face the cyborg, "Thank you for the Ena sample. The Marker sees a worthy offering and showed me how to combine it with its blessed ex-vivo recombination. Glorious and generous! You still have a chance to tell the stray children to repent."

Chapter Text

Chapter 11, Lighting the Fuse

An earlier time, when Shizuka was still recovering and recharging. She looked at the stasis pack in her Unarmored hands, carefully imagining absorbing power from it without activating her claws.

"Is this the new normal for me? Should I consider this the same as eating?" She thought. Sidonians after the Ochiai disaster only needed to eat less than 3000 Kcal per week per person, the rest of their caloric intake covered by photosynthesis from the solar spectrum. Nagate was an outlier, requiring daily food for his extreme metabolism, but... He even drank tempura dipping sauce straight from the bowl!

"Stop thinking about Nagate, you're a Gauna." An amorphous copy of her own voice said. So, her focus shifted to the unliving standards she experienced as a Gauna. There was a lot to experience, but next to zero consciousness to process until now.

A popular story book to scare kids into behaving themselves was titled The Hungry Gauna, about a Gauna that ended up eating everything and everyone because it cannot communicate with sapient life forms. Now, she could say from first hand knowledge that Gauna never felt the need to digest physical matter. Assimilation was closer to a from of digital storage conversion, using terminology she learned in computer science class. She shouldn't have chosen to postpone it like English to make way for more piloting...

"How do you feel, Shizuka?" Nicole was trying to make some conversation, having noticed she must be lonely staring at the stasis pack, "Regaining the use of your body is difficult, don't exhaust yourself, don't go rushing outside head first. "

"Thank you, Brennan-san. I'm fine."

"Just call me Nicole. So, I've heard Nagate talk about you before you woke up. All I can understand is, he really likes you. We're safe here and rescue will arrive soon... Are you comfortable with telling me your story?"

Shizuka dreaded the idea of telling her story. It was not simply guilt for what or who she became, but also the unspeakable nature of the holistic insight she experienced. She put down the half-empty stasis pack and reached for a cup of water, drinking and chewing on the straw to reestablish some humanity.

O& OS Identity integrity full, diagnosis unnecessary

"Nicole-san, please record this. Maybe not even myself has a full picture, but I hope this can help people understand... Or, research Gauna."

"Of course. I'll turn on audio log and text to speech." Nicole braced herself for venting. She has dealt with many teenagers back on earth, counseling for a trade school. A teenager from another universe who died at least twice and murdered at least dozens would be a worthy challenge.

"Hoshijiro Shizuka, pilot number 702, trainee number 336. This is my story of being assimilated by Gauna."

"I think successfully coming out of such a hard experience is worth being proud of. You have a strong personality, if you're religious, I'd say you fought well to keep control of your soul."

"Thank you... I'm not religious, doctor. If I ever believed there is such a thing as a soul I learned to deny it. Nagate told you about the time when we were drifting in space, right? All the time in the survival capsule I was thinking about the unpredictability of the world and mortality. His piloting skills, superhuman recovery, the Type 17, all helped him survive the first battle and chase after certain death. Everyone who died in the two battles ahead of it was top of their classes."

Nicole listened, it was a similar feeling of emptiness many people spoke of before joining Unitology.

"Personal effort, choice, material conditions, nothing mattered. I always knew my part will not be noteworthy in the war for humanity's survival, but every thought I had was chained by the guilt that I doomed the best pilot Sidonia had in a century. It felt too random for him, but he was unshakably confident that following me was the right choice. For the 11 days we were outside of all human contact, my belief grew strong that there couldn't be any reward from cosmic justice for him trying to do good. Have you felt it before too, Nicole-san? Hard work ending with no result, no hope for improvement?"

"A few times, Shizuka. I'm really, really sorry to hear this." She left her chair and sat next to Shizuka, who was inhumanly calm, "Though you haven't given up, I know you aren't giving up. Your personal efforts all worked in the end! There's no cosmic justice, but you still helped him and saved me!"

"Thank you, really. I know I still wanted to fight for a worthy cause. I felt happy the entire time after our rescue, and then? Doctor, being assimilated by Gauna is facing the evidence that I have a soul and they have put me into a Gauna core. Maybe I am all three cores, they kept my consciousness alive in a digital form."

"Oh... It must be very painful."

"I hated it. Inside the Gauna system, I didn't see the face of any god, I saw even more proof of the universe's random, inhuman nature. Not only we die without meaning, we live without meaning either! Gauna don't have identity or sentience, everything was only physical response to outside stimuli. I was transferred from the Gauna that ate me into the Mass Union Ship not for any strategy to understand humans, it's just decoding and transcribing data for them. It was pure luck I was here, not Eiko. ...The universe's rules for pain and death are random."

"Nagate said you believed in the possibility to communicate with the Gauna, and he himself had hope in Gauna becoming more human, because of you."

Shizuka was alarmed at Nagate becoming softened. Would he begin to develop second thoughts about the mutants on Ishimura at inconvenient timing too?

"Even as a Gauna, it was hard to make sense of this extreme difference between the two forms of existence. Gauna did not evolve from organic matter, they didn't even evolve from the same atoms and molecules!" She was good at physics, but the knowledge from her firmware was too primordial for human words, "They were built with material from the other half of the Big Bang, first as a form of pure information, not matter. A Gauna's observable existence was a small part of its entirety. Information and energy formed structures like the first organic particles formed amino acids, and then these structures became Gauna cores."

Nicole patiently listened to the technical knowledge, wondering what comments Kyne would have beyond his Unitologist cosmology.

"We... Humans think Gauna are attracted to Hyggs particles and reactions, but it's different. Hyggs reactions will cause routines in Gauna cores to move across spacial dimensions towards them, like iron atoms towards magnetic fields. Human are a source of information, cores will collect information because of automatic expansion and construction routines. New cores form within the Mass Union Ship when there's enough code material, there is no conscious thought involved in death nor birth. They weren't more complicated than bacterium. Sidonia has been fighting a force of nature, everyone knew that. However, the Gauna's nature is closer to a part of gravity than thunder or rain. How do you fight gravity?"

Shizuka felt the doctor put her arms on her shoulders, a loose thought developed in her head, imagining noises like slapping an empty oil can. Empty inside, code in replicated human flesh!

"Don't be too hard on yourself, you just pulled your soul back from the randomness you hated! You've won, and collected very useful knowledge nobody else could have understood. Don't give up. We'll take control of things together."

"Thanks, doctor. My existence in the Gauna system was a subroutine used to control the copied Guardian. They could understand hostility before they developed identity and consciousness. The relation with Kabi is... Strange. To human eyes, Kabi kills Gauna cores, but they chase after Kabi. From what I could tell, it was actually like information within the Kabi changing the material state of Gauna beyond physical. The automatic defense mechanism still resisted it, maybe not all forms of contact were permitted. Kabi and core structure can be converted from Ena, like... My Kabi claws."

"You've sure learned a lot of things, Shizuka."

"Gauna... Also collected many from my subconscious thoughts. Ena was supposed to be pink or white, but 'my' core knew I preferred red. My hair grew longer, but this last reconstruction restored my old look at assimilation. I heard humans call me Benisuzume, so one Gauna core copied information from my brain about the insect red hawk moth and made itself look like one. There used to be 702 written on my own face."

"It was all beyond your control..."

"It wasn't. Maybe, I even had the power to snap out of Gauna nature? On the first day of revival I had conflicting emotions, both fury and relief, because my perception of the universe is proven in the worst way possible. If there was a choice of joining the heartless primal chaos, I pressed yes and gave my control to my worse human nature."

"Oh, god. You're really blaming yourself for everything..."

And now, facing a vision of pure darkness with only the red glow of the Marker at its center, Shizuka stood firmly and giggled for the first time since shedding her Gauna form. It was a sound that even Nagate feared to ever hear again. The Marker spoke to her:

SUMUS HIC IN MORTE, NOSTER SANCTUS EST.

INFERIOR LIFEFORM, WE KNOW YOU HAVE STOLEN POWER FROM US. COWER AND ASK TO BE MADE WHOLE. WE ARE THE SOURCE OF LIFE AND WE COLLECT THE PAYMENT OF DEATH.

"Heh heh heh heh. Pain and death aren't yours to control."

////

BOOM!

Nagate felt his ears almost blown apart as Benisuzume broke through the sound barrier in her dash to reach Kyne. The scientist was safely snatched away from his human shield position in front of Mercer, practically deaf, but safely out of range of the nailgun. Her calculation was extremely precise, decelerating at the peak and reaching a safe speed when she reached the hostage.

Everyone in the hangar received differ amounts of disorientation, the ones with helmets being the luckiest; Nicole had the misfortune to compare this second sonic boom with the first one she experienced in the stasis room - just as painful.

And then, the skirmish ignited. The humans were sensible enough to find more defensible positions, while the hybrid cyborg Gaunamorph Brant stepped out in the open in search of a better firing position. He exchanged some brief words with Mercer, who couldn't hear anything, only pointed at some doors in the distance in frustration.

Pulse rifles and electromagnetic pistols began firing; the security team was able to regain their senses fast enough and aim at Brant, who shrugged off the projectiles and began to charge his own particle cannon appendage.

"Tanikaze, can you hear me?" Nagate was startled by the first thing he heard after tinnitus ended being Benisuzume's voice from the RIG radio inside her armor, heavily suspicious that she could be a hallucination.

"Don't listen to her. She is a copy, I'm the one you've known." A voice answered right on cue, "The time to make us whole has arrived. Sumus hic in morte, noster sanctus est."

He shook his head and tuned up the helmet speaker's volume from his arm PDA screen. The other Shizuka's voice was too clear, with faint echoes bouncing on his soul.

"Channel open. Hoshijiro?"

"...Clear." There was a shiver in her voice at him addressing her by name, "The artificial Necromorph has a faster Hyggs regeneration speed than... Mine."

A blast of raw thermal energy hit one of the commuter doors, melting it into red hot slag; another shot followed, punching a wide hole at its molten center. He began calculating what would be the intended target at these angles.

"Do you need a distraction to take on him?" The mission was still his top priority, no matter what his partner was. If she could follow teamwork rules until now, so could him. Nagate expelled all concerns for himself, leaving only thoughts of protecting assigned objectives within the operation area, "Fire support? Should I come evacuate Kyne-san?"

"Don't try to engage him in melee, I will try to remove his Ena through particle cannon resonance." Shizuka flew to a higher level catwalk as she spoke, putting him behind some heavy cargo boxes for cover.

"Roger that. Where is the core on him?" Nagate fired his submachine gun at Mercer. This successfully drew attention from Brant, who circled around his master to provide cover with armor plates grafted into his regenerative muscles. He began looking for exposed killzones he could lead the artificial Necromorph into.

"I can't see one. He isn't like a Gauna..."

"Fine. We'll manage."

Shizuka launched her left eye's partic beam, also targeting Mercer, at minimal output. The scientist ducked, and fired a stasis beam in response, narrowly missing her. He jumped off the walkway, hiding under the Kellion, daring anyone to hit the shuttle in collateral damage.

Nagate realized Brant wasn't prioritizing in chasing after ground targets such as himself or the security guards. More confusingly, the cyborg ignored the red flying humanoid either, only dragging his heavy torso around, pointing the fleshy high energy appendage at some spots on the hangar walls he struggled to locate.

BOOM!

As the cyborg's Hyggs energy finished recharging, the floating bright light of active particles converged at his biomechanical cannon. A blinding light developed inside, indicating a higher energy output level - the precise bolt of red punched biomass and Ena into the source of the light. Interfering particles at critical state cascaded into a sickening, dense explosion.

The sizable bloody hole torn open was instantly covered by glistening orange and gold energy, which then solidified into brand new material substance.

"Only a fool wants to kill the dead!" Mercer jeered in the public RIGlink channel, "The power of Convergence is bigger than your alien weapon, the Marker has even blessed it! Kneel, we will find a proper use for you."

"There is no Gauna core on him." This time, Shizuka's call contained audible, human worry for Nagate, as if she anticipated him charging over to carve the cyborg with his stasis spear. It felt like listening to Tsumugi.

"She thinks I'll rush him?" He thought to himself, feeling a surge of exhaustion, "Just one more thing she did for my sake since the first day..."

"Nagate!" Kyne screamed into the radio, shaking him out of looming guilt-filled memories, "Son, I think the Marker can supply energy directly to Harris."

"...Do we still have time to destroy the Marker?"

"Tracking system says it's coming towards us."

"Are the Necromorphs carrying it?"

"Or Mercer's followers moved it. Doesn't matter. Your Type 17 Tsugumori is still in this hangar, it should have enough change, right?"

"I think so."

Kyne shared a waypoint on the far side next to a cargo mover platform, a familiar shape of the humanoid robot's torso covered by spacefaring fabric: "When the Marker is here, destroy it. Shizuka! Buy him time to get in."

"Mission understood." They replied together.

Chapter Text

Chapter 12, Gambit For Freedom

Hours before the unexpected collision between universes, on a floating continent above Planet 9.

Ena tentacles were snaking and seeping into every opening on Nagate's Type 17 Custom Tsugumori, from blown panels to the cockpit hatch. The visceral red, white and pink growth solidified before his eyes, forming a featureless humanoid, growing the face he had pledged to stop recognizing in combat anymore: Hoshijiro Shizuka.

Gauna are incomprehensible by nature; the object shaped like Shizuka that invaded his machine could be a 100% talking, responsive copy of herself, but it would still be an unthinking appendage connected to Benisuzume's core outside. The devil with a human face was purely driven by the endless hunger for Hyggs particles, empty of all earthly emotions...

That was the official word known by all pilots since the appearance of its first iteration, which looked like an... Infected, overgrown Type 18 instead of the unnervingly sleek porcelain skeleton outside. However, Nagate made his observations on what actually powered this avatar of destruction: Spite.

She... It, treated combat not as feeding, but as a display of superiority to be enjoyed. It didn't fight Sidonian pilots, it tortured them to death while giggling all the time. He dreaded that the only human concept truly understood by the eldritch Gauna mind from her assimilation was evil. How else would Benisuzume took its time to drain Tsumugi's energy reserve and then fill her armor with needle-shaped simulated Kabi? This thing's existence could be summarized as an expression of hate against all life, and all who valued life. Forming the humanoid Ena from tumorous tentacles decorated with fleshy growths that looked like bloody, wilted flowers was an insult to humanity's expertise in creating beauty.

Warning: Structural temperature rising

Benisuzume's core was right in front of his cockpit, just within range of his artificial Kabi blade, but the Type 17 was physically bound too tight by Ena tentacles. The red devil drained Tsumugi's energy, and it was attempting to directly convert it to heat and sink all of it into his otherwise well protected Guardian.

"Nagate, can you hear me? Seal the neck airlock! It will block the Ena from going deeper!" He heard Izana evaluate the situation from their emergency passenger compartment, voice straining under heat, "You need to eject the head!"

Warning: Structural heat critical

He reached for the head parts ejection button, but the humanoid leaned over and seized his shoulders, pristine human arms melting into amorphous Ena to form a tight shackle. And then, power went off. The Guardian's components were assimilation-proof, though far from physically indestructible. A few pieces of Ena snaking in would wreck its internal wiring.

"Stop... Imitating Hoshijiro, Gauna!"

Tentacles crawled from its... Her mouth, and she pressed her face to his.

BLIP!

Izana reconnected the Guardian's backup power capacitor. Nagate only needed to reach his finger a few centimeters further... From the remaining cockpit screens not blocked by the simulated Shizuka, a realization dawned on him. It was an additional level of cruelty he hadn't expected Gauna to possess, a humanly capacity to inflict emotional pain:

He could eject the head right now, or the passenger compartment instead, which was reaching its maximum heat exchange tolerance. Izana and their squad commander would be roasted inside before he could deal with Benisuzume's core. If he did so, then the high temperature invasive Ena inside the Guardian would undergo foaming disintegration following the core's destruction, causing superheated, displaced structure to compress and implode. He could be caught in the compression or just killed by the disintegration itself.

He knew which choice the devil was forcing him to make. Was this an aspect of it having some morsels of her human identity? He selected the button for separating cargo attachment, dropping his passengers at a manageable height - Tsumugi or the main force would come back for them later.

"You can't make me run!"

"No..."

Then he thrusted the Type 17's left arm pile bunker forward, punching artificial Kabi into the core.

Warning: Extreme high energy reaction detected

A flash of black with red trim, shorter than a second.

Unlike any of his estimated outcomes, the Shizuka-shaped Ena appendage remained, while the visceral growth peeled off her. She began to float into the air, to his confusion. He pushed her aside with subconscious gentleness, looking away from her fully human naked torso. The screens indicated they were in uncharted space, far from the battlefield a blink ago.

Warning: Gravity not found

Warning: Zero atmosphere environment

The emergency passenger compartment landed on its side. Minutes following landing felt like an eternity to Izana, who only heard the planet's storms and debris, no signs of the duel at all. They opened the hatch and looked up; the skeleton has disappeared with the Guardian's torso, while three ripped off limbs landed around the site.

A familiar blue ring of ignited Guardian thrusters lit up above, descending on the floating continent.

"Tanikaze?" Sidonia defense corps commander Samari called.

"How can these two vanish?" Takumi, a fellow Benisuzume encounter survivor, asked, "Did we just see the end of them?"

Tsumugi finally arrived, staring at the emptiness like a statue. Izana hurried to ground zero and waved, calming her down.

////

Visions from the cockpit flashed in front of Nagate as he made his way towards the wrecked Guardian on Ishimura. He saw other versions of Shizuka there, some smiling in her old Sidonian uniform, some wearing the white mask and swiping at him with red ceramic claws.

ALL ONLY EXIST WITHIN THE HOLY BOUNDARY OF DEATH

MAKE US WHOLE

A Puker was dangerously close as an image of Shizuka, in a black suit sitting on the floor, faded from the corner of his eye. He activated stasis on his spear as it launched its acid projectile, then rolled to a side. The Necromorph continued on its path by inertia, colliding with the acid. As its upper body recoiled and fizzled, Nagate cut off all three of its legs in a clean sweep.

Half a hangar behind him, Benisuzume fought the tag team of Mercer and cyborg Brant.

Shizuka was running low on fuel; propulsion, armor, ammo, they all consumed the same Hyggs reserve. Since her awakening, she had been luckily able to siphon a moderate stream of energy off the Marker, until it - or its two underlings capable of higher brain function - caught on. Now, any attempt to absorb from it would meet a passive defense mechanism of emotionally contaminated data. To her demi-human brain they meant subliminal messages, while her Gauna firmware had to waste precious bandwidth to filter the primordial information. Even moving around in close proximity felt like flying downwind of tiny shrapnel.

Previously, the last ditch option for more Hyggs energy would be to restructure her physical form down to the core and simply weaponize every last particle outside. Now, the firmware and operating system seem to be hardwired against doing so, claiming it was non-negotiable for her to be completely humanoid.

Ishimura Computer: Entering Zero Gravity

Propulsion became much easier, although the hangar entering zero gravity mode also meant the clock began ticking for the Marker to board its shuttle ride to Earth.

Worse, people were shooting at each other and missing near the cargo control panels; whether it was unlucky souls disoriented by hallucinations or security fighting Mercer's followers, the fact alarmed her residual humanity. She broke up the fight with a beam cannon blast melting the industrial strength computer panel above the flight lounge, scattering the humans struggling for its control. Let them run, she thought, they'll figure out how to fix it after we deal with the...

The Marker has risen with the cargo lift platform, emerging within her view! A mind piercing shape made of molten glass or obsidian, red energy pulsating within, forming an alien script she couldn't understand yet couldn't dismiss. The world of fear and panic was it's domain. The icon of death and unity demands to drag its way across the disordered world, where she thought she had power within.

Shizuka blinked behind her Ena mask, focusing energy into her Hyggs particle cannon for a tentative shot to see how its energy emission would react. Then, Brant's thin orange beam seeped across her and began to intensify, forcing her to drop altitude and dodge. She cut off propulsion just in time, lying back, floating in zero gravity, letting the fully powered beam pass above her. This blast was much stronger than before thanks to the Marker in much closer proximity.

"No!" She heard Nicole gasp on the radio. Then, she felt herself caught by a stasis field. Mercer has came out of hiding at the worst moment possible for her, and took a lucky potshot.

Stasis tore at her Ena armor and invaded her skin, sending the feel of scorching static electricity across her body. If she dared to charge the Hyggs particle cannon or thruster ring before it was over, energy interference could tear off more than her helmet. Even her vision was distorted within the field, photons slowed down their movement just like anything else.

////

Warning: Critical system(s) not found, continue startup?

A torrent of error screens greeted Nagate in the Type 17's cockpit. The century-old machine was missing most of its vital parts, suffering multiple cases of kinetic, electric and thermal damage on top. Still, its battery was still usable and connected, while one remaining arm could be used to shift the torso around, slowly crawling towards victory. The head-mounted Hyggs cannon was functional too, Toha Heavy Industries be praised.

The cockpit felt like the safest place in the universe, this one or the one he came from. He was born for piloting, and spent most of his childhood training for the Type 17; now he finally had his extended body back.

ONE STEP CLOSER AND YOU WILL BE WHOLE.

A message flashed on his communication screen, he wiped off some dregs of wilted Ena to catch a last glimpse of it. It sounded... Alright.

He inched out to the cargo transporting interchange near the air stasis field, getting an eye full of the Marker. All he openings on the hangar's wall, made by Brant's particle cannon, were filled by Necromorph growth, some with entire bioluminescent, pulsating tentacles extending from them. The thing that plagued hydroponics must have made its way over here, its arrival prepared by the cyborg!

Nagate disengaged the safety on the head-mounted cannon and aimed at the Marker. Bright cyan targeting light kicked to life, air crackling with energy leaking from damaged power lines. The biomass took notice.

A mass of colossal tentacles covered the Marker's transport frame, then an additional one pulled in front, holding a humanoid object: Benisuzume frozen in stasis. Her iconic red armor was fractured and dilapidated, large pieces missing revealing the unprotected uniform beneath. Helpless like the two times she drifted away into unforgiving space, right?

"Same devil, different choice." He told himself and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

A deafening explosion shook the Type 17 to its frame. It was resonance explosion triggered by the cyborg he failed to notice, who stood in plain sight, operating the cargo rail system with his remaining human hand.

Warning: Hyggs power line damage critical

"Shit, shit!"

From the outside, it looked like the dismembered metal giant was bowing down to the vortex of reanimated organic matter.

"This isn't the end..." He told himself and anyone who could be listening, and let the Guardian reach out its hand. The hand slammed down, cutting into the tentacles. He felt solid construction underneath - it was the transport frame outside the Marker.

Warning: Weapon startup failed

The Type 17's arm pulled the frame close to its torso.

"I'm sorry, Nagate. If all fails, make sure no one can take the Marker to Earth." Kyne told him before he and Shizuka set off hours ago.

"I'll see it as an option." The truth was he suspected it would be the only path. The belief kept growing stronger when the security team's efforts kept falling short. He proceeded to set the Hyggs reactor to detonate...

CRASH!

The hand that held the Marker was severed by another particle blast from the cyborg, an insult to the degraded Type 17. Tentacles rushed by its cockpit to pull open the metal fingers, freeing its frame and pulling it towards the Kellion. A pulse of darkness then flashed across the cockpit's screens, locking Nagate out from detonation.

YOU WILL DIE SOON.

For the first time since he arrived in the new universe, he felt alone and abandoned. Everything fell out of reach in his mind. There were nobody waiting for him to return to, no mission he could fight to complete, even the red-colored devil played no part in the current miserable situation he was stranded in. He was solitary, swept by a wave of wholeness he barely understood.

KNEEL. PRAY. YOU WILL BE MADE WHOLE AND SATISFIED. CONVERGENCE IS NEAR.

At the center of his vision, stasis energy and red porcelain Ena receded from the object that resembled Shizuka; first her broken katar blades and armor, then her white expressionless mask, all dissolving into glowing particles. She was alive, and he knew her power was spite. She had a mind of her own, one that sharply contrasted with the Marker's oppressive, invasive presence. She had always been his beacon of hope, even when she was the devil.

SUMUS HIC IN MORTE -

The burning chants and scripts began to dissipate.

He tracked her movement on the Type 17's remaining auxiliary cameras. Benisuzume darted towards Mercer, who shot at her with his nailgun as his stasis was freshly depleted. The cyborg fired scattered weak blasts behind her, fearing for hitting his master in collateral damage.

Nagate opened the cockpit hatch and grabbed his spear, remembering he still haven't tried if artificial Kabi would scratch the Marker's unspeakable substance.

"Weak." His landing was greeted by Leapers and Brant's stuttered voice, "Die. Stop."

He replied with activating stasis on the hulking artificial Necromorph, buying time for the devil he knew... For Shizuka. She reached Mercer in a flying leap, and her first move after making contact was tearing into his arm wearing the stasis module. Red claw blades materialized on her fingers, sharper than the artificial Kabi blade, carving into the doctor's fully mortal organic flesh.

She tore through his ribcage in a blink, ripping him open like a disposable cornstarch grocery bag, forming a cold explosion of blood where she stood. Her fingers shredded the doctor's stasis recharge pack, absorbing all of it.

The blood on her previously white CEC uniform was suddenly scorched and evaporated by a stream of orange energy: Brant has escaped his stasis too, his fury instantly unleashing at the killer of his master.

SNIKT!

Nagate flipped his spear's blade upwards, and made a rising swipe cut into the cyborg's Ena-formed particle cannon, silencing it. He activated stasis again after pulling back, then shouted into his helmet:

"Hoshijiro! Take my Guardian's energy reserve. Assimilate the head, kill the Marker!"

Her answer was a supersonic boom towards the Type 17. Jousting with Brant's armored bone blades, he heard the familiar metallic sound of Hyggs reaction behind them. A tsunami of red particles flew overhead; as he was blinded by the scorching light, he felt resistance from the Necromorph giant suddenly dematerialize.

Chapter Text

Chapter 13, Building Faith

"There was a clear point where my life on Sidonia truly began." Nagate sat down on a flight lounge bench, next to one where Shizuka was sleeping on. Nicole, checking on her, encouraged him to just relax and talk after the extreme strain of battle.

"Pulse stable, body temperature normal. By human standards, she's healthy. Nothing's stopping us from waiting now."

The lounge has been converted into a first aid station; across the ship, mutants and biomass growth have deactivated when the Marker was superheated into liquid glass. People began to leave their panic rooms and hideouts to look for help. A part of the surviving medical staff went to stations along the tram line to distribute aid, such as med tech Greggs here with them, replacing bandages for McNeill.

"That point was when I saw her watching me, telling me 'fear nothing'. I've just fallen out of the tunnels I grew up in, running from all human contact. They were all hostile to me actually. Letting myself out felt like a mistake, felt like being born too."

"She left you the best kind of positive imprint." Nicole smiled and handed Nagate a can of SUN Cola, encouraging him to hydrate ahead of more venting. He ripped it open, suspicious of its fizz potential in restored artificial gravity.

"Thanks, Doctor. I agree it's a strong first impression, though it might not be fair to my other best friend Izana." He was delisted it tasted far better than Sidonian potato cider, "From Hoshijiro Shizuka, all I received was unreserved kindness. It's in her nature, and I don't have much to repay her. Over time, I began to realize she was trying to make me into an equal of her. I was a blank canvas, and she... Made me better than what I could have become alone."

In the background, Greggs and Anne were arguing about "ganic" arms and fingers being in short supply. Fingers? Apparently the organ replacement lab had technical difficulties. Why did Greggs launch into a rant against perfectly fine robotic fingers like the ones on Izana? Nagate shook his head and continued:

"She's powerful. It took some time for me to see I'm attracted to her being stronger than I am, molding me where others didn't care about. I thought I've lost the chance to thank her, until... Your ship found us. We were once isolated from the ship for a long time. She told me people have grown used to hardship like they're used to photosynthesis..."

"Photosynthesis? Sorry, so that was what the enzyme gene edits we saw in her are for."

"Yeah, photosynthesis. The Gauna invasion destroyed our agriculture systems, so they found a way to directly transfer energy to people. I don't have it, though." Since the RIG translator said SUN Cola had a slogan about tasting the sun, Nagate thought about photosynthesis lights tasting like sugar and oranges. Then, he continued, "Hoshijiro said I was born fortunate just like her, maybe more, which means I can afford to be more sensitive than other people. She wanted me to learn her kind of conscientiousness. Her trust in me was unshakable, combined with that unreserved kindness... I wonder if she ever had second thoughts every time she tried to die in my place. It scares me."

Shizuka has fallen into a semi catatonic state after disconnecting from the Guardian's head-mounted particle cannon; sitting at its side, attached by Ena cables that easily peeled off when Nagate and Mike came to check on her. It reminded them of her situation when she was found in the cockpit.

"You sound like you're still beating yourself up for it, I understand. You shouldn't push her away now, don't run either."

"This was the Hoshijiro Shizuka I knew. And then, Benisuzume. My mixed emotions are hard to describe, but there's a feeling I had after seeing it... Her, escape after her first defeat. As a fighter, it felt like I was being trained by humanity's biggest, most evil threat to become its personal nemesis. The devil named Benisuzume taught me extra piloting skills and tactical thinking. The cost was all the people I couldn't save, who didn't become assimilated or evolved."

"I think I can speak for Kyne, White, or everyone else, we're extremely lucky to have you two on the Ishimura. I shudder to imagine what's waiting for Issac if you haven't showed up!"

"You're too kind, Doctor. I want to thank Benisuzume for challenging me, preparing me, but... The thought gives me a lot of guilt."

"Her human mind is free from the Gauna network..." Nicole paused, thinking of her conversation with Shizuka that he didn't know, "There's history to observe and personal changes to make for the future, but in my opinion, you're both precious, amazing people. You two have personalities that fit together well no matter what, and you're both still young."

"...Right. I'm focusing on telling myself to admit I don't hate Benisuzume that much. It became much easier once the Marker is gone. Maybe I should get my Guardian rebuilt in a design like her. Thinner, wings, smaller thruster pod... Sorry." Nagate downed the can of cola, his lips dry, "I, Tanikaze Nagate, am created by both aspects of her."

"And I take pride in building you, Tanikaze." Shizuka commented, her eyes suddenly opened, "I was listening the whole time, he he he."

"Hoshijiro!" He was overjoyed.

"Wow. Are you alright?" Nicole asked.

"Sensory overload felt exhausting, the Marker left an explosion of energy and information. I'm fine now." She scanned across the room with fully human pupils, "Taste the sunlight... May I have some too?"

"No problem. Right, you like oranges." Nagate slapped his forehead, "Tsumugi likes baked oranges, figures..."

"Who's Tsumugi?"

////

At the Ishimura's computer core, Kendra thought of pulling her gun on Dr. Kyne when he found her and offered her a half-full bottle of whiskey. Following him was Eckhardt and a holo video channel to acting captain White.

"Okay, rock worshippers, I honestly would like to hear why you no longer have a Marker on this ship. You know where I came from and why."

"Miss Daniels." Eckhardt spoke first, "We saw... Another layer of truth. Let's say the holy Marker saved our souls but cannot maintain its physical shape, while its will is now carried by the Messenger."

"The number of Earthgov top brass who will buy your alien teenager love story can be counted on two hands. And church leadership?"

"You've been briefed on Project Oracle, right? Subject H may offer us a new approach. She's at least 75% as resistant as subject M, and the other kid, subject T, is approximately 65%. Excuse me, your professionalism on the mission has been spotless, but the current subliminal training made possible by Earthgov Internal Security and the Church could only reach 50% on a good day! For the energy side, you saw the destruction. I trust your department to find suitable means to harness it."

"Mr. Eckhardt. You know accountability is more than you and I putting down some reports in text-to-speech."

White interrupted: "Accountability isn't taking away survivors and drilling their memories either. I still have more than 400 living souls on this ship, they need help. If they get home happy they'll might even keep their mouths shut."

"Your boss can talk to me on the matter of costs." Eckhardt continued.

"EIS needs answers, not just payouts... You want me to sugarcoat this clusterfuck as the greatest discovery since Altman found the original Marker. It being true made things even worse for..."

Kyne interrupted her by waving the bottle in her face: "Miss Daniels. I had to calculate a way to kill my own god, and kill the phantom of my wife too, in the past few days. They both tried to kill me. Convergence is hell. What's the worst thing that could happen to me?"

"Shit. Shit, shit!"

"A very fair trade for your side! EIS back up my story, provide reports according to my outline. In return, I will offer full support on researching the Hyggs dynamics, an artificial bacteria that counteracts Necromorph growth, and the regeneration powers of Subject T. Brother Warren here will make sure Project Oracle stays a joint research between church and state."

"Okay, Doc, I can see what you wanted for yourself. You glassed the Marker. Revealing discovery of the Messenger is extremely risky; you need Earthgov to provide leverage, guarantee your safety against zealots. Eckhardt will have his name dragged for standing with you, too. No offense, you will become the next Altman, just that you won't enjoy it any more than he did."

"No offense, I have other plans for leveraging my safety. But let's look at it this way: EIS wouldn't want my enemies in the church to take my research, much less an open schism."

"Fine." Kendra snatched over the bottle and took a gulp, "Cheers, because we just dug our graves even deeper."

"Welcome to the CEC, masters of digging, you know?" Eckhardt tried to lighten the mood.

"Guys, guys." White spoke wearily, "An Earthgov ship already Shocked in, demanding us to stand down for inspections."

"This is the USM Valor. Ishimura, do you copy?"

"Ishimura listening, acting captain White here. We are going to drop the load and Shock to Wanat."

"You are illegally trespassing in a restricted system. Do not leave the current airspace! We need you to cut power and receive inspection. Fail to comply, and we will open fire on your engines."

Kyne stared at Kendra: "Are these your people?"

"Yes, but they have't gotten the memo yet." She shrugged and resumed working on a long letter to someone at higher authority, "We... Need to hold them back, it's information control."

"What's the worse they can do, just hold us here till we crash from orbit?" Eckhardt asked outside of speaker range, "Just let them board, there's more crew left than their boarders."

"Special forces aren't here to arrest the crew. They'll come as they want, copy logs, snatch everyone related to the Marker and nuke the ship. If you're lucky, genius, you will have a bright future mining plastic in the California dump zone. They'll put your alien kids in labs! And reassign me to a desk job in Milwaukee or somewhere, I don't know."

Shrugging, Kyne switched in: "Valor, we have a mass casualty incident onboard and raw biohazard substances. Hangar section is ground zero. "

"All crew and civilians onboard are now in the custody of the Earth Defense Force. Deactivate your weapons and engines!"

Thanks to its size, the Ishimura was arguably better armed than the average Earthgov destroyer on just one side. The ADS cannons were highly imposing even if they weren't all operational."

"Valor, we don't have two working wires on this ship, cutting power means we'll crash into the landmass. The entire hangar complex is broken, see for yourself."

"We'll have to engage the hostile boarding procedure then, Ishimura. Don't make this harder than it is."

"There! I've sent my request," Kendra said triumphantly.

Someone on the bridge crew gasped: "USM Valor is deploying gunships!"

From the destroyer's hangar, lights of Y-shaped propulsion trails emerged. They were hard targets for the ADS turrets, while each packed the firepower to crack open armored glass on the bridge. The gunships entered a constantly shifting 3-dimensional escort and surveillance formation around the Ishimura, posturing for extra threat.

"They aren't boarding... What are they waiting for?"

Eckhardt's question was soon answered: The bridge received another destroyer-sized shock signal, and then a much larger one. Camera links at the computer core showed the second spacecraft to be cigar-shaped, towering over the two destroyers.

"USM Abraxis and Victory... I think my message just got through." Kendra exhaled, "Another drink please."

"This is the USM Victory. Captain White, shut off your weapons and engines, disconnect gravity tethers. Tell all crew to shelter in place, we are going to tow you. This is your last warning."

"Oh fuck. Not what I meant..." She looked at Kyne, who buried his face in his palms, "Fuck, there's enough space to hold 400 people on that ship. For as long as they want."

"Ishimura speaking." White groaned into the video conference, "Our systems are in shit creek right now! See for yourself, if we ditch the rock, not even you can outrun the planet collapsing. Whatever you do, patch us up first!"

The Ishimura quaked with a muffled grinding screech.

"They're... Activating gravity tethers directly on our hull." Bridge crew reported.

Suddenly, the navigation interface was filled with shock signals: Dozens of them, minuscule compared to the warships, and the followed by two sizable blips. The small ones entered physical space first - not immediately identified, but all carrying identifiers belonging to the Church of Unitology.

The two much larger ships than Shocked out, both creations of Unitology's geometric gothic design philosophy, like pure white whale bones that grew into church spires. They came with their own ID profiles, carrying names foreign to all earth languages: Pilgrimage carrier ESV Ulmok and interstellar monastery vessel ESV Skiew.

"Altman be praised! They answered my call!" Eckhardt cheered, "We're not abandoned, Terrence."

The Ulmok established a video call, a blond woman in an ornate dress, surrounded by Enigma-masked, armed followers, bowed to the camera: "This is Choir Leader Le Guin of the Titan cathedral. I bring you word from the church of Unitology - the Ishimura and all onboard are now under the protection of the church! We will provide aid and spiritual healing at this site of tribulation."

The military channels were filled with disgusted muttering. To back up the claim, Skiew began deploying its own gunships and shuttles, simultaneously opening a channel as well: "Jacob Danik, at your service. Our brothers and sisters have endured a time of great sacrifice. Loved ones are waiting for them, for their witnessing of blood and glory."

"Le Guin... Won't be out of the good of her heart, but I guess she's worth talking to after all." Kyne rubbed his temples, "But Warren, how the fuck did you get Paragon Danik to leave his cave? Whose soul did you sell for the muscle?"

"This time it includes mine at least, Terrence."

One by one, the Earthgov gunships started to pull back, and the Victory soon deactivated its gravity tether. They still waited in silence for a word from higher up.

Finally, an old, authoritative-looking man appeared on the video link from the Abraxis. His hair was all white and wore a dress uniform instead of a spacesuit, giving him a refined, civil atmosphere. He waved for the other two ships to make some distance: "This is Major General Machette, Saturn Guard Force. My forces will leave the system, as we've seen the emergency reported by CEC is now under control. I trust the church can handle aid and repair on the Ishimura. Let's hope we don't meet on another such call, folks."

////

"Shinatose 723 to unknown spacecraft, identify yourself!"

Warning: Signal strength unstable

Warning: Disconnected

"This is Unit 723 of Sidonia East 4th Corps, unknown spacecraft, do you read me? Respond!"

Warning: Incompatible file format

Warning: Gravity anomaly detected

"There's more? Oh no... Shinatose to Hazama squad and Takumi squad, I need backup. Help me record them while I relay videos to Sidonia. First time in how many centuries..."

"Have you tried using the non-Hyggs communicator?"

"Thanks, Takumi-san! Sorry. Okay, Shinatose Izana representing Seed Ship Sidonia. Unknown spacecraft, do you read me? ...Are you human?"

Chapter Text

Chapter 14, Descent

One week later. The Ishimura was repaired to a nominally operable state by its crew and the Unitologist expedition, and Shocked away towards Titan Station, escorted by Ulmok and Skiew; the chunk of planetary mass towed away to a Lagrange point near the planet for temporary safekeeping. Survivors received official instructions on what to say from both Earthgov and the church, even a threateningly reasonable amount of hush money from both too.

Nagate and Shizuka have won a trip to Earth itself, tagging along all the adults with responsibilities to report to CEC, Unitology and Earthgov. Daina Le Guin brought the gestatorial shuttle from the Titan cathedral as an icon of authority - now its passenger capacity was pushed to the absolute limits: Herself, the kids, Eckhardt, Kyne, Issac, Nicole, and finally Kendra as an observer from Earthgov. As well furnished as the shuttle was, it was still built on the same compact platform used by the Kellion.

All of the mutant biomass in Ishimura's hangar have been removed for biodegradation while the molten glass created from the Marker was vigorously tested to be no longer magnetically, radiologically or biologically active. It could be cut apart and melted by human tools freely. Now, the hangar was as sterile as the fresh CEC dress uniforms that replaced the kids' bloodied and torn suits.

"We're coming closer and closer to seeing Earth, Nagate, I'm starting to feel scared." Shizuka said, as the improvised tour group boarded their shuttle.

"It's hard to feel Earth's charm, right?" He tried to understand her way of thinking, "We grew up on Sidonia."

She nodded.

"The Old Man never taught me much about Earth. Classes I took on Sidonia felt hard to grasp too. I'm still hopeful to see for myself, though."

"The tourist handbook dressed everything up in sentimental value." Shizuka waved the expensive-looking physically printed handbook at him, "I'm starting to feel it would take Sidonia's vault to make the planet recover, and it will be as difficult as terraforming a rock."

What remained of Nagate's battered Type 17 was sent to a CEC research center ahead of the unlikely tour group, inside a cargo pod connected to the Kellion; Earthgov took copies of its navigation data, while pieces of its armor and Hyggs collection membrane went to Danik's mobile monastery for study. The long term goal was to establish a stabilized connection between universes, and let the Sidonia enter this Gauna-free world. In exchange, the Hyggs technology could easily solve humanity's energy shortage.

Dr. Kyne has told the kids: This inter-dimensional mutual aid is the real meaning of Convergence and they are clearly its messengers. Daina and Eckhardt gave this interpretation their approval, too.

"See this thing. Extinct Animal Friends!" Once settled into a luxurious recliner seat, Shizuka opened the handbook, showing a page to Nagate on the seat next to her.

"Kemono friends? Wait, they're all extinct. Can you imagine there are no bears on Earth anymore? This isn't fair for Miss Hiyama."

"Sidonia's gene bank will have a lot to do. They don't even have bees anymore! Most farms are hydroponic, outdoor ones use genetically enhanced moths to pollinate."

"Moths?"

"See this one here? Pergesa trademark. It's closely related to the real benisuzume."

"Oh..." Nagate stared at the picture about Earth's high-end organic agriculture. He swore he heard the devil's taunting giggle - and then he looked up, finding out it was Shizuka herself giggling at his alarmed reaction. The only way out was joining her in a hearty laugh!

"Look at this! Natural Japanese seaweed for making nori!" She pointed at another illustration, "Kunato Norio can no longer feel unique!"

He coughed, even dry heaved at the name. Kunato Norio, the human face of hostility on Sidonia - even Nagate could piece together that he was the direct reason behind the mission failure that caused Hoshijiro Shizuka to be assimilated by a Gauna. To be fair, her return as Benisuzume scared him enough, but his lab team also took over a humanoid Ena of her and... Somehow created Tsumugi. Whatever he became, his family was the type to name kids after extinct types of seaweed to show off their wealth.

"Ugh, him..."

"Earth should still have mosugu too, I'll reserve some for Kunato Mosugu." That was the name of Norio's younger sister who lives in his shadow, vastly better natured, a friend to Shizuka. She became a suitable pilot or partner for Tsumugi without any combat training, which the lab attributed to high mental link compatibility. Other than that, she seldomly crossed paths with Nagate or his friends.

"She'll be overjoyed to see you. I know she keeps to herself, but Izana said she's really shut off after... You know."

"I'll make sure! The land of the living should share my joy, there's enough for everyone I care!"

Nagate felt the enthusiasm to be infectious. Behind them, Kyne was typing out something on his PDA tablet, and he picked up the pace at Shizuka's claim. On his face was a smile of approval?

"Look who's coming to Earth too." Across the aisle, Issac pulled up a link from his PDA to the seat screen, "Just what I'm waiting for the whole year, and we can catch them ahead of the festival!"

It was a poster for a metal band tour on Earth, from Issac's birthplace of Philadelphia to Green Bay, a town of perplexing importance since the days of Alfred Bester.

"Convergence Rejects again?" Nicole asked; the band was moderately successful among CEC workers, although many complained it was not as hard as late 20th century forerunners. Being an affront to Altman was easier than to the biblical god.

"Hey, I'm just one stamp away from getting their collectors' edition foam hands! We can take a weekend trip before work starts again." He leaned over, "Hey kids, do you want to come experience some real Earth culture? They'd love to sacrifice a real goat to have you two as guests, too."

"A precious creation of the Marker... These heathens." Daina muttered at an intentional audible volume from the navigator's station.

"Don't worry, it's going to die for a worthy cause and feed people who actually appreciate life." Issac grinned, and turned to Nicole, "You want a really good idea?"

"No!"

"I've been watching security cam footage. Once I get back to my band console I'll sample the Hyggs effects. Bands can have them for free, and we'll have free tickets to every Beyond Metal fest."

"Not bad, Issac. Not the worst. Make them public domain."

////

In Sidonia, the Tanikaze house's entrance kept receiving gifts, flowers and well-wishing cards even two weeks after the unexplained vanishing of Nagate. After all, it was his second time missing in action, and last time it took even longer and a trip at relativistic speed to fetch him back.

Izana found assistant commander - and the closest thing to yet another member in Nagate's found family - Midorikawa Yuhata knocking at the door with a tablet. Following her was Mosugu.

"Okay time for us to come in?"

"Sure! Do you want me to call Tsumugi here?"

"I've sent her a message to get here on the confidential channel, I think she'll like seeing this."

They waited next to the pipeline shutter that connected to Tsumugi's hangar. The secondary head was a breakthrough in Chimera Gauna research; regular humans felt magnitudes more comfortable working with a whimsical balloon animal than with a meat-colored armored golem ten times their size. Civilians liked the child-friendly appearance, too, although there always were some people complaining about a "mildly phallic outline" of their demi-human protector.

Sound of friction between the pipeline and squeaking, rubbery Ena was echoing across the house. She was audible excited to see her closest friends, or her support crew gave her too much 1:10 scale antidepressants. The prescription was ordered by central command after Nagate's disappearance which Izana strongly objected to, but every commanding officer except Yuhata approved.

A few seconds later, Tsumugi's secondary head squeezed out of the pipe and waved hello at the gathered humans; Izana hugged her and found her a place next to the family TV screen, which Yuhata was plugging her tablet into.

"Don't tell this to anyone, this is just for you to hear. Our analysis of the anomaly picked up by Izana's Guardian showed a spatial distortion pattern that matched observations seen when... Nagate vanished."

"Really?" Tsumugi slithered out of Izana's arms and moved closer to the screen, "You mean we're getting closer to finding him?

"Scientists at Kunato labs may have a lead." Mosugu nodded. Then she continued, in a precise and diplomatic manner that slightly unnerved Izana, "The computer on the inter-universal ship sent to us for examination could load data from the anomaly as a known pattern in the native universe, although it's not incomplete. Fully interpreting our codes with theirs would take time, and repairing the Shockring requires approval of collaboration with Toha Heavy Industries."

"Wow..."

"The approval would just be a formality." Yuhata shrugged, "The Captain has already decided to start testing our systems' interoperability with theirs. The Shockpoint system uses gravitational beams to open channels in space, and we can translate some technology into those used by our explosive-compression anti-planet guided missile."

"Kunato Development is amazing!" Tsumugi clapped her secondary head's tentacle hands.

"Izana, your new Type 18 Recon-2 model Guardian will be completed soon. Before you board it, we'll first connect it to one of the Foreigners' ships and send them through a short range Shockpoint flight across observable space to see if Hyggs reactions affect it."

"Wouldn't it be too expensive to test with?" Izana wondered, "Have the Foreigners agreed to using their own ship?"

"The estimated possibility of a success is 87.53%! Besides, their cargo provided minerals we can use to make more Type 18 Recon-2s. They're pirate miners and they said it's a good trade for housing and jobs..."

"Tell me about them!" Tsumugi shrunk back to find a cozy sitting place, "The doctors didn't let me follow Mosugu-san to see them. Pirate miners? Don't pirates live on the sea? Are they oil drillers then?"

"Right! Okay, you'll hear from me this ahead of anyone. We'll be putting out official news this evening and say the ships Izana found are from colonist survivors. After some Shockpoint tests, we'll start to talk about a plan to explore a parallel universe. Anyway, the Foreigners are sent here from their universe by accident. It's a universe with different tech from ours, a timeline around 800 years behind, and... Gauna doesn't exist there."

"What?" Izana was as surprised as Tsumugi.

"In some ways they're behind us, but other ways they're far ahead. These people call themselves the Magpies, they're outcasts of society piloting old ships, yet they regularly use a faster-than-light travel method invented centuries ago."

"How do they like life here?"

"They've all went through hard times, all thought the gravity anomaly would get them killed, so most aren't complaining about living in an emergency shelter for now. Some have started to make demands, though, saying they want high class room and board for what they can teach our engineers. Oh, they're all the regular kind of humans who needs three meals a day like Nagate..."

"I remember Hoshijiro talking to Yamano about leaving hardship..." Izana's thought trailed off, too.

"There's good news, too!" Yuhata flipped over a page on her tablet, "Their chartings said Nagate have a high chance of being picked up by military ships trying to catch them in the mining area. Maybe they have already took him to Earth."

"Nagate on Earth?" Tsumugi wrapped her tentacles over the shoulders of the other two listeners in excitement, "It exists over there? Do they have pictures?"

"Here! You should see it ahead of everyone, as a treat..."

////

New Melbourne, Florida. Temple Prime of Unitology. The great hall next to one of the temple's many spiritual aptitude testing rooms was almost packed tight by the tense atmosphere from its handful of occupants sitting in the pews.

"I can't believe our first stop on Earth is this shithole and the first thing the kids experience is the fucking eye needle machine!" Issac muttered to Nicole, who was staring at the intentional recipient - their nominal friend Eckhardt from Ishimura - with unveiled contempt at the obvious betrayal.

"The church's ophthalmologist waiting room has horrible decor and reading material." She nodded, "The plants are all Biosynth weekly package subscriptions. No real flowers when you're in Florida of all places? Hey Warren! Do you even have real oranges in the building, or just plastic decorations?"

Eckhardt awkwardly asked a dull-looking acolyte in all white to fetch refreshments for them, who relayed to some masked guards.

Inside the testing room, Nagate has just left the NoonLight diagnostic machine.

"Your eye's itching? Don't rub it. Here, have some medical gel." Dr. Kyne warned, replacing the optic fiber needle with a clean one.

"I'm fine, but Shizuka..."

"Don't worry, I don't look away." Her reply reminded him of the time they entered separate vertical man-washer machines... No, organic decontamination chambers on Sidonia after their return. He squeezed the gel between his eyelids and watched her enter the machine.

A few seconds of winding up later, the machine began to beep for help. Every screen was filled with error text.

Technical difficulty warning: Exception detected. Input bandwidth exceeded (4.8TB/s), procedure terminated. Please leave machine and contact engineering.

Chapter Text

Chapter 15, Soul Cleansing

Nagate and Shizuka stood hand in hand at the center of a dimly lit but grand circular hall. They were watched by holograms of high priests in renaissance robes and golden masks, while surrounded in physical space by guards in white suits who looked sharper, more quietly threatening than their counterparts outside. Kyne, Eckhardt and Daina looked dangerously out of place compared to them; this meeting was using them to set an example for the visitors from another universe.

"A question for you, Tanikaze. What did you see and hear from the sacred, infinite continuity of life?" One of the holograms asked. The Unitologist leadership could be speaking to this room from anywhere in the known universe, or just one floor above. Their own voices were hidden behind filters that sounded like Brant Harris' communicator implant, "The dead must have spoken to you."

"...I heard the dead telling me I've failed them. I need to make them whole, or to be made whole."

"Who are they?"

"There was my grandfather, and... Her. I watched them die."

"How did you respond, then?"

"I protect the living."

"Do you have any doubts?"

"For one moment, there's a feeling that there's nothing I should do, and becoming whole means I should just leave others alone, but she shook me out of it."

"You feel a great sense of duty for protecting mankind, don't you?" Another hologram asked.

"I do. I am a knight of my ship's people, and I will continue fight for them when they arrive."

"What do you have to say about aiding Kyne's suspected heresy against the Marker, and its more loyal servants?"

Holographic screens activated in the dark room, playing various scenes captured by cameras on the Ishimura and voices recorded on personal logs. They knew everything - including the instruction given to him to destroy the Marker. The sudden influx of media gave him a slowly growing disorienting nausea, tickling at his blood vessels and eardrum.

"I'll never let anyone harm those who cared for me, not even the dead, or your Marker."

"Yet, you have genuinely stood with one such abomination against humanity." A screen hovered in front of his face, a transcript of Shizuka's words to Nicole in Japanese and English.

"...For the 11 days we were outside of all human contact, my belief grew strong that there couldn't be any reward from cosmic justice for him trying to do good... I hated it. Inside the Gauna system, I didn't see the face of any god, I saw even more proof of the universe's random, inhuman nature. Not only we die without meaning, we live without meaning either!"

Nagate felt her left hand twitch in his right hand, so he turned to her; she gave him a look asking for more trust from him. He kept listening to the voice recording and realized she did not mean trust in the sense that she intended no harm, but in the sense that they could pull through what awaited them next together. He gripped her hand tighter as confirmation.

"On the first day of revival I had conflicting emotions, both fury and relief, because my perception of the universe is proven in the worst way possible." The audio log continued, "If there was a choice of joining the heartless primal chaos, I pressed yes and gave my control to my worse human nature."

A third hologram man interrogated him: "Can you still say you see her as a human?"

"Of course." he turned to the Unitologist leader, "Even as Benisuzume, she did her best for me."

"Your time is up. Now, Hoshijiro, questions for you: What did Kyne tell you about the sacred Marker?"

"It's the power behind all sapient evolution, and the source of infinite energy."

"Why did he tell you to destroy the one on Ishimura?"

"Highly esteemed masters, please turn off the infrasound first. Nagate and my protectors can't hear them picking up intensity, but I can."

The room fell into an awkward silence as Nagate looked at her then around him. One of the holograms nodded, and the guards began adjusting their soundwave-based weapons. Meanwhile, Shizuka's eyes lit up with a scanning array of bright spots to emphasize her point, sending a hardly noticeable subconscious shiver across his bones.

"The Marker spoke to me. It revealed its mind to me!" Her statement made Kyne shift where he was forced to stand, while Eckhardt and Daina shot desperate looks at him to not have an outburst, "Dr. Kyne is both right and wrong about it causing the reanimations - it lost its control over organic life. However, it could still talk to one person on the ship, and that is me."

A presumably higher ranked hologram man exchanged some looks with his colleagues, then moved closer to her: "Your Gauna side has been drawing energy from the Marker, alongside information. Correct?"

"Yes, like I'm drawing energy from the stasis module batteries around me right now. At first I didn't understand what it means, then the message became clearer as our... Bond, grew stronger. It needs energy for its signal to pacify the reanimations."

Nagate gained a deeper understanding behind why Shizuka was the second best student of her year in the whole pilot school, only behind Kunato the renowned schemer. With or without help from the adults in conjuring her story, even he could see she was good at wrestling for control against the masked figures.

"Why did it deconstruct and bleed energy after being subject to Hyggs exposure? Is that device on the Guardian not a thermal energy weapon?"

"The Marker needs to ascend into Convergence between universes, to reach a higher state of existence like Gauna chase after Kabi! Dr. Mercer is misguided, trying to trap it in this physical space even longer.It gave me instructions on what code to inject into the Hyggs stream." Lights on Shizuka's right eye formed into a particle cannon, "My action matters more than the number of mortal lives! The Marker gave me the opportunity to let it ascend, and it needed the survivors to carry its word. For those infected by uncontrollable life force, it will bring their souls to Convergence and leave their physical biomass."

Thump.

Daina knelt down where she stood and made the crossed hands sign of the Marker at Shizuka, surprising the guards next to her. Less than a second later, Kyne followed, completely prostrating himself: "Altman be praised! Forgive me, Messenger!"

Eckhardt did the same right behind him, burying his face in his hands. Nagate was confused by the display, yet also awed.

"Compose yourself, brothers." A hologram said dismissively, "Easy there."

"Shizuka Hoshijiro. Benisuzume. The Messenger." The leader spoke again, "What is your understanding of Convergence?"

"I should have died, or have already died many times." She replied without a second thought, "On the first time, I was drifting away into deep space, no power over whether I can go home, whether anyone will save me. I knew all life came from the sea - once the aimless drifting began, I thought I am going to return to the endless, amorphous ocean..."

The words made Nagate remember a conversation that haunted his mind, even forced by the times to relive at least once with Izana. He held up his hand, not letting hers go: "Hoshijiro! Nevermind the sea, this new universe, or hell itself! I'll follow you!"

A long moment of muted discussion among the high priests passed, then brightness in the circular hall returned to a humanly familiar level.

"You are all dismissed." A hologram said, "Dr. Kyne, you have been cleared to receive the Paragon rank; Altman be praised."

////

The seawater level of Sidonia received many superstitious comments after two sets of its high-profile visitors all died horribly and spectacularly in very short succession. First there was the Top Four of the professional pilots, all murdered by a Gauna that assimilated Yamano Eiko; and then Nagate and Shizuka, whatever happened to them was even more unspeakably dreadful. They all took the prestigious underwater pod tour before their cursed missions, everyone could see, so the artificial sea naturally became a place for all pilots and couples to avoid.

This time, Kunato Developments got to rent all tour pods, for as long as they wanted, at a total bargain. The visitors this time were the crew of the upcoming Shockpoint experiment, a mix of pilots, researchers and Foreigner Magpies.

"Mr. Schneider, I see you're the same kind of person as those who built Kunato into a full fledged competitor to the longest standing tech giant on Sidonia, a century ago." Kunato Norio shared a pod with Stefan Schneider.

"You speak pretty good English, kid. Though pardon my freelancer nose, I think your company smells like government subsidies."

"I speak German and Hungarian too, if you feel more comfortable talking in these." Norio fumbled with his pockets, "Subsidies are only a temporary boost. I'm looking for a spirit of entrepreneurship for long term edge, and I know you appreciate a good opportunity. Or else you would have objected to this arrangement and went to Captain Li's pod."

"She likes younger men, so i told her I'll take her place for your safety. Anyway, you might creep her out. What's the deal with freckles, that Kaoru kid anyway? Looks like her attention all went to him now."

"Them. Neutral gender, a new direction for population balancing after the disaster. Not settled on a gender yet." Kunato idly spun around a pen taken from his pocket.

"Oh, I've heard of people like them on the developed planets. Now let's talk business, what are you looking for?"

Stefan felt his knees suddenly swiped from behind by a subtle but powerful kick, he fell towards the pod's glass wall, then his fall was caught by Norio.

"Everything." Dr. Ochiai, the actual main spirit behind Kunato labs' prepaid developments, grinned as he implanted the blood nematode into his eye.

////

"Hey, kids! We're here!" In Temple Prime's public social area, Issac waved around his phone, which was just returned from a locker by a Unitologist guard minutes ago, "News about the Ishimura is suddenly out everywhere. They didn't mention you, or us, but you need to see this."

Nagate's attention was fixated on the table where Issac and Nicole sat. There was a colorful display of drinks, fresh fruit, donuts and real farmed beef jerky - no other table within sight had nearly a comparable variety or availability. He made his way to a chair at the table, doing his best to make his hunger more presentable. Behind him, Shizuka openly chuckled without a care.

She sat down, took a can of Dejarta saffron yoghurt and checked out the projection from Issac's phone. It showed a front page of a content aggregator news website, dazzling by Sidonian standards just like the food:

> Alien microbe identified as cause of Ishimura disaster
> RANCID MOON IN REAL LIFE!
> Acting captain says "not great, not terrible"
> Blood of Medusa release postponed for concerns over poor timing
> Titan Cathedral memorial service intergalactic broadcast scheduled
> Metal band Culled Prey donates earning of new concert to victim fund
> Urban legends: Survivors report seeing "mysterious Samurai" on Ishimura
> SIGN OF CONVERGENCE: THE WOMAN IN RED AS FORETOLD BY ALEISTER CROWLEY

"I need to buy a new dress... Red with golden sakura pattern. And the kind of mask Captain Kobayashi wears."

Chapter Text

Chapter 16, Rising Tide

Usually, the director-in-chief of Titan Station would rarely be seen outside of his home colony, the biggest literal Rust Belt in the solar system - but today he showed up at an unassuming signal station on Mars orbit operated by Earthgov Internal Security, flown in on an unmarked dropship. This was also where Kendra reports to for her real job.

In the station's barebones, spartan interior, even the war room used for top secret briefings was cramped to say the least. It was tightly packed: Tiedemann, Kendra herself, their shared superior in Project Telomere who only went by the Overseer, meeting a handful of other trustworthy officers or scientists at various rank and unit.

"The church has held up their end of the deal, on their own initiative." Dr. Foster Edgars, representing the biomedical team, began his presentation, "A full copy of Tanikaze's initial scan came to us almost as soon as they finished transcribing it. We have problems with Hoshijiro's scan; it's a lot of data, and only a small portion is intelligible to our instruments, but we can work on it. Anyway, we saw a good amount of their life stories. Here's some snapshots we can show people they clearly aren't from a Magpie colony or SC remnant."

Sidonian architecture followed a very different approach from Earthgov or SC ones, tailored for its extreme verticality and limited volume. And then there was the mind-numbing patches of white: The most common building material seemed to be cement made from asteroid dregs, far fewer metal surfaces and neon lights than the Sprawl was known for. The people similarly wore a limited number of clothing patterns, or even faces.

"Good." The Overseer nodded, "I recon none of them is a builder, though."

"The actual value of their memories is in refining our theories of Marker ghosts. We can confirm Tanikaze's vision only consisted of people he personally saw dying, and Hoshijiro's was the same, plus one of herself. Pardon my phrasing, but thank fucking Jesus, the rock isn't capable of using random dead people from other universes as puppets. Score one more for the visions being memories, not actual people serving the Marker in their afterlives!"

Kendra felt relief from this finding; when she was making her way to the Ishimura's computer core trying to establish a link with EIS, she met a ghost of her younger brother trying to stop her. When the Marker was destroyed, she felt something linked to her own consciousness ripped out with burning force, before sudden realizing the hallucination suddenly vanished,

Edgars continued: "If our project isn't named after the structure, I'd even suggest we make a new department and name it Telomere. Tanikaze's DNA has very clear traces of editing for healing, metabolism and longevity. It's beyond the best available life extension gene therapy we know! We can try to monetize it, but we need to eliminate the risk of it turning recipients into copies of him."

"Is that a real possibility?" The Overseer asked, genuinely interested, while Tiedemann scratched down some notes.

"We need to observe the organ bank samples from Ishimura first. At least we know the DNA is resistant to suspected Marker contagion mutation."

"Fine. How about Hoshijiro?"

"There are codes for human photosynthesis and accelerated brain maturity, we suppose. Though, I need to explain that the blood sample Kyne and Brennan took from her might not be actual blood, but Ena that looked like blood; material science can back me up on this, too. Down to the molecular level, her tissues are all made of god knows what, molded by her mind to be... Herself."

"...Maybe we should have a metaphysical department after all. Thanks, Foster! Now, Dr. Phelps?"

Dr. Kinner Phelps shook Edgars' hand and took over the podium: "I won't bore you with the specifics of too much. The TLDR is, Ena is indecipherable to us at this stage. However the Hyggs collection membrane, thruster and capacitors on the Type 17 are simple enough, and we have off-the-shelf components to jury rig a working theoretical prototype for our own use. It's worth noting that the system has been recorded capturing Marker energy on the Ishimura passively, strength in proportion with proximity."

A round of awe was heard among the project members.

"Hyggs energy would be worth studying with high priority if we're just looking for an alternative fuel source."

The room fell silent as people considered the possibility. The speaker himself, though, nervously tried to meet the Overseer's gaze at his presentation. Kendra silently gulped; the boss was a different kind of Markerhead from the blind followers and zealots, the methodical kind, who came from a long tradition of Earthgov and Sovereign Colonies researchers working towards taming the eldritch for worldly purposes. Changing his mind would be impossible.

"It's fine, Kinner. We have uses for this!" To her surprise, the old man was genuinely happy with the suggestion. He turned to Tiedemann, 'Hans, set up a place to build our own Hyggs energy production system. You've got resources to multitask on the Sprawl, right?"

"We have raw materials, but the labor cost... I'll see with the treasury. Though, Overseer, multitasking? We didn't recover mental prints for the Marker, do we?"

"We don't have a new one, but we do have the church's portion of the Caiden Files as payment."

Kendra blinked at the mentioning of the Ambrose Caiden, the commander of all Sovereign Colonies' planet-side military operations. He gifted their last Marker research omnibus to Earthgov and Unitology, divided into complimentary halves either for safekeeping or for planting a seed for future conflict between the two power blocs.

"They are open with them wanting their own Hyggs and Guardian research." The Overseer stated matter-of-factly, "We will share less critical information as agreed, but I've already talked to sitting Pontifex Pietro Curon after his examination with the so-called Messengers. He doesn't like the new god found on Ishimura, for now we could look towards a common interest, so the church is being exceptionally open with collaboration. Danik's faction has agreed with him on this, too."

Half a minute or so of silence followed the end of his report. It sounded like a deal with one devil against another, even from the Unitologists' point of view. For such a dull presentation and debrief session, the air within the war room felt dangerous and tense.

"Dr. Phelps, how's the Guardian salvage progress?"

"Uh, okay, boss. We have enough data to rebuild the Guardian with our own materials, it will be expensive and take a while, but we can make it up to spec. Artificial Kabi is challenging and we need to test out theories with spatial gravitational tech and Marker-substance resources. Its computer system is extremely helpful for Hyggs research too, not to mention what else is in its storage media. For instance, a full repair manual, common platform software development kit and even schematics for older Guardian models..."

"We'll send designs for an older model to Unitology, then. Hans, Kendra, we'll get CEC to spare us a dockyard for building Guardians. You two make it happen, alright? Divert 3D printing resource from the Marker if you need. The sooner we can see Tanikaze pilot it, the better."

"Understood." Tiedemann responded as he kept working on his notes, "Do we have a mission for him already? I can spare some troops."

"Thanks, but we'll gather flight test data first and put up a new unit for the mission I have in mind. Kendra, you're still Telomere's eyes and ears in the frontlines."

"...No problem, boss."

"Major Shiraki." The Overseer turned to a young woman sitting at the far end of the room, who wore the regular EDF's dress uniform and dyed her hair in a light violet metallic gray. Earthgov Internal Security employed many individuals who could be charitably described as quirky, or at least kept them on call for situations that didn't make sense to use others. In Kendra's eyes, the appearance might just be camouflage playing to the stereotype of rampant nepotism within Earthgov's desk officers.

"Need me to put up a list of test pilots?" Shiraki nodded, "How expendable do you want?"

"Let's say people we don't plan to shut up, but we can still tolerate losing in sustainable combat attrition; I'll clear you for recruiting from both the army and the navy. For the first squadron to learn from Tanikaze, I have people in mind already. See?"

He forwarded some files on his tablet to the presentation screen: Zoe Hampton, Gabe Weller, Robert Norton, and John Carver.

"Two from the security he worked with on Ishimura, and special forces infantry... Okay, they'll train for gunships first, as long as they don't crash and die. You have to cover their training costs, though."

"It's subsidized. Put them through anti-Marker subliminal training, too."

"I presume we need a ship, right?"

"I've got one picked, USM Ravager. Take it from the boneyard and get its hangar refit for Guardians, Commander Harold Fabrik will be waiting for you onboard."

The ship on the screen was a bulging mess of metal pieces, one shield-like hangar and thruster complex on each side connected to a long tubular hull at its center; giving an outline of a turtle from the top and an overgrown 1940s submarine from the side. The surface ionization gave it a shade of rust; it came from a class that preceded the already aging USM Victory and Valor.

"An atmospheric-capable assault ship older than the Ishimura. I think only the church still flies them..." Tiedemann commented, "Is Fabrik a rock worshipper too?"

"Don't worry, he's with us, a bad guy who knows he's bad." The Overseer said dismissively, "Let's sort out our schedules... Tanikaze's machine will be ready first, then the Ravager. If we're lucky, anti-Marker conditioning. New Guardian production will have to continue when they're still out... Let the squad fly on gunships, they'll manage. If Hoshijiro still haven't gone wildcard by then, find a way to make her contribute."

Kendra felt the meeting had developed even faster than the domino of suffering on the Aegis system: "With all due respect, boss, why are we proceeding at this pace, and improvising this much?"

Many others in the audience shared her thoughts.

"The Caiden Files don't make up the entirety of Sovereign Colonies' Marker research. There are things left behind on Aegis VII, and so are Aspera and Kreemar. This mission will be named Operation Pyrite, we're making the most use out of our new friends by retrieving more info on Marker construction and killing rogue SC Markers."

////

In west Philadelphia, the Second Church of the Sacred Bloody Viscera of the Body of Christ Hung Upon the Cross has been a great place to host metal concerts for centuries. The original one has been voted America's most metal-sounding church in the ancient 1990s, so when the second one was facing a Unitologist buyout in the 2200s, headbangers across the solar system pitched in to save it. In 2508, the entire neighborhood grew into a safe haven for all counterculture.

The new home bought by Issac Clarke was only blocks away from the church, right on the line between gentrification and supporting the local economy. For him, it felt good to spend a lot of money on a substantial upgrade like this, especially since his budget has been highly boosted after the Ishimura job: Hazard pay of both himself and Nicole, insurance, Earthgov hush money, Unitologist hush money, underground sales from sound effect samples, and an extra gift coming from Kyne - who used his newly elevated church position to distribute the personal savings of Mercer to all surviving Ishimura medical employees.

Friday afternoon, Issac and his unconventionally constructed family set off early for the joint Convergence Rejects-Culled Prey concert. They stopped for dinner at a local restaurant with outdoor seating; the company of Nagate and the power of human social conventions have led Shizuka to give up her Sidonian lifestyle of photosynthesis-supplemented weekly meals.

"This place has been working with an indie food tech grower in Rutgers since the beginning. There's a huge difference between factory farm synthesized meat and custom made, see this texture?" Issac flipped open his scrapple sandwich towards the kids, "It's vat grown pig organs, carefully done. Experts keeping it both tasty and affordable."

"Ew." Nicole objected, "You don't need to tell them that, and it looks like mush!"

"My apologies, you're the real organic mechanic with an eye for livers and stomachs here."

"Asshat."

"It's seasoned so well - thanks for recommending!" Nagate had the same kind of sandwich; he spoke though half a mouthful, and broke off a piece with his plastic fork for Shizuka to try.

"I like it! It's as good as real Gravity Pork back home." She smiled, paying attention to her table manners since a concert day is still a festive occasion worth wearing the new red-with-golden-sakuras dress she bought when Daina took the group of survivors to visit Japan. She was about to hand over a piece of her Italian sub when something very eye-catching on the street caught her attention, "Wait... Is that..."

A concert attendee wearing a fiery red full-body motorcycle suit, with a handmade white mask that looked like a human face tacked onto the side of their helmet?

"Me?"

"The other three followed her gaze, startled by the figure. Nagate looked back from the red figure to her, totally confused: "...Benisuzume?"

The biker waved at someone down the sidewalk, who wore a secondhand CEC crew uniform and a plastic samurai helmet with a crescent moon in front, like the one Issac bought in Kyoto.

"Huh, samurai, CEC uniform... Oh shit." He put down the sandwich and began searching for news on his phone, "Hell no... This is what the spooks meant by media control then. Shit, Kendra."

Nicole leaned over to read the page opened from his search, and set it to projector mode. It was a movie poster:

ADAPTED FROM TESTIMONIES OF REAL USG ISHIMURA SURVIVORS
The greatest hero out of time, out of place
Glen Schofield behind masterpiece Rancid Moon presents:
The Titanium Samurai

The image showed a 16th century Japanese warrior with two swords unsheathed, staring down a circle of monstrosities, and a CEC survivor who looked like Anne cowering behind him.

"Cosplayer. That covers some questions." She rubbed her eyes, while Issac laughed at Nagate's confusion, "What about his friend, though?"

The first search results for "Ishimura" and "Red figure" was SIGNS OF CONVERGENCE - THE WOMAN IN RED ON ISHIMURA IS THE DEVIL, and the second one was VIDEO: PROOF THAT THE WOMAN IN RED EXISTS, SHE BLEW UP A FUCKING MARKER. Nicole clicked on the video link, and the other three all leaned in.

The video was posted just days ago when they were all recovering from jet lag. It began with a disclaimer: "I didn't make any of this shit up. See for yourself! Wasted all my vacation days and stuck my ass into an eye poke machine at a Magpie clinic to get the footage, enjoy! Radikov wants to buy this for 50k Creddy but fuck U-tology."

It was entirely honest; the video was reconstructed from both RIG body cam footage and retinal memories of someone in the hangar when the final battle happened. The video's creator must have been extremely dedicated and either stupid or well aware of the stupidity. The absurdity was the key to its popularity, even acknowledged by several Unitology outlets and speakers in recommended video links. The Woman in Red has become a point of contention, and a grassroots icon that represented many outside the church.

"...Mike?"

On the street, more concert goers have appeared, and some among them arrived with different combinations of diabolical red and white. The simplest had a red t-shirt and a paper bag with eye holes, while one wore a long robe, long black hair, and a ghastly grinning oni mask for extra metal spirit.

"Nice dress!" The oni metalhead gave a horns sign towards Shizuka.

Chapter Text

Chapter 17, Fifth Wheel

Tentacles of the Hive Mind whipped across the bleak air of Aegis VII. They weren't as unpredictable or malleable as Gauna tentacles, but they carried massive amounts of kinetic energy and moved just as fast. Now, Shizuka cursed her Guardian pilot course curriculum for not having enough time spared for learning full-manual controls.

Nagate's rebuilt Type 17E - E for Ersatz model - felt hypersensitive in her hands, bucking like the motorized water filter she used on the last day of the infamous space drifting. It lacked active gyroscope correction assistance of the Type 18, requiring fine tuned inputs to not overshoot boosters and throw itself off balance when dodging. Although relatively slow in handling compared to the older one, the computer on Sidonia's newer machine could in theory provide pilots with more reaction time and better situational awareness.

Benisuzume's first incarnation was physically based on a Type 18, and used her very limited piloting experience as a control template. Its Gauna nature meant the simulated Guardian had instant and holistic control over its movement verniers, giving it horrifying mobility over regular man made machines. Ena material also provided it with extreme structural integrity that could survive instant acceleration where Guardians would break apart at the seams.

Shizuka had around a dozen hours of simulator experience with the Type 17E after it was completed, taught by Nagate; the Aegis VII mission required her in the cockpit because Ravager's science officer Dr. Stross theorized her Gauna senses would provide very useful readings on the replacement systems Earthgov installed. This newly established combat test unit, callsign Special Detachment 704, was supposed to have a low risk mission for its first since the Marker has been slagged into volcanic obsidian.

WE NEVER WENT AWAY, UNBELIEVER, THE SICKNESS IS THE CURE

Gritting her teeth, she focused all thrust on the Guardian to its front lower left to avoid a mass of tentacles rising from below, while turning the head turret analog towards the Hive Mind's central body mass to line up a shot. Both her human and Gauna senses were approaching an overload of information, from piloting and the colossal alien's hostile signals. The Marker was gone, yes, but a faceless, shapeless presence still controlled the biomechanical monstrosity.

BOOM!

The Hive Mind's main stem snaked away from the Hyggs cannon's targeting beam, then tossed over a biochemical grenade. The projectile detonated on its own, creating into a viscous, volatile cloud - the beam igniting it into a wall of fire, blinding the Guardian's sights.

"Hoshijiro, 2-unit bombing run incoming, to your 3!" Zoe announced, her gunship already entering a course approaching the monster's root in the crater. Shizuka pulled away, launching a grenade burst from the Guardian's chest cannons to draw attention.

A ripple of explosions; rockets impacted smaller tentacles, clearing a way for the gunship. Unguided bombs followed, separating from the gunship at the last second for a tight grouping and high enough inertia to send them with unavoidable velocity. Then, Zoe pulled up, autocannons still firing at the Hive Mind's head without pausing. John Carver's gunship was the next to attack; he largely followed the same path, but pulled a sharp banking rise, separating his bombs at the same moment, tossing them as he made his escape.

It was an impressive and fearless display; they could be great Guardian pilots once the Type 17S, Singularity drive model, would be mass produced. She would make sure all of SD704's test pilots would see the day.

The monster reeled from the explosion and roared, sending all its functional appendages towards Zoe's craft - she pulled up too late, spent too much time aiming. A few tentacles sent her frantically trying to maneuver left and right, bleeding speed for smaller tendrils to leisurely catch up from behind.

SCHWING!

The Guardian's booster howled with a metallic reverb, dashing at the gunship in top speed. Its right fist punched through the smaller craft's vectoring engine pods, while the open left hand caught the cabin section. As the fuel exploded, Shizuka redirected main thrust for a safe direction.

"Come in! I'll catch you!"

She opened the cockpit hatch and gestured for Zoe to step out of hers, into the Type 17S' hand. The older woman hastily unbuckled herself from the seat.

"Ship to flight, the ground team is all aboard, return now!" Commander Fabrik announced, "We're leaving when you're back!"

Behind the monster and the leftover CEC dig site building, the atmospheric assault ship was leaving its mooring. Nagate and the others were all safe! Shizuka smiled with relief.

"Copy! I'm returning with Hampton, her craft is destroyed."

"Thanks a lot." Zoe said apologetically as she settled into the the emergency backseat.

Warning: Propulsion system reserve low

The Type 17E was a near identical restoration of the Type 17 Custom 2 Tsugumori in shape and function, so it was armed with a caseless chemical propellant gun in its left arm, just like the original. For testing purposes, it was loaded with artificial Kabi ammo made on the Ravager, which should still provide some worth in kinetic energy.

Shizuka fired a long burst across the Hive Mind's width, then set a course for the ship.

Warning: High energy reaction detected

WE ARE AWAKE, WE ARE HUNGRY

Warning: Gauna detected

& New core formation in proximity, initiating handshake

& Handshake return is hostile

WE KNOW YOUR TRICKS, DID YOU FEAR YOURSELF IN HARRIS? YOU WILL FEAR US NOW

the Hive Mind spoke in a voice Shizuka recognized from the Marker. She saw multiple Hyggs energy distributors forming on the fleshy mass, lightnings arcing across accelerator rails made of both biomass and Ena; targeting beams began to focus on the Type 17E's left arm. The times call for measures her existential identity wanted to forbid.

"Sit tight, Zoe, I apologize for the ugly view." She took off her helmet, and materialized her own Ena inside her mouth, red tentacle cables connecting her with every port, socket and exposed electronics in the cockpit. Finally, she could establish full control of the Guardian like it was an extension of her own body. Creating this much Ena would drain the craft's Hyggs energy reserve even faster, so the battle needed to be a duel of speed, to peel open the monster's newly created core before starvation.

The Type 17E danced around the planet cracking crater, and the bright orange targeting beams failed to catch up - they only gave a nominal chase, then pulled back, and then all pointed towards a new direction.

A bone-piercing metal wail bounced around the Hive Mind, almost shaking the remaining gunships. Then, an explosion.

The Ravager's starboard engine pod was punctured clean through.

////

Weeks ago, under Temple Prime. The current Pontifex of Unitology, or one of his various proxy clone bodies, entered the most secret chamber in the entire religion. He flipped a series of safety switches that all lead to the containment of one ancient biocomputer built under the church's original Pontifex, Dr. Stevens. The inner workings of this device were never fully explained to the generations In between; some said its circuitry was built from fragments of the Black Marker, some said it was a prototype of the highly sophisticated AIs pioneered by the Sovereign Colonies. It did have a personality, or even a human side, that could only be activated after disengaging all the locks.

"Father, this is your humble servant Pietro Curon. I wish for a long talk about the discovery we made."

"You're not my son or my clone. If you aren't just her to torture me, then actually show something I haven't seen." The synthesized voice carried bitterness appropriate for a centuries-old entity. Some high priests have joked that the biocomputer had an attitude like a SCAF resource collector bot's, maybe its personality system has been replaced with a copy of one to save money long ago.

"Of course! Proof of a new life-form." He authorized transfer of every file from Ishimura, and then some from Shizuka's sightseeing tour.

"This better not be another bacteria found on Georgia IV. Was that in 2317? Let me die."

"Please see this, Father. Alien intelligence interacting with both us and a replica Marker, peace be upon Altman."

"Marker. Messenger. Which one will kill us all first?"

////

The first day of Special Detachment 704, when the Type 17E Guardian was finished but the ship was still under reconstruction at the Sprawl. A half-built prototype Type 17S was also loaded onboard for simulation training and hangar crew practice.

The pilots and bridge crew met on the ship, at the crossroads connecting the ship's central passage to its two add-on hangar modules. They made their introductions, and prepared to watch Nagate demonstrate operating the giant humanoid; though, he recommended a Sidonian tradition to the newly assembled squad.

"Some kind of weird handshake? Are you making fun of us?" John Carver asked.

"I'm not, Sgt. Carver." Nagate reassured him, still holding his arms out in the crossed pose, "I didn't know the tradition before my first launch, but it... Happened. The teammate who refused was eaten by a Gauna, the fist episode in the video record."

"...Alright. If it helps you."

Gabe began to chuckle, right hand already on Nagate's left: "Hold it, John. You sure about this? The guy you're looking at is the boyfriend of the Woman In Red, that's U-tology's new savior. You smelling what I'm smelling?"

"The Titanium Samurai isn't a rank, Weller." Robert Norton kept his hands behind his back authoritatively, "We're here to watch him fly, not for a basketcase anonymous heart-to-heart."

"LT, you're this close to getting it. He's going to make us do a group hug with crossed hands, this will totally contract our souls to Altman until Convergence!" Nagate shrunk back defensively, while Gabe held onto him, doubling over laughing. Zoe shrugged, caught his other hand and gestured Carver to join. Robert sniffed at this lack of professionalism, headed for the nearest training pod, but someone caught his collar. It was Commander Fabrik - a well polished man with long black hair in a spotless officer uniform, visually around his age, either some VIP's fail nephew or some VIP who spent too much money on age reduction.

"Where you going, LT? Don't wanna hold a man's hand? Too late, you're on a navy ship, remember."

"It's bromantic." Gabe agreed.

"Bromantic? On Sidonia, some people did tell me they think handholding is lewd..." Nagate suddenly had a few retroactive epiphanies he needed to suppress.

"Ugh. Fucking immature..."

The two nominal commanding officers entered the circle of unspeakably awkward clasp huddle, followed by Shizuka.

"Alright! Now we've done the proper ritual, pilots, don't complain about fate not being on our side from now on!" Fabrik announced, "We, SD704, are the tip of the spear, and we're here to have fun!"

////

Nagate soon realized that his new ship commander's idea of fun resembled Yuhata's constructive geekiness far less than Tsuruuchi or Mike's whimsical lowbrow vision. For instance, as the obsolescent Ravager went through extensive automation refitting, he replaced surplus living modules with extra food and alcohol storage, even a protein synthesis lab. The cabins that remained were also upgraded with non-standard materials geared towards comfort, from the officers' quarters to the regular mechanics'.

The Commander one day asked in complete earnest if the teens would have any use for an entire lavishly furnished suite with laser-proof space view artificial diamond glass, since a mobile hotel station was pawning off old parts. Both of them refused immediately, and only the assurance of single rooms on the opposing hangar blocks of the ship saved them from a level of blushing that risked red-out from excessive blood rushing upwards.

However, the good living standards also meant Nagate and the new pilots only needed to pay attention to their training. The squad did well with solo combat moves on gunships and simulators, now the hard part would be getting them to understand the mentality of Guardian piloting. Communication, movements, attack coordination, thruster resonance boosting - the pilots all should complement each other for truly effective operations.

On a 2-man team level, Gabe made decent teamwork thanks to his war experience and the time fighting side by side with Nagate on Ishimura. Zoe performed similarly, although her piloting style was alarmingly and even proudly short in self preservation. Carver would have a higher survivability rating on simulators, but he rarely conveyed his next move with the rest of the squad even if everyone's survival depended on good informative radio chatter. Robert could fight well and issue correct orders, but he nearly openly denied meaningful recognition of Nagate's authority as the squad leader, only as the instructor.

Still, before the Ravager was cleared for departure, the new pilots gained a level of knowledge equal to Sidonia's trainee pilots ready for their first hands-on mission. Unfortunately the only operational machine was still the Type 17E, while the 17S prototype remained at 80% completion.

Chapter Text

Chapter 18, Stars Shifting

The Shockpoint experiment was a complete success; first the Hunter's Moon with an unmanned unpowered Type 18 Recon 2 model, then with the Guardian powered up, and finally a run with Izana plugged into the cockpit's various advanced sensor dataports. Every trip was a back-and-forth lap between an observable path of 120 light-seconds, from the outer edge of the asteroid belt of Planet 9 to a debris-free zone away from orbit.

The experience was nonconformal to Sidonia's known research of spacetime, but the test pilots all survived, and even better, gravity wave disturbances all resembled the same pattern observed from Nagate's disappearance. Even the representatives from Toha Heavy Industries gave a standing ovation to Kunato'a team reaching the goal so soon; they'll jointly move towards repairing the Foreigners' ShockRing and moving bigger items around, alongside replicating new drives.

Optimistically, this will be cleared for public news in a couple of days and throw off the restless population.

A message from Dr. Shinatose Yure through secured channels summoned Izana to the Captain's personal section at the top of the ship, right after the Type 18 was returned to the hangar. What could the meeting be about - hormone fluctuations pushing their lateral gender formation away from settling on female? The Doctor, that is Grandma, had shown some concern about it before. Them becoming a boy because of Nagate's absence wouldn't be a bad thing on its own, but the chemical-mental strain could be dangerous for piloting. It shouldn't require a meeting in front of the Captain's desk, though.

Yuhata was also at the door, having finished her report on the experiments: "Hi Izana! If I know ahead you'll be here too, i'd hold the elevator door open and wait for you."

"Thanks, what are you here for?"

"...Should be the same thing as yours. Let's just go."

Inside, both the Captain and Grandma were waiting for the two, masks on, hologram screens behind them projecting information surrounding the Shockpoint test.

"We have a mission for you." Captain Kobayashi said, "The next stage of the Shockpoint experiment will escalate its capacity to a new level, which is never tested before. The theoretical success rate is less than 1 out of 32, none of us will blame you if you see it as your chance of survival, and refuse today."

The next stage at a higher capacity, it could only mean one thing.

"Am I going after where Nagate went?"

"It won't be immediately reachable, but yes, you and an exploration team of your choice will enter the other universe. The mission is to conduct some time-consuming but simple experiments, and return from its equivalent location."

It was hard to suppress the hope of finding Nagate, so Izana tried to reason with their own impulse and sound more cautious: "...Won't we need to have some unmanned tests first?"

"Ideally, yes." The Captain sounded apologetic, "Though, there are only 4 Shockpoint drives and one Shockring. Sending a ship to the other side with pre-set controls may destroy it, or its Foreigner crew may abandon us."

"Some of them have developed a few dissenting ideas." Yuhata said, shrugging, "Malyech can potentially fill out the vacancy Ichigaya left behind as the local madman! I fear the public might like his words this time! Convergence, reaching out to humanity's birthplace again, eternal life, and more. Something for every taste."

"I don't want to sound self-centered, but maybe me staying with the recon squad will be more reassuring to the people... People have already started using Benisuzume in place of Ochiai to scare children. If the experience takes longer than expected, maybe they'll think Benisuzume ate my team." Izana shuddered.

Civilians and junior pilots have been feeling increasingly anxious and nervous after losing Nagate. Someone had even set fire to the Hoshijiro family house and vanished into the night, leaving behind a pamphlet that spread like mosquitos despite censorship from the civil government. The writing claimed that Shizuka was infected by Gauna radiations since the beginning, and became a temptress bent on dragging Sidonia's greatest hero to hell.

"A story of you searching for him would be valuable." Grandma said, as if she was still trying to arrange them together on the Captain's time, "Tanikaze's second drifting, and this time it's you getting him back. Isn't it romantic?"

"Ouch." They felt their face burn.

"We're rolling out new Guardian models early to help with morale." Yuhata conjured human-sized Guardian schematics with patches of handwritten notes, "This Saturday after the Weekly Meal, your Type 18R2 will perform a flyby with Tsumugi, the Type 19 for Hazama and the High-Cost Test Model for Samari."

"The last supper... Sorry." The idea was festive and ominous at the same time, like a flying funeral possession. Izana remembered the colorful fine-tuned Type 18 Commander Models used by the Akai squad on the day they were all killed on live TV in horrifying ways by just one Gauna, "Are we just getting three new ones, including mine?"

"Seii-san and Takumi-san will have their own Type 19s in another week, in the meantime every squad leader and all Honokas will have their Type 18s fitted with hardened cockpits. I just received  a proposal of a Type 18 Neural Link Model sent in by one of the mechanics, too."

"It sounded like a good arrangement. There's just one thing to ask, Grandma... Could you please connect Tsumugi's hangar pipeline to the Hoshijiro residence? I have a feeling they might benefit from talking to each other. I'm confident in the mission, but it didn't feel fair for them."

"Let me see, I'll reason with Kunato."

"We have time concerns for the Shockpoint mission, too." The Captain projected a screen from her private wrist computer, brought them back on topic, "The tests created Hyggs resonance never seen before, amplified by gravity shocks, and the Gauna Mass Union Ship has unfortunately noticed it."

"Shit." The news was shocking even to Yuhata, "It launched a projectile coming directly at us?"

The thing's size and speed indicated something smaller than a SMUS, maybe even smaller than the average connected-type Gauna. If it was a rock, it could punch through the seed ship from one end to the other; if it was a Gauna, it would be the LMUS' replacement for its favorite red killing machine.

"I'd suggest you design a plan to use Planet 9 and its belt to shield us, Midorikawa, but we need to destroy the projectile once it reaches Guardian operation range."

"Understood, Captain. It will reach Planet 9's orbit on... Sunday. I'll draw a course to let it bleed momentum gaining a lead on us, then..." Her voice trailed off as she took out her tablet to sketch.

"Izana." Kobayashi stepped through the holograms, "I have trust in the pathfinding ability you've shown. This expedition could very well mean Sidonia could finally settle in world free from Gauna."

////

As the colossal form of Sidonia proceeded with Yuhata's evasive course in the shadow of Planet 9, Izana anchored the Type 18R2 onto the rear of the resource mound outside the hull, alongside Tsumugi who already set up a sniping position. The new Guardian sub model lacked existing Type 18's quadruped crawler mode, to save space for new electronics and armor, so they had to let the giant humanoid weapon kneel down like a human.

Direct neural links to the Guardian's astronomical sensors transferred ballistic calculations directly into their data implant, which then communicated with an Ena cable from Tsumugi. The unidentified projectile launched by the LMUS had followed the lead as expected; but to hit it, they needed to account for factors like the gravity slingshot effect of Planet 9 and friction from the asteroid belt. Heavy Mass Cannons alongside the hull have also been activated to provide distraction, their shots carefully timed to not interfere with Tsumugi's newly constructed complex dual-ammo launcher.

In the debris field ahead, three Guardian squads were waiting, powered off to ambush the high-velocity Gauna. They were led by Samari, Honoka En and Seii; all participated in last Saturday's flyby too, the best in Sidonia's defense and expedition forces. Their were just here for mopping up the target once it has been thrown off its collision course with the ship. There was a 62-seconds window between the Gauna entering the launcher's 50% probability hit range and impacting the hull; disrupt its momentum, peel away its Ena, and it would be brought down to a manageable threat level.

This would be a perfect occasion to tie up recent events before the inter-universal Shockpoint experiment - known to the public as the "Extreme Speed Propulsion System Test".

"Gauna-HV, entering visual identification range." The bridge tactical officer announced, "Propulsion level and headings followed predictions."

"Sensors confirm the projection." Izana replied, "Tsumugi, power up your launcher, load decoy."

"Yes, Izana-san!" Many important parts of the plan were first formed in a brainstorming session right after the weekly meal where the two of them met with Yuhata at the Hoshijiro house. Napkin drawing discussions escalated to the tactical PDA in no time, and the Captain received a full proposal when they parted ways.

Tsumugi brought naturally-grown oranges, fortunately unbaked ones, from the Kunato greenhouse. Shizuka's parents easily warmed up to her; for one thing she shared a voice with their daughter's younger days, secondly the family's health insurance service denied their application for funds to cloning her in a commercially available program. The reasoning was that an undead Gauna-assimilated form of existence was a state legally illegible to receive insurance payouts, and her insurance should have been voided for criminal antisocial behavior anyway.

A screen before Izana flashed the message "ETA 15 seconds to 50% probability range". The same was simultaneously received by Tsumugi's Hyggs wave receptor, and she silently adjusted the lead of her weapon.

ETA4

ETA3

ETA2

IFF: Gauna core frequency identified - Ga-487

"487? That's just ancient. I'll have Kunato fix it when I get back today..."

ETA0

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

The Type 18R2 vibrated with each ground-shaking shot. Decoy rounds zipped out of Tsumugi's complex launcher, each carrying kinetic energy rivaling lesser payloads of the Heavy Mass Cannons. They had small amounts of artificial Kabi to let Gauna-HV either chase after, or dodge from.

BOOM!

Then came the volley of ship-borne cannons, quaking the entire resource mound. All of them would force the target to enter a gradually narrowing killzone, skimming across the planet's orbit and bleeding its kinetic power.

"All Hyggs particle cannons, on my call to 0." Izana linked with Yuhata's fire control officer, "3... 2... 1... 0!"

A fine razor of blue beams converged on Gauna-HV, followed in a split second by the energy barrel on the complex launcher, igniting the Ena Re growth with resonance.

"Target shape maintained, but it's energy is draining..."

As Izana was checking for effect, Tsumugi loaded the next clip of ammunition, canisters filled with artificial Kabi shards to create a cloud of blades along the predicted trajectory; they would have the most effect within a lower relative impact speed range.

Warning: Gauna core mitosis detected

IFF: Ga-487 Ga-487 Ga-487 Ga-487

The shape of Gauna-HV was at first observable as a thin, spike-like pyramid. Now, amidst a thunderstorm of red and pink, it unfolded and split into four equal wedges, each pulling off towards a corner. Whatever incomprehensible plan the LMUS had, the splinters wouldn't be able to harm Sidonia by ramming as much.

"Activate squads?" Seii sent a text message over the non-Hyggs channel.

"Yes please." Izana pressed send, then detached their Guardian's anchors, "Let's go take them on, Tsumugi. Good shooting."

"Count on me!"

"Bridge, this will become a regular Guardian battle. Please ready hangars for launching the defense units."

"Bridge received." Yuhata was visibly relieved on the screen, "Really solid you two... Evade!"

Time slowed to a snail's pace in the Type 18R2's main display screen; one of Gauna-HV's splinters brushed by above the sniping position, showing its underside hidden by the wedged armor plates - a humanoid skeleton even more ghastly than Benisuzume's second form on the floating continent, with a stretched torso and lanky limbs. Its head was made of many skulls stacked together, each turning on its own, and the armor plate wedges were fleshy like the wings of a fox bat. Izana shuddered at its gaze, yet felt even more confused by its outdated IFF tag.

"What the fuck!" They were pulled back into the present as they heard Tsuruuchi shout, "Four of these fast ones!"

"Get to shooting!" Samari replied, "We've peeled them open already!"

Warning: High energy reaction detected.

IFF: TS-290

The skeleton spread its wings and rained lightning on everything below. This was just like the mission where Izana lost an arm and a leg, when Benisuzume used Hyggs resonance to evaporate 48 Guardians alongside their pilots in a single second.

"You can't do this!" Tsumugi shouted, firing her canister shots at the closest Gauna, "Everyone, find cover!"

"Setting cutter." An uninvited voice said in the Hyggs channel. It came from all four skeletons simultaneously, of course, "Yamano, proceeding. Begin resource salvage mission."

They could imagine their own surprised yet unamused expression right now. A new model of intelligent Gauna, but tough luck for the LMUS, Eiko's only piloting experience before being assimilated was only a failed ice mining mission. However, the Gauna that ate her was already destroyed, how could her copies be here again? Now a dilemma emerged between recording more data and saving equipments from the raw energy bombardment.

Then, the lightning storm stopped, while the twisted bony humanoid dodged the shard cloud. It pulled away, skulls still looking at Izana. Long, thin red electricity arcs formed between the skeleton and its identical companions - linking into a ring bigger than Sidonia's biggest cross section.

Beams, explosives and physical projectiles were all unleashed from the hundreds of hull-mounted turrets, but the abominations just maintained their connection and flew along the length of the ship.

"They're... Draining my energy?" Tsumugi was irritated, "Benisuzume did it before... Father, I need a cable for the launcher!"

The Type 18R2's sensors recognized the same. The new and strange Gauna units were trying to gather Hyggs particles.

Warning: High energy reaction detected.

"Yamano, returning to ship. 4-unit clasp link."

With that, the skeletons met at the prow of Sidonia, then merged into Gauna-HV again. It flew off into Planet 9's orbit, slingshotting itself back towards the LMUS.

"Situation cleared, tentatively. Resume normal patrols." Yuhata sighed, "Has Gauna learned the concept of recon by fire? Or the concept of intimidation?"

Chapter Text

Chapter 19, Form of Manifestation

& Zero gravity physical direct combat loop
& Avoid permanent damage to humans and terrain: total
& Loop activated, backstage proceeding in progress

John Carver repositioned himself in the zero gravity training room, vaulting off a movable platform with his weapon - an aluminum pipe visually modded to look like a Kabizashi, a luminescent paint brush tied to its tip. The SD702 pilot squad sparred with Nagate leading the human team, while one lucky member among them played the Gauna role beside Shizuka; since Guardian piloting required a proper mindset of seeing the giant humanoid weapon as an extension of the pilot's own human body, Nagate came up with the suggestion of a 1/10 sized opposing force before more Guardian frames would be ready to deploy.

Eventually, when the universes become connected with stability, Earthgov's Guardian pilots would be prepared lend a hand to their Sidonian counterparts right away.

"Come on, use your eye cannon!" This round, it was Gabe playing for the Gauna team, wearing an embarrassingly pink space RIG, a nightstick in each hand simulating Benisuzume's swords. He swatted at Zoe who took up Carver's incoming direction, then boosted himself away from the aiming laser of her EG-86 SMG. It was only loaded with chalk rounds, but they were good for plastering his visor.

"We should protect the motion capture recording equipment." His blood-colored partner replied, "Energy is expensive, too..."

"Make some tentacles, they aren't playing fair! ...Shit, Nagate!"

Shizuka propelled herself into an interception course, dived under Nagate, then reached up to smack at his fake Kabizashi. She used a pair of nightsticks, too, electric crowd control tips activated for extra challenge to the human team. The shock and buzz of electricity made him lose his grip - and then he detached the paintbrush tip, and kicked the long handle away to block her off from following him.

He threw the tip at Gabe, a straight line in zero gravity and minimal air resistance - it hit him right on the helmet's chin, spraying him with glowing blue paint.

"7 to 15! Team humans win another round!" Alissa Vincent, the USG Ishimura security department's former chief, announced like a sportscaster, "Space monsters having a 3-day long losing streak by now. Next time you better trade your partner with Nagate if you want to win, Shizuka!"

Next to her, the ship's crew cheered and Mike blew an airhorn obnoxiously; he was sent here for his own safety after the video he pulled from his eyeballs became viral, and Alissa for making sure he doesn't leak anything further.

When the Ravager finally reaches Aegis VII, these two would join the ground team as extra manpower. The pilots' four gunships will cover their dropship, meanwhile the Type 17E conducts its gravity-adjusted systems testing. The main mission was to salvage data from the colony's computer network, and observe what happened to the reanimated biomass when the Marker was long destroyed up in space.

////

On Sidonia, the ship's authority figures held an emergency meeting to discuss the sudden and bizarre challenge sent by the Gauna hive.

"The inter-universal scouting mission still needs to happen." Yuhata made her presentation, "Here are my calculations concerning its net gains for our immediate survivability. Though we will reduce its mass and electronics load, complete the same tasks in a shorter timeframe."

The Captain nodded: "We're pulling off Tsuruuchi Koichi and Kasuga Ryouhei off the mission? Okay, let them join the high velocity target training course. Sasaki, how is the system integration of Toha's Gravitational Celestial Body Scanners?"

"They are all functional. Once they're on the other side, the Guardians can deploy one scanner to draw a 3D relative map of the surroundings. Deploy all four of them into a tetrahedron, triangulation will plot an absolute map and eventually find... Earth."

"Good, Though, as the Captain, my plan has a low priority for finding Earth, Tsugumori or whichever system the Foreigners came from. We only need the nearest habitable planet, and the entire Sidonia should be ready to Shockpoint as soon as possible."

Yuhata hid her frown when hearing the name of Nagate's Guardian. She flipped over a page on the hologram, and returned to topic: "The Shockpoint drive needs energy from active Hyggs reactors to make this jump, so we have to be ready for any probing attack. It could even involve the Intelligent Gauna designated Vampire Moth, Kyuketsuga. Mr. Kunato has some proposals for countering these threats using reverse engineered technology, and I'll hand over to him show."

Kunato waved at her and walked to the center of the meeting room, conjuring holograms of his own: Machinery diagrams, 3D models, sketches of Guardians armed with imposing new weaponry.

"Thank you, Vice Commander. The gravitational developments from our counterparts are phenomenal, from the singularity cores to the personal stasis modules used by the average space engineer. My company has chosen a few readily available applications that could work against our most pressing Kyuketsuga threat best." He picked up her insect-based code name for the intelligent high velocity Gauna, "I present to you the Gravity Net, and the Directional Contact Hammer."

"I've seen demonstrations of the Foreigners' stasis device." The Captain was far from instantly impressed by the shield-like device attached to a 3D model of the Tsugumori, "The speed of its spherical stasis field leaves a lot of room for improvement, is your plan to increase the projection diameter or rate-of-fire?"

"We, the team at Kunato labs, have a different approach. A singular Kyuketsuga has an equal or even higher linear speed than Benisuzume - that is three times as fast as a regular Type 18 - while all four combined would rival the Hayakaze armored booster, impressive considering the effort spent by Toha."

"Thanks." Toha Heavy Industry's chief engineer Sasaki shrugged, and pointed at the hologram, "Hmm, I see where you're going with your net idea."

"Layers and layers of artificial gravity, the further a layer is projected, we tone down its intensity in exchange for a wider diameter. We can maintain a passive stasis effect between all the layers, and even amplify it using the gravity wells. As Kyuketsuga enters the effective range, it will be pulled towards the source of the net, and each layer drains its kinetic energy while limiting it from reaching escape velocity."

"To me it looks like a funnel, though. Sorry, it's a good concept, keep going."

"The Guardian operating this device would be largely immobile, unfortunately, since we see too big a risk to mount it on a hull turret. Ideally, we'll use the net to trap Kyuketsuga in Planet 9's atmosphere, then attack it on more equal terms. Our Guardians or Tsumugi will deploy the second new weapon, Directional Contact Hammer."

On the floating window was a massive two-handed hammer designed for Guardian use; its strike face shaped like a meat tenderizer contained an artificial gravity generator, and on its back was a cutting blade made of artificial Kabi.

"This merges technology from Foreigners with the existing single-use explosive compression device on our Anti-Planet Guided Missile. Theoretically, the directional gravity on impacting Ena would resonate within and blow open all matter surrounding the Gauna core. The effect on a core itself remains to be seen, but we can fast track to field testing if..."

"I don't see your schematics using Ena to grow either of them." Sasaki observed, "You need support from Toha, don't you? I can speak for the board, but only if it is a fair 50/50 collaboration."

Kunato turned to the Captain: "I fully intend to make the development and construction of these two devices transparent with our partners. You can print your trademark on them too, but the problem is... We will need to strip another Foreigner ship for essential components. The alternative is to pull parts from reverse engineering, setting back more critical progress."

"That means we won't have an operable Shockpoint ship for a while if the one testing across the border runs into difficulties." Yuhata objected, "If the experiment team returns before Kyuketsuga, we should have the second ship on hand for further scouting,"

"Well, previously their universe has no Gauna, but now, it has one. Let this idea boil in Ochiai's cauldron, but if Benisuzume still exists over there and grew into a SMUS... We need to be ready."

Yuhata took a few seconds to think about a moon-sized Gauna evolved from that diabolical entity; it must be red, fast, and angry. At its center a skeletal cage locking Nagate inside, forcing him to listen to Hoshijiro's giggling forever. What was the last detail? How did Kunato even have the testicles to suggest such a thing. If he will ever get eaten by Kyuketsuga, she hope the thing chews its food carefully.

The Captain visibly weighed her thoughts, too, and turned to her secretary after a moment: "The Foreigners would feel even less comfortable... Ochiai, talk to the civilian government, keep them pacified."

"Understood." Come to think of it, why did that man's family keep the literal devil's surname when they're cloned to inherit some other unlucky bastard descending from another Ochiai?

"Kunato, you will have your drive. Make the most use out of it."

"My gratitude is immense, Captain. Though, I have some more to ask from my colleagues."

"Yes, the second new batch of Honokas are approaching the end of their training," Dr. Shinatose Yure sighed and interrupted, "No, we don't have anyone to spare for your voluntary assimilation experiment. Not even a zygote."

There were more than one request to have a Honoka directly contact Tsumugi's core, or a non-sentient hybrid core, to study the formation of humanoid Ena. This was uncomfortably close to the urban legends of Ochiai feeding people to Gauna cores, then reconstructing their Ena-ified organs to make Hybrids.

"Thanks for saving all of us time, then. What I really need is also from Miss Sasaki: One Guardian skeleton suitable to equipt the new weapons. I can speak for my engineers that our Type 18 is falling obsolete, and they aren't confident with the Type 19 either."

"You're taking more than your share of Megastructure?" Sasaki asked bluntly.

"Let's set our priorities straight: Kunato Developments will scale down some of our own Guardian production to focus on the Gravity Net. We'll adjust production to guarantee your share, but we would like to cover the fees for another Guardian comparable to the High-Cost Test Model. After all, the most important things always deserve a backup."

"Now I see." She laughed,"You're tying our business interests and survival prospects together! Truly the kind of smart young guy my parents warned me about long ago."

////

The Ravager struggled to turn its crash towards Aegis VII's surface into a controlled slow descent. Retro nozzles sputtered, gravity generators on its underside all strained and sparked to level the hull.

"Commander! Miss Shiraki! Please let me launch in the Type 17S!" Holding onto a handrail that shuddered from quaking hull vibration, Nagate connected his helmet to the ship's intercom and shouted, "That Hive Mind is becoming a Gauna, we still have Kabi in the hangar!"

"FCO, keep firing missiles..." Fabrik picked up the call, "Dr. Stross, activate protein lab emergency purge. Don't let testtubes grow into a Necromorph pig! Okay, Nagate, come again?"

"Commander, I said we need to activate the Type 17S, Black Moon!"

Since the Tsugumori's predecessor was the White Moon, Shiratsuki, Earthgov's engineers naturally named the copy made with darker metals Black Moon. It was very different visually from the original, even discounting the color; thruster modules were all replaced with non-Hyggs equivalents of similar output. Some such as the shin-mounted ones were the model used by the gunships, while others were taken from ships in the same space boneyard as the Ravager. The iconic Hyggs cannon on the Guardian's head was substituted by a laser cutter, essentially a massive version of a Line Gun blade.

Meanwhile the repaired Tsugumori was further codenamed Ginseigo or Silver Comet by Miss Shiraki, although nobody else used the name. Nobody has been fully briefed on why she was qualified to be simultaneously both the ship's chief of deck department and its air wing engineer either, not even Fabrik himself.

"Challenge accepted, my friend!" The young woman with light violet hair answered just in time, "Pit crew receiving command, automated constructors will assemble the Kabizashi. Now, you get ready to fly it, I'll have it fueled up once we're below the kaiju's firing line."

WHIRRRL. KLANG!

Machinery started to move the Tsugumori's chest Kabi blade out from storage, along with a replica Kabizashi handle. Mechanics and launch operators waved at him, making a way while pointing out dangers in the activated hangar system.

"Kaiju?" Nagate began racing through the heartless robotic arms, as if reliving his rice-stealing routine inside the automated grain processing factory back on Sidonia, "I'll stay alive and strap in."

"A word like Gauna. Okay, Kurotsuki has only 8 minutes of rocket fuel at full thrust. Make Benisuzume proud, won't you?"

Chapter Text

Chapter 20, In the Furnace

The manmade structures on Aegis VII were all suspiciously clean of any Necromorph biomass when USM Ravager's ground team landed. The gunships circulating overhead found no signs of active mutants on the outside. There were splattered patches of oxidized blood on walls and floors, too small and dry to reanimate, and a disturbing amount of burnt skeletons at the spaceport; though, no fungus-like organic growth reported from before the incident was seen anywhere.

Security footage recovered by Kendra all ended at 12 hours after the outbreak, painting an imposing sight: Outside the communication antenna's control center, the mission's goal, was an angry undead hellscape complete with howling, half-dissolved human torsos stuck to walls. However, when the heavily armed away team reconnected the compound's camera network, they found all organic traces gone. Further exploration on site confirmed it.

Dr. Stross theorized that all necromorph matter disintegrated into basic organic sludge when the Marker was destroyed, just like on the Ishimura. Where would the liquified biomass go was left unknown, but the team set up landmines next to drainage openings around their operation zone, just in case.

After an hour of uneventful exploration, the ground team headed for the communications center for further data recovery. On the Ravager, Commander Fabrik gave the green light to launch the Type 17E for planeside operation testing.

Then, everyone heard a rumbling, an underground thunder below the entire mining colony. It came from all directions, all sectors of the circular compound. The motion signals were gigantic, and their trajectories all converged on the center of the planetcracking crater.

USM RAVAGER COMPUTER: Marker signal detected, all personnel please secure your person or limb to nearby safety structure

"Another Marker on this planet?" Kendra asked Stross, "I don't see..."

"Not a Marker. Many small signal sources, not a whole mature one..." He gasped, "This is amazing. The recombinant organic matter must be using local minerals and geothermal energy to replace the missing Marker."

"Shit. Commander, how fast can we get ready for evac?"

"I hope your dropship is kept warm, away team." Fabrik nodded and announced, "Once you are back on the Ravager, we hightail it. Gunship wing, watch for..."

A solid, well-defined earthquake interrupted him; a mountainous mass of formerly human substance erupted from the center of the crater.

"That thing. Start hitting it!"

////

Before the Shockpoint mission, Yuhata and Izana were invited to the Captain's own home in the highest, oldest open air residential section of Sidonia. It was an awkward long ride in the high speed elevator reserved for bridge members, followed by an exhausting stair climb. The view was great, the safety handrails were high and firm, but the Kunato family mansion was in view all the time.

Inside, they were greeted by the Captain without her mask, who bluntly presented a shocking decision once the two kids sat down for gravity-grown, gravity-ground coffee at her table.

"You are joining the expedition?" Yuhata's expression was far from professional, and Izana just sat in place with total confusion, "This new scientist who replaced Dr. Tahiro is yourself?"

Outside two of the Hunter's moon's original crew members, Jessica and Stefan, there were three people from Sidonia chosen for the mission. Izana, Honoka En, and some mysterious new blood only known as Dr. Kobayashi.

The proposal sounded unexpected and character-breaking, as if the Captain had just suggested she would try to personally assimilate into the Large Mass Union Ship in the hope of becoming its controlling personality.

"Yes. This isn't my first expedition into a place entirely unknown to humanity. New discoveries always helped Sidonia move ahead, don't you know the story behind how Kabi was found?"

Yuhata felt something began to click in the back of her head. She looked around the dated, barely lived house they were in, and regained her vision as the ship's junior leader: "I hope our meeting is off the record, Captain, because it sounds like you are looking at this mission as a way to get out of your responsibilities. If you want to take a break, don't be so drastic?"

Izana cringed, while the older woman fell silent. The latter then spoke after the Vice Commander stared into her soul for half a minute: "Midorikawa, let me tell you the real story behind the Kabi."

The reception of the story was as good as expected. The kids could only drink and nod until the end.

"Please feel safe about sharing this with us, because of how sad it is. Really. ...So you have decided 600 years have been too much." Yuhata rubbed her forehead.

"Captain, you sound like you're confident that we'll all die over there." Izana shrank into the rear of their seat, "Shockpoint is safe! We'll be back, and we'll find Nagate."

"Thanks, you two. It felt like I should have told him the story long ago, well, I'll start with communicating my thoughts to you first. Good practice before we meet him again, right?"

"Oh." The two kids again both realized something in Kobayashi's words, she was interested in finding Nagate more than finding a new home for Sidonia, something they also both refused to admit sharing.

She easily saw it in them, too, and she smiled knowingly. A second later, the smile turned sad: "It's only fair that you know his full story, too."

When the personal history lesson finally approached the modern day, Yuhata froze in her chair, her memory bringing attention to a strange detail she found from re-watching Nagate's first mission after her promotion: "So... Command knows about Ga-487 but still sent out the training pilots to test his abilities."

"Not exactly. I know the existence of that thing in the ice, and the Immortal Council send them out to see if Nagate can be killed."

"So this is what making choices as the captain really feels like..."

"It was one hard choice that lead to many hopeful things, to me at the time. Yamato Eiko was a promising student who reminded me of myself, but to save as many people as possible, we needed to wake up Nagate's true power. Not giving up anyone is impossible."

Izana thought of the few less-than-friendly interactions they had with Eiko.

"Then, Ga-HV, Kyuketsuga, showed up just after his disappearance. It's rare when a risk I took came back to look at me in the face like that. It hit harder than Benisuzume to me, like it was laughing at me for losing Nagate."

"Gauna are not really vessels for the hate of the dead to return back from hell, right?" They shuddered. The millenia-old urban legend had revived since Benizuzume's appearance and refused to die, "Sorry."

"Not even the Extraterrestrial Life Research Institute knows that." Kobayashi smiled again, "This wasn't the last straw for me to change my mind and look for a vacation, if you wonder. Not just Nagate's disappearance either."

Yuhata nodded, feeling more prepared to carry out her substitute role.

"I think you should have a look at this as well." The Captain stood up and took a lightly scorched notebook from a nearby dusty chest of drawers, the put it on the coffee table, "When the Hoshijiro house was vandalized, police rescued this from her room but thought it's dissent material."

The notebook contained essays written in preparation for for officer school selection, along with her own commentary of the accepted responses. None of them was disruptive or antisocial compared to the regular outbursts of the Disarmament Faction, but considering she became the most destructive entity known to mankind...

Hardship, survival, acceptance of personal insignificance, unflattering but firm trust in humanism, nearly desperate search of a worthy goal to proudly die for - those were her notes about, and then, determination to create something she could dedicate to.

"I would have enjoyed a battle of the wits against her in the officer school..." Yuhata sighed.

////

For a moment that flesh-and-blood neural systems could not quantify or perceive, Shizuka felt herself back inside a Mass Union Ship, standing right before its main core. It was a scene she never remembered witnessing but instinctively pictured with the correct data input. The size of the immaterial Gauna core was off scale, both spanning across a shapeless star system, and only as big as her own head. A human face began to ripple and materialize on the surface.

"Who are you?"

She identified the man from information she siphoned as energy, radio waves she took over from the Marker to recharge herself on the Ishimura.

Brant Harris, the man who became the Cyborg, empowered by Necromorph tissue, machinery, and Ena. He blinked, and spoke:

IS IT THE HOUR OF CONVERGENCE? WHERE IS MERCER?

"No. Why are you here? Are you Necromorph or Gauna?"

CURSE YOU. WHY ARE YOU THE FIRST FACE I SEE AFTER BEING MADE WHOLE?

"...Back off."

ARE YOU THE REAL MESSENGER OF CONVERGENCE?

She felt Zoe shaking her from behind, across the cockpit seat back. Shaking her head, she resumed piloting through direct Ena connection.

////

"Commander, I need your help in distracting the enemy." Nagate spoke to the public channel as the Type 17S was moved onto the add-on hangar's electromagnetic launch rail. The Guardian was in a horizontal containment position, cockpit seat facing upwards, launching with topside in front. He switched on the cockpit's semi-inertia limiter, one of the few copied parts onboard that performed better than the original, "Please spread out its tentacles, I'll make a path to the core."

"You'll have it!" Fabrik answered in a heartbeat, "Fire control, set anti-surface missiles to manual targeting, sync your aim vision to Black Moon 1."

Fire zone indicators appeared on the Guardian's tactical map; outside, the launch rail began to charge up. Electricity still fluttered from circuits hastily reconnected after the emergency landing.

USM RAVAGER COMPUTER: Launch system 90% green, engage unit rocket pre-fire. Takeoff ETA 5

It was like a high speed elevator ride compared to Sidonian hangar launchers, which felt like using the giant humanoid to perform a standing jump. Once the Type 17S cleared the hangar, Nagate set its rocket boosters to full throttle. He would have 8 minutes to get to the Hive Mind's core - while keeping his machine and the makeshift Kabizashi in proper structural integrity to destroy it.

Flipping the machine to face downwards in the air, he heard Shizuka call in from the Type 17E, cockpit view switched off and sounding like something in her mouth: "It's going towards the ship!"

The hybrid monstrosity dragged itself towards the edge of the crater, using tentacles to claw ahead and clear debris. Fortunately, it didn't develop Hyggs-powered flight like a proper Gauna, or did not have the necessary amount of fuel.

Above Nagate, the Ravager's missiles flew over him in a high arch, spreading before their dive for maximum dispersion around the Hive Mind's tentacles.

Warning: High energy reaction detected

Organic particle distributors opened their mouths on some of the tentacles; bring orange targeting beams formed and steeped across the sky to intercept the missiles.

BANG!

A blue flash of light shot across the sky from afar, hitting one of the Necromorph's cannons. The monster reeled as the appendage exploded, flailing its remaining arms around.

"Hoshijiro, energy depleted."

"Leave me to it." Nagate pulled back the throttle and set a controlled descent into the path of the creeping terror. His Type 17S moved it's legs downwards, adjusting thrust to reduce its falling speed.

The Hive Mind's regeneration power was hard to tackle without the projectile accelerator developed on Sidonia or artificial Kabi ammo. There was only one artificial Kabizashi, to be used together with the head-mounted laser cannon - neither would be ideal in cutting through the biomass infused with Ena. Still, there was one more option.

Warning: Gauna core detected
Warning: Gauna core in extreme proximity, top assimilation risk

Organic matter bloomed underneath him, flayed apart layer and layer by the thruster blast. Within the blood vapor and volatile high-energy Hyggs particles, the hybrid Necromorph's core revealed itself.

"Amazing." Back on the ship, Stross commented, "The creature not only used minerals and organic substance to rebuilt the Marker, it also created a Hyggs solenoid within the Marker structure. Infinite energy... Kickstarted the reaction to evolve."

"We don't have Hyggs or Kabi, why is it crawling at us?" Fabrik asked in an overly leisurely manner.

"Should I take a guess? It wants our Shockpoint drive, making one is slower than taking one. You know, Ishimura himself studied the first Marker's extra-spatial energy channeling paths."

"It's got a tactical mind, then. More than a rock or a Gauna..."

"Look at the alpha waves, Commander, that's thought coming in and out of the Marker. It can even understand the Gauna's composition better than we do, they're both fractal heuristic structures."

As the Guardian directly came across the monster's core, its horizontal velocity reached zero. Holding the Kabizashi sideways, Nagate turned the machine around, letting some newly formed tentacles catch him on purpose - and then activated all rocket thrusters to maximum output, pointing towards the core below.

SUMMUS HIC IN MORTE, NOSTER SANCTUS EST

HAND OVER YOUR VESSEL, UNBIND US FROM PHYSICAL SPACE, BECOME OUR VESSEL

Warning: Gauna core exposed

The head-mounted laser cannon instantly activated and spun around, sweeping back and forth in a 270 degrees arc, cutting off all tentacles holding the Guardian. Nagate shifted the Kabizashi overhead, and pushed the Guardian's arms down like it was an extension of his own body, cutting into the Marker-infused core.

LIFE TO DEATH TO LIFE ETERNAL

ALWAYS TIME FOR SACRIFICE

THE NIGHTMARE IS OVER BUT IT WILL NOT END, THEY WILL NOT KNOW WHAT YOU CANNOT UNKNOW

At the moment of impact, he saw messages and visions. He searched around for any signs of Shizuka.

"Tanikaze, you did it! We won!"

Chapter Text

Chapter 21, Until Sunrise

Hazama Kaoru sat in his brand new Type 19 Guardian, plugged into the Gravity Net generator instead of doing his usual part of clearing out lesser Gauna, anticipating any moves the four Kyuketsuga units could pull.

The triangular monsters have fallen into the trap just as expected, struggling to regain their lost velocity in the funnel-shaped gravity fields once they crossed the first couple of layers; maximizing their Hyggs reactor output only raised their Ena temperature, forcing them to power down and cool off. Tsumugi and the Honokas rained down armor-piercing fire, peeling off armor platings from their wing-shaped thrusters. For a dividual, supposedly intelligent Gauna, Kyuketsuga is much less tactically capable than its blood red predecessor.

Finally, the large pyramid split into four arrowhead-shaped subunits, branching out to evade the Guardians' railgun shots.

"Maintain connection, Hazama." Kunato Norio ordered him from the Type 20K, "Gravity Net is all your call from now on, but read out your actions ahead, please."

"Roger that, I'll tilt the Net towards the belt, syncing projections to all units." He felt thankful for Morio entrusting him with the new weapon. The responsibility was significant, even though it meant he'd be sitting out most of the mission, away from immediate action. Like many others, he had very conflicting feelings about the unwalcomed return of yet another assimilated human.

To Kaoru, it seemed that his former classmate and current field tech supervisor must have had a similar experience. On the day the Gravity Net was completed, Norio invited him to the mansion, ahead of all the other pilots chosen for the Kyuketsuga mission.

"I ask you to lend me a hand in this critical situation. The new weapon would be like a Hyggs lantern for the Gauna moths, and I need a capable, responsible pilot."

"...You're flattering me, Kunato." The two talked over some gravity-grown black tea, "Shouldn't my Type 19 be more useful in pulling Ga-HV into a dogfight, while you keep an eye on the performance details?"

"Just call me Norio, I'll retrun to combat duty, too. We have to spare everything we have for Sidonia so I've ordered a new Guardian to be made - I'll be on the frontlines alongside Mosugu and Tsumugi."

"The decision must be very hard, right? Excuse my phrasing, because it is... Another Gauna wearing a face we know."

"You saw right through me." Norio's voice sank deeper as he pushed his teacup away and turned to Kaoru, eagerly looking for understanding, "There are things I won't allow myself to look past as the man of the Kunato house."

"Just as I thought the Benisuzume nightmare was over... It must be far worse for you." The entire piloting class class thought of Norio and Shizuka as a perfect couple, even after the unclear incident during Gravity Festival where they were seen having an argument over Nagate and Izana. Not many firsthand eyewitnesses survived the following accelaration disaster.

Then, when Benisuzume appeared from the center of a demolished gas planet, everyone saw Norio suffer a mental breakdown. From that day on, nobody had the heart to mention the name Hoshijiro Shizuka anymore, except Tanikaze.

"Kaoru. You are only behind me in the Gravity Cup undergrad class, but what I really respect about you is that you look after your squad members well." There were tears forming in his eyes, "You've got people from our class and survivors of older years, even rotating members. They all told me they trust you to keep them alive."

In fact, Kaoru dreaded the praise. He took commander Seii's teachings by heart - squad members have to ultimately trust the leader with finding a proper goal worth dying for. Still, he had to be polite: "...Thank you, Norio! You're a lifesaver for leading your company to make our new equipment, too!"

"I cannot forget the first time when control slipped between my fingers, when I watched Yamano die." The first tear escaped Norio's eyes, "I'm truly regretful - I haven't paid too much attention back then, but weren't you two a little close? I should have sooner seen how many people my inexperience must have hurt."

"Close" was a very charitable way of phrasing, but Kaoru admitted there have been emotions between him and Eiko that he haven't understood before it was too late. They were warm and open to each other, a rare occurrence with her, and the abuse thrown at her surviving family ticked him off with rage. His confirmation of settling on becoming male was recent, after Kyuketsuga's first flyby; hearing her voice again has a subconscious effect on him, even if it was distorted by Gauna.

The two young men sat in silence, until Norio refilled their teacups: "Kaoru, i have been trying to make amends. My lab has made surprising discoveries from Benisuzume and Kyuketsuga's core Hyggs frequency patterns... I won't gaurantee you any plan right now, but I think we can have something to look forward to together."

////

Special Detachment 704 has accomplished its first deployment in Operation Pyrite with every result better than expected. It returned to Titan, just in time for Telomere command to send in a new shipment of four Type 17Ss, alongside a few prototype Kabi constructs replicated in the Sprawl's gigantic 3D printing lab.

"Each of these spears costs more to build than that hotel suite module you mentioned." Stross told Fabrik as they watched Shiraki command the hangar crew to transport the new Guardian toys.

"Tempting. Maybe I should lose one to some Magpies. I still wanna buy that suite for my own use."

"Overseer will vent you for this." Kendra dismissed his joke, "You're the reason we're running out of everything, Commander."

"It took forever for Buckell and Phelps to find ways to refit gravity compressors with our printer, but the Hive Mind - it grew Kabi structures next to Marker ones, just using biomass and local minerals. It's miraculous."

"You actually found the Rock pieces you want down there? I thought the kids glassed that monster harder than they glassed 3A on Ishimura."

"I got deactivated fragments, they're enough to tell how they were made. Heuristic stabilization? The Hive Mind managed it with organic molecules. Its biochemical exothermic reactions provided the same effect as our printing lasers. Once the Marker parts becomes active, it channels energy into gravity and spatial manipulation needed for the Gauna parts. I think it learned from... Observation. It's all organic, living power."

"Fuck."

"Gee, Nolan, don't tell me you wanna test your theory in my food synthesizer?" Fabrik still tried to lighten the mood, which made Kendra feel even worse.

She gestured the other two to move away from earshot of the common crew members: "Bigger problem here. Stross, exactly what's up with Tanikaze's exposure? Edgars just cleared him back for piloting?"

"Orders from above said to put him in a Guardian as long as he's not a risk." The Commander answered first, "Even if he's going to flip the fuck out, we need as much of his piloting data as possible."

"His physiology is different from ours." The scientist added, "The exposure didn't affect his hormonal levels or immunity like it did to people on Ishimura, or the colony. His cells hold onto a healthy status quo with vengeance."

"Maybe you'll find eternal-fucking-life and infinite energy in him sooner than in the Markers. I've heard of the joke about telomere and Telomere from Kendra, too."

"Such a high tolerance is very useful for... Almost everything we want. He can't sense any broadcasts on his own, but we saw good bulk data stored inside his brain with the new model machine."

"So the exposure did leave something in his head? Careful, Nolan, if you drill too deep, my best fucking pilot will be half blind."

"Tanikaze will recover. He can return to piloting a few hours while the regular is three days."

The trio of responsible adults now returned to Fabrik's office, where they directly receive their confidential instructions from Telomere central. Kendra logged onto her account on a projector screen and prepared for briefing.

"Fuck me, there's a new branch of U-tology?" The Commander prodded at the screen. A picture of a graffiti just finished loading, showing a variation of the Marker logo - a simple black helix as in official Church media, but at its center was an acute, symmetric blood-red triangle.

"Yes, and it's headed by the chief nutcase from Ishimura: This is the Kyne Faction." Following the graffiti, there were screenshots and news headlines about worshippers of a Woman in Red, the Messenger, being a nuisance for both Earthgov and the Church.

"I thought you're friendly enough with him. Followed his tour group for a while, right?"

"Commander, we can't afford friends or even long term allies. The Overseer even told me to remind you that Tanikaze isn't our friend, or one of us. He's a top class asset, Kyne may become a pure negative asset depending on the circumstances."

"Relax, Kendra. I make friends based on investment risk analysis, no problem. If bossman needs to remind me to measure things in Creddy, I wouldn't be the navy outcast he hired."

"You did talk to them too much." Stross casually took the side against Fabrik, "This man, Terrence Kyne. Did he discover anything we don't know about the Marker?"

"He told us what he knew in exchange for our upcoming Hyggs research." Kendra frowned as she thought over some past interactions, "Shit, Overseer thought he's planning to defect, didn't expect him to set up a splinter like Doomsday Danik's."

"I don't see a downside, I'd take worshipping the spooky alien kid over the Rock or Altman."

"Exactly. We can't even hold her as Tanikaze's leash if he develops non-cooperative risk." She hated to calculate such things ahead, but working for Earthgov Internal Security and Telmoere meant those were always necessary, "It will be even harder doing the other way around, she won't let our boss lay a finger on him."

Fabrik began to chuckle, then bent over laughing manically: "The Woman in Red! I don't care if she's on humanity's side as she said. She's the closest fucking thing to a biblical minor king of hell, or a pagan war deity. That's fucking hilarious, whether you like it!"

////

The Kunato mansion welcomed some new guests after Kaoru: Magpie captain Benedykt Malyech and his crew. They were all experienced technicians and miners, lawful or not, and Kunato Developments saw potential in working with them in long term contracts.

However, Malyech was surprised that the young and bright owner of the corporation had an open mind to civilly talk about their respective cosmology. It was a rare opportunity when most Sidonian military brass and trade leaders all preferred their diluted, highly secularized Shinto-Buddhism over any good news of Unitology.

"I'm terribly sorry to hear this." He genuinely fished into the back of his head for polite manners he used back in his CEC days, commenting on the story behind the photograph he just saw. It was the center display in Kunato's office, showing him at a school event while Hoshijiro Shizuka stood next to him, as representatives of their class, "How can the monsters just take her from us and remove her humanity... If Altman allows me to say my fears, I think Gauna wants to prevent her from reaching Convergence. There's no bigger evil than that."

"It felt like Gauna ripped a piece out of my heart that day. My lack of control a while before that cursed deployment may have left a poor impression on her but she still put herself between me and that thing. Maybe she did it for my sister..." Kunato looked away, sniffing, "Convergence. The final reunion. Unfortunately, I fear it only exists in your universe."

"According to Altman's own firsthand notes, the holy Marker arrived in the K-T impact. Our universe still has much in common, I'm sure the generous powers behind it would still keep an eye on us here."

"Mr. Malyech, the worst part is really Gauna stripping away her soul. The cameras saw tentacles cut a hole into her skull! Then there were the three Guardian-type Gauna units. At first, we all thought there was a chance to wake her up inside one of them."

The freelancer captain nodded silently, recounting videos Seii showed him of that devil with a human voice. Its combat footage were among the most violent things he ever saw, dwarfing regular CEC accidents and Magpie backstabbings. The thing must have hated life itself, using every quark of its existence to destroy and insult humanity.

Still, he insisted to never see Benisuzume as the same as the courageous and innocent Shizuka who simply had her identity stolen. If the Gauna is truly intelligent, then it must be still laughing at the abuse thrown at her family after Tanikaze banished it to hell with his own life.

"I despaired. Gave up piloting to see if technological progress can save more of my friends. Honestly, fear overpowered me. And for a chance smaller than one in a million..."

"What is she wearing?" Malyech blinked at the newly opened picture of Shizuka on Kunato's PDA tablet, one where she wore a dress less than fully appropriate for her age. The red material looked like both spray-on styrofoam and raw pork, "I'm... Sorry?"

"Ena. Gauna substance that could be converted to nearly any material or physical structure. They can also carry any information." Kunato wiped away his tears, paused to let his words sink in, "Gauna is not capable of conscious thought by human standards, but they will replicate material as a natural reaction."

"You mean here we see a copy of her just like Benisuzume."

"Yes. She was one of humanoid Ena we managed to recover in the last six centuries. In recent studies, my research team discovered that the first step of assimilation was conversion of non-Gauna matter and data into their format, then transcribing it."

"Curse these heartless unliving machines. Though you mean the lost souls still has a chance to be recovered?"

"Yes. The essential data of their existence in the universal background could be called their humanity, and it could be retrieved." Kunato leaned back in his office chair, idly looked around, and pressed an intercom button on the desk, "I won't allow the space tumors to lock up Hoshijiro's soul in their hives."

On a screen linked to a security camera outside the office, a door opened in the mansion's meeting room where Maleych's crew were socializing with a select few of Sidonian professionals. Out came a girl dressed in the black Kunato Development uniform, who is unmistakably Hoshijiro Shizuka. She saluted the room, smiled at Mosugu, then headed for the office.

Norio left his chair and opened the door to let her in; Malyech immediately stood up too, out of deep confusion and alarm: "By Altman, what the..."

"I've broke that barrier and pulled back her essence from the depths of the universe. Once again she can be herself, and an Ena body is no concern."

"Thank you, Kunato-kun, I'm glad I don't have to be alone."

Malyech suddenly felt hard to stand in place, looking at the successful Orpheus fable in front of him, a testament of willpower to reunite the lost against galactic odds. He buried his face in his hands and stumbled back to his chair, on the verge of crying.

"It's unfortunate, Captain, the public would have a hard time accepting this breakthrough, even compared to accepting inter-universal visitors like you." Kunato sighed, "We will help her win back glory on the battlefield and return to her family, but for now, she'll take an alias."

"Hikarigaku Ayuta. It's a good name, and the honor to pilot again is everything I can ask for. I can't wait to meet Tsumugi!"

Chapter Text

Chapter 22, Resonance

Kaoru began to slowly realize that his originally important role in the Kyuketsuga mission would be soon reduced to being effectively the bait. The Gravity Net strained to contain movements of all the intelligent Gauna units after their separation, and dialing up the Hyggs reactor output meant his threat level would surpass anything in the combat zone. Not only Kyuketsuga, every generic dumb Gauna in the angry cloud of pink blobs surrounding them would set their targeting organs on the device.

Still, Kunato Norio made a promise to him - the two made a mutual promise - if he does his part without a hitch, the mission would result new assets for Sidonia that might be just as strong as Tsumugi. And then there would be a certain gift among the positive outcomes, reserved just for him.

One Kyuketsuga swept above his Guardian, outside of the Gravity Net's fire arc, yet dangerously close for its high energy exhaust to graze him. He redirected some energy to the humanoid weapon's head turret, and unholstered the machine pistol from its waist.

"Hyggs particles - release." The winged skeleton connected to the Sidonian battlefield radio, replicated human voice announcing its attack in a drawn out, undecided manner. It did not behave in any way like Yamato Eiko, Kaoru told himself. The tiny amount of information that once composed her was locked behind an unspeakable barrier of primal fear; his survival, and the ship's, all depended on Norio's top secret project to break through it.

The Shockpoint experiment would only offer a temporary escape, breathing room to prepare for the big question; trust the plan, do his part, make sure Sidonia holds until the experiment's return.

BOOM! At the right moment, Kaoru's shot ignited the already agitated Hyggs energy concentrating at the skeletal Gauna's stack of skulls. Then, he peppered the boiling mass of pink blubbery substance with the machine pistol's core-piercing rounds. He tuned up his camera magnification to maximum, observing the Ena reconstruction patterns at the site of impact. The Gravity Net weapon pack is equipped with some additional lenses and sensors to cover this objective.

Norio suggested a very reasonable side objective off the table, one that will benefit Sidonia magnitudes more if Yuhata or other command staff don't hear it on any piece of official record: Provoke Kyuketsuga into reforming its core, examine the mechanism of such a process, see if it would build a humanoid Ena pilot.

If so, secure her... Secure it.

Would there be four copies of her, same as some people said about three Benisuzume copies? Do the job and push on. Even one will be critical to the ship's survival.

SCHHHWIIIING!

The noise of Hyggs interference shook him out of tunnel vision, but it was too late; another Kyuketsuga practically scraped by him, its white hot particle exhaust bombarding the Guardian and Gravity Net generator's reinforced armor. The two winged skeletons extended their wings and arms towards each other...

Warning: Gauna core detected

Warning: Weapon startup failed

The mustered were attempting to flat out eat him, and more importantly his top secret machine, right on the spot, Kaoru realized. Panic was hard to fight, but he occupied himself with launching everything available at the Kyuketsuga in front of him. The head-mounted Hyggs cannon was boiling itself, while the machine pistol also jammed from a blown capacitor. What's the quality assurance of Toha products even like?

To assimilate him, the cores would expose themselves, but the absurd situation was that the last Kabi left on the machine was his ceremonial katana. Can he be bad enough to eject himself and stab the skeletal devil's core with his own hands?

Garrison force commander Samari was not joking when she discussed it in the bad days ago. Kunato Norio told him a man will try the impossible options one by one, because he's a man! The idea flashed before his mind, but there were Two Kyuketsuga enveloping him right now - and two more, facing off the other pilots and Tsumugi.

Kaoru shrugged, pointed the machine pistol's magazine towards the pink skeleton in front, and reached for the self detonation's unlock panel. No matter if he can see Eiko again after Gauna assimilation, there was no way he would allow the monsters to eat the Gravity Net.

Warming: Gravity interference detected

BOOM!

The skeleton behind him shattered into hundreds of pieces, a violent fragmentation pattern unlike the regular disintegration. The core still existed - but it was blown away with a force stronger than the maximum payload of any heavy mass cannon.

Bang! Simultaneously, the remaining Kyuketsuga in front was speared by an artificial Kabizashi.

"Good job, Ayuta." Norio congratulated the previously unknown pilot of the Guardian rescuing Kaoru. He casually spoke though the public channel, then switched to private, "Hazama, you've done well too. Start packing it up and return to hangar."

The sudden helper was a Type 18 painted white, armed with the Contact Hammer. Wasn't painting personal colors highly advised against after the Akai squad disaster and the rise of Benisuzume?

A bright light flashed across the asteroid belt curve of Planet Nine, like a second sunrise, then blinked out. From there, the modified Shockpoint ship Hunter's Moon exited Shockspace, sending vibrations through every combat machine present. Remaining Gaunas began to retreat - either diving into the atmosphere to hide under the floating continents, or farting back towards the Large Mass Union Ship in Kyuketsuga's case.

"We found habitable planets! We found Earth!" Izana screamed into the public channel with joy, "We're all okay!"

Kaoru saw Norio frown in mild annoyance, as if he just heard someone accidentally wrecked his corporation's stock price.

////

The Sidonian kids had to take high school classes on nearly every field of knowledge outside of piloting; luckily for them, the Ravager had three scientists onboard to take turns teaching them, and EarthGov encouraged multidisciplinary studies. Conveniently, SD704 could enjoy a long downtime ant the Sprawl after the Aegis crater mission to repair the ship and retrain pilots for Guardians. Their Type 18S low rate initial production units already received a new Earthgov designation: UHV-1, for Universal Humanoid Vehicle.

Nagate thought Stross' physics course felt easier and easier to understand. He was quick to pick up on things: Virtual photons, light pressure, photoelectric effect on a gravitational context - the concepts all explained how scientists back in Michael Altman's times discovered the basics of modern spacefaring such as Shockpoint and momentum manipulation. The universe he came from could use many imports against Gauna, the sooner the better.

"As SCAF's black books recorded, the Markers' extradimensional energy structure collects and amplifies a form of radio wave energy from what appears to be universal background radiation. This is a process nearly identical to the way your Hyggs collection membranes work, but more advanced in scale." In the briefing room Stross lectured to the kids and Mike, who was under orders to avoid any human contact outside SD704 members, "You wouldn't be stranded for 11 days if the membrane's energy capture structure was as effective as Marker's microscopic lattice, whether it's by volume or weight."

Shizuka moved on her seat, awkwardly tensing at the mentioning of that stranding. Nagate saw her shuffle.

"Better yet, your Hyggs reactor would handle an hostile energy surge much better if we find out a way to apply Marker science in its resonance structure." The teacher continued, "Our predecessors haven't gone deep enough to learn the information. It's a blunt way to only use the marker waves for electricity."

The information. The Markers talked to anyone in range to listen! They spoke a lot, with cunning intention, but humanity could still gain a lot from their intelligence.

"My Guardian's communicator must have recorded some Marker signal waves in forms it could understand." He spoke up, having grown gradually more confident with scientific discussion after a few classes, even though it seemed a little out of character. To his own perception, it felt good growing smarter,  "If Hyggs technology can take energy from Markers, maybe... The Guardian has recorded some readable patterns."

"I see you've picked up my way of analysis, good. I've also suggested this one to the Overseer myself! We'll copy data from your Marker encounters for analysis."

Shizuka listened with cautious surprise. Nagate was far from a piece of unintelligent fortification material, though his recent schoolwork advancements appeared too driven, too aggressive. He told her he developed an instinctive urge to contribute - it was a natural, determined push to advance, one which he wasn't able to describe too well at his current literacy level.

She could tell it was his way of working out his longing to go home, jumping across the universe back to Sidonia the sooner the better. The same feeling occupied only a small corner of her mind, since for her there was little to regain, compared to the life he built after her assassination. She still looked forward  towards rejoining the war against Gauna and bringing it to a sooner end; however, what if the people she left behind could only see her as Benisuzume?

There might be a choice between whether she return as humanity's second greatest pilot, or a fantastical communicator to pacify the monstrosities, like she once dreamed of. Since people in this universe titled her "The Messenger", Shizuka felt a growing confidence to strive away from settling into her role as a killing machine.

"...To understanding the singularity occurrence that brought you here." The teacher's words suddenly reminded her she was lost in her thoughts, "Maybe you're right to suggest Hyggs reaction in a Shockspace environment could create a mass-spatial, volumetric effect similar to it, Nagate. I'll attribute you when I write this up."

////

When it was finally time to debrief after the inter-universal mission, Yuhata felt like she was left out of everyone else's progress during her test run of full authority as Acting Commander.

"Our mapping was successful and we have found several planets we can terraform with existing technology." Izana spoke for the Captain in Sidonia's auditorium, "However, we haven't found Earth or clear signs of human communication. The good news is, there are indeed no Gauna there, and..."

Kobayashi herself sensed their uneasiness, so she took over: "We detected a planet with possible manmade structures in orbit. This will be our best chance in making contact with local human authorities, and then establishing a link with Earth."

The screen behind her switched to a gravitational graph showing signs of metal objects surrounding a solid state planet and its satellite, drawing a round of cheers. Even Kunato is smiling and exchanging confident words with his cronies. The Foreigners were in his entourage today, but not that strange new girl Hikarigaku Ayuta who looked and talked exactly like Hoshijiro Shizuka. Well, more polite than her or Tsumugi if that was even achievable.

Yuhata received notes from Kunato labs ahead of her deployment clarifying that she was simply a test-run model for a new rapid cloning method, instead of a Chimera, nor a suddenly sapient piece of humanoid Ena. It felt morally questionable that the lab picked Hoshijiro to clone out of all people, was it Norio's own choice? He clearly still suffered the guilt of losing her under his command. As long as she wouldn't also develop an inherent attraction towards Nagate when he finally comes back, everything should be tolerable.

The new girl piloted a Guardian known as the Type 18 De-Limiter Model - Kunato Development held an upgrade concept design contest, open to the general public, and picked up a dark horse submission from a hangar mechanic intern. The machine still used a semi-automated control scheme, but tuned to be highly responsive like the Type 17, while doing away with automatic center-of-mass balancing enforcement; it was designed for pilots who knew no fear, but the fitness of fluidly connecting every single cockpit input. Its programming genius creator's story felt even more heartwarming than Yuhata's experience, too, something about a self-taught orphan. 

"Sidonia's first escort combat vessels in centuries, the Tazugane Type, Mizuki Class, is approaching completion." The Captain proceeded To the next talking point, "We have built two of them side by side, and Mizuki-1 will be deployed to the target planet in the next Shockpoint mission. Midorikawa, I assign the ship to you, from its crew selection to all its operations across the universe."

Thanks to months of experience, Yuhata instantly gulped down her concerns before answering loud and clear: "My honor to have this duty, Captain!"

////

"I've heard you're doing well, kid." Said Dr. Kyne in the first indigenous Hyggs signal transmission of his native universe. It was a video call, too, a camera on his end showing him in tired shape but decent moods.

At the desk in her room aboard the Ravager, Shizuka nodded at the book in front of her. It was a grand hardback limited-run edition of Altman's Tongue, hollowed out to contain the prototype communicator Kyne built. It was passed to her by an unassuming churchgoer during one of her visits to the Sprawl, just when Nagate was off to the bathroom. The Unitologist gift drew absolutely no attention from Fabrik or Shiraki.

"Thank you, Doctor. Signals clear, no interference with... Myself. I hope you are are fine, and your side receives well?"

"I should be the grateful one today. I'm fine, I'm fine! This phone is just the first of many gifts we're building for you. Reception is stable, so I think today we can try recording a little."

She stood up, double checked that the room was properly locked, then activated her Ena to form her armor and emotionless white porcelain mask. Properly assuming her identity of the Woman in Red again, she spoke to an audience spanning across the galaxy:

"You have all dreamed of becoming a part of something bigger. Today, believers, I say you have achieved it. I bring you a question - can you feel the dream of doing something bigger?"

Chapter Text

Chapter 23, Impact

The Ravager arrived at Keyhole Station to prepare for SD704's last objective in Operation Pyrite: Marker 2A on Aspera. The team even felt the end was coming too soon: Marker 1A at Kreemar, also known as Proxima Centauri was already solved because of how close it was to Earth. SCAF nuked their marker site so throughly that there weren't anything to recover. They Shocked in and found huge chunks of the continent the site sat on were blasted into orbit; a part of the landmass was even swallowed by the local suns' unstable orbit.

Guardian piloting training progress went ahead in a breeze, too. Earthgov military researchers adapted firsthand data to existing CEC heavy equipment piloting assist routines; the resulting semi-automated movement presets for Type 17S UHV-1s were responsive and handy, a solid match against Nagate's own piloting capabilities on the Type 17E. Shizuka, too, considered UHV-1 a good substitute for the Type 18 which she learnt to fly with.

Keyhole station was where John Carver's wife Damara currently worked at, for a military communications assignment. He married up the social ladder, mutually attracted through their interest in history, "the art of making choices" as she called it.

It was her idea, powered by her family's connections, for him to transfer away from infantry special forces. Sitting in a machine and shooting at alien reanimations felt like a tremendous improvement over shooting at common-and-garden human insurgents. He had acquired the mentality to truly see his break day off the ship as a positive occurrence; though on the other hand, he also developed the mentality to no longer value it. After all, the Aspera mission should just be as simple as the one on Kreemar, and Commander Fabrik promised a whole month off for everyone once it's done.

So, the day before departure, when Dr. Nolan Stross asked for his help in distracting his visiting family to make way for some guy-time, Carver agreed. He introduced Damara to Alexis Stross and her baby son Scott; within a few minutes, she easily became their friend, off to tour the station's civilian district.

A few hours later, Stross and Carver put themselves in a bar, Rancid Moon playing on TV. Nagate was tagging along for a forgotten reason.

"United Systems Military Network, always renting the cheapest movies." Carver shook his head and rubbed his eyebrows as an ad break began, "Hey, you two. We all know Titanium Samurai won't be accurate for the necromorph part. But say, anyone wanna see it just for the samurai part? You a samurai, right, Nagate?"

"Me? They call me a knight. I think pilots are knights, police are samurai. Izana reads books on them..."

"Oh."

"Why bother making a movie to draw attention off CEC?" Stross clunked his empty whiskey glass on the table, "Really, Aegis is crawling with magpies and SCAF cordoned it in the treaty, just chalk it up to terrorists. If my department can have that budget..."

"It's for shaping public ideas, CEC won't get any less heat. You know what Godzilla is? That movie slowed down nuclear power growth for a century, I bet someone thought this can make CEC and Dredger look twice before cracking another shitlisted planet."

"Sergeant, you're talking about a movie at the dawn of the nuclear age." Stross' eyes widened, "They teach cultural anthropology in special forces school?"

"It helps when we're analyzing insurgent propaganda." Carver munched on some gravity-grown dates imported from his home planet Mars, "I've seen a lot of wild shit that should have movies made. Doc, my class did a study on anti-Unitology media during the Earth Revolution. You know what people wanted to believe?"

"Can't be crazier than the Woman In Red shit." The scientist paid no attention to Nagate's frown.

"SC launched rumors saying Altman is still alive. That he's fucking gone cyborg, or froze his brain, or cloned himself. If U-tology claims they have the secret to eternal life, they should prepare for everyone asking them to share."

"Oh, they do. It's still locked inside the Marker though."

"Doc, you're creeping me off. What do you say, boss?" Grinning, Carver passed his plate of peanuts and dates to Nagate. The kid has become more sociable and talkative as the test pilots' performance improved, "Your girl killed a Marker, you killed a Hive Mind, ain't it easy?"

"I think... Maybe it's true. Ishimura discovered Shockpoint from studying the first Marker, right? Maybe Dr. Stross can find out how to contact Sidonia very soon."

"Hurts my feelings, boss." He shook his head as the scientist winked with a grin, "Anyway. Nolan, how did you hook up with your lady? Damara and I were in the same officer school intel course."

"Ugh, it's complicated. As popular as I am, it began as a thing between our families. CEC, you know."

"Yeah, upper class bullshit. What about you and her, Nagate? Ace pilots don't grow on trees, but they sure grow in pairs like nuts."

Nagate thought about answering, then he saw his own blush reflecting off the glass of Sun Cola in front of him. Carver chuckled, then tipped some Big Bad Daddy Whiskey into the glass; he gave the kid an encouraging slap across the back.

"Okay, I'll tell you. Everything started when I fell out of the rice husked building..."

////

The Mizuki-1 materialized into physical space, shrouded in a cloud of subatomic sparks; its upscaled Shockpoint drive worked perfectly, sending the brand-new ship into the star system where human architecture was expected to be seen. A cheer echoed from the bridge to the hangar, and Tsumugi's pod.

"Commander Midorikawa to everyone, good work!" Yuhata spoke from her cocoon of a piloting seat, "We have made it to the new universe. From now on, we will proceed with our exploration and diplomacy mission. Shinatose unit, please enter your Hayakaze launch position."

Izana nodded and took a deep breath, then exhaled before putting on her helmet. Gender development solidified just after the first expedition's return to Sidonia; if the change wasn't a sign from the universe encouraging the search for Nagate, then at least it meant she could focus on exploration more without hormonal imbalance problems.

"Sending a public channel handshake to local network." Schneider, the Foreigner navigator, declared. He was given the comms officer's role on this new ship because of his freelancer skills, and prove to be surprisingly professional once signed up with a decent salary, "Hailing all frequencies, we come in peace. This is Expedition Vessel Mizuki-1 from Seed Ship Sidonia. We wish to establish a diplomatic passage."

A minute of silence passed, despite the distance from Mizuki to planetary orbit should have been covered in less than ten light-seconds. The recon team on their Hayakaze has covered a good part of that distance in the meantime.

"Mr. Schneider, should I send someone to check the signal encoder?" Yuhata asked, "We're sending the message through the radio system taken off your ship, right?"

"Our call is bouncing back to us already, the encoder worked. They aren't responding, whatever they are." Schneider sounded mildly annoyed, like his expertise was insulted. He flipped a few channel settings, "Hello? United Mining traffic flow, this is SEV Mizuki-1, we're using a Magpie beacon because it's all we have. We're bigger than a planet cracker, you can't miss us."

Still, no signal except background static. It should have been a busy place - the target planet was effectively wrapped in reflection pings created by metallic objects in orbit, as if it wore the ring of a gas planet. However, it's a solid rock planet, with clear indicators of manmade energy signs permeating the ring.

"Do we have a match on which planet this is, or which system?" The Commander asked, "It's civilized, your database should know something."

"Checking with database. Let's hope Shinatose has more luck first."

"I'm splitting off from the Hayakaze." Izana reported, activating every passive electronic surveillance system on the Type 18R2 once it cleared the booster. "There aren't any local calls in orbit, weird... Are the energy signs all automated devices? I need permission to hack."

"Let's get closer and use optics first."

"Okay, main camera zooming in towards the biggest artificial structure in orbit. Syncing you the video feed."

The bridge crew all felt some degree of disbelief: The shared vision was nearly static. The planetary ring turned out to be a debris field, without even one active booster traveling anywhere. There were four larger constructs floating in a cluster, engines not even flickering, dangerously close to collision or de-orbiting.

"The ships look like they haven't been used for centuries. Did we fly into the future?" Izana spoke her dread out loud, "...Sorry."

"No, we're in the right spacetime." Yuhata assured her, "This is either an abandoned battlefield or a boneyard."

"Identification done. Those are Sovereign Colonies ships from more than two hundred years ago. If the crew all abandoned ship, maybe they settled on the planet. Many settlements are founded like that."

////

"Norton! You take the squad and escort the dropship, Hoshijiro and I will deal with this Guardian!"

"Fine, we're going! Hampton, break contact, it's an order!"

Aspera was home to only a dormant Hive Mind. SD704's Hyggs reactors stirred its activity when they deployed nearby, but the monstrosity had less biomass and experience; the Marker inside was easily disintegrated by a couple of fully charged particle cannon blasts. The Ravager and its humanoid combat machines faced a tougher challenge from clearing the orbital minefield when they Shocked above the planet.

However, when the ground team returned to their dropship with data scraped off centuries-old local computers, an unexpected party crasher arrived.

Warning: High energy Hyggs reaction detected

It was unmistakably a Guardian! It Shocked right above the Ravager, opening fire on the ship without any attempt of human communication.

A brass-colored humanoid, swapping out the Type 17's iconic wedge-shaped booster backpack with thrusters distributed across its legs and spine. It was visibly heavily armored, bulked up with aggressive pauldrons and an armor skirt. Its head featured an ornate horned face, and two eyes instead of a visor. The weapon mounted on its right arm, raining down bolts of intense destructive energy indiscriminately, was identified as an Earthgov-made automatic pulse launcher, more often used as a shipboard or static defense CIWS turret than an aircraft weapon due to its ammo consumption. Here, the Hyggs reactor solved the issue, and such an energy weapon meant the assailant cannot be traced by physical projectiles or casings left behind.

"...Raikou, Type 14." Shizuka muttered under her breath when it first appeared. She recalled a machine with a similar outline that she saw in a history class presentation on Sidonia, with a limited production and little surviving information. 14 was a number of curses, because 4 means death, even though 4 itself was somewhat sacred to all pilots.

Back at the present split-second, the Raikou seemingly understood Nagate's intent to challenge it. Dropping altitude and holding it's fire, it made a near-acute thrust vectoring motion to hurl itself at the Ravager's tail end.

Not again this time, he thought and followed. Then, the pulse launcher kicked into action again, showering his Guardian in plasma bolts, throwing off his head turret's aim.

TWANG!

Shizuka's Type 17S launched a laser shot from below, hitting the Raikou's left leg thruster. The energy sparked and dissipated on the armor - it has an anti-Hyggs coating similar to the one applied onto the original Type 17. Whoever built this machine spared no expenses at all, unlike Kunato Development.

Nagate repositioned his Guardian, using its topside to face the unrelenting plasma fire with the smallest cross section possible. He readied his Kabizashi to spear the intruder away from the ship - and then, the Raikou broke off again. It first boosted itself off his path, then shut every main thruster off for a near-freefall aimed at Shizuka.

Considering Hyggs weaponry rendered ineffective, she fired her shoulder-mounted KEP-D unguided rockets at the heavier machine; the projectiles were an equivalent of Sidonian armor-penetrating spherical detonation rockets, and a close substitute to Benisuzume's volley launchers hidden in her pauldrons.

BOOM! The rockets exploded on contact, leaving only minimal scratches. Shizuka pulled the laser cannon's trigger again, taking a gamble that the coating would be damaged at the scratches. However, the beam's impact dissipated again, leaving behind trace amounts of Hyggs reaction.

"Its armor has Hyggs collection membrane inside!" She warned Nagate, while looking for a place to land on the barren planet surface below.

"I'll go for limb joints." He answered, Kabizashi swinging out under his Guardian's torso, sticking it towards the Unarmored gap between the Raikou's shoulder and torso.

KLANG.

The hostile humanoid machine shifted its body to trap the Kabizashi's blade, then, a mechanism unfolded on its left forearm. A stubby, thin tool flipped out, then a rotating array of blades ignited around its outline. A plasma chainsaw, held by the Raikou like a dagger!

In a swift cut, the Kabizashi's handle was cut in half, and the Type 17E's arms narrowly escaped from the sawblades as Nagate backed off at the last instant. He threw back the Guardian's arms and fired off his KEP-D rockets to make distance.

"Ochiai himself designed the Type 14 to rival Guardian-type Gauna." Shizuka called out what she could remember further, "Its frame is stronger, adapts to gravity better..."

A thought dawned on her: Whoever sent this enhanced copy of a Raikou to Aspera knew it must fight against two pilots with the most experience against peer opponents in their native universe. This was a pinpointed assassination mission.

"Hoshijiro, I have a plan. Please keep it moving."

She nodded silently, then fired a laser shot for distraction. She then pushed her Type 17S' booster backpack to full throttle, setting up the hostile Guardian for a chase over the terrain.

Once Nagate saw the Raikou ignite it's own boosters, he sprang into action: First chest-mounted grenade launchers to force the enemy into evasive boosts, then a Hyggs particle blast at nozzles on its left side for an interference explosion to overload the membrane armor. Lightning bolts arced across the enemy humanoid - its hardwired weaponry presumably taken out of action by the surge. He charged forward at top speed, forearm Hyggs cutter blade ready to take a chunk out of compromised structure.

BZZZZZZZZ. The cutter left a long, deep gash across the Raikou, sparks danced along the length; cautiously, he pulled back in case of an explosion.

CHWUM.

The Raikou was not out of the fight.

Its plasma chainsaw ignited again, then buried itself into the torso of Nagate's Type 17E, driven by a vicious punch. His cockpit status feed immediately went offline.

"Nagate!" Shizuka howled, feeling her mind about to return to Benisuzume's primal state. Whether it was fortunate for her, she did not have enough energy for the outburst.

In the next second, the Raikou detached from its prey, then escaped into Shockspace.

Chapter Text

Chapter 24, Cold Welcome

Two days into the first Sidonian diplomatic mission to another universe, the crew of Mizuki only found disappointment.

The radio signals on planetary orbit turned out to be autonomous magnetic mines; the people who activated them, along with anyone else in the ships and stations behind this wall of explosives, were dead for centuries. Hostile organic biomass on debris were the first signs of activity greeting the recon squad's Guardians just as they cleared a path through the minefield.

Still, Yuhata felt the only way out was through. She made the decision to deploy an armed boarding team made of Teruru the artificial human and several Honokas to investigate, starting with the station named Roanoke. Meanwhile, Izana would lead a few Guardians to clean up floating organisms and gather samples for analysis. The ship's Hyggs sensors detected extra background activity spikes when the debris parasites were cut open - what if these fleshy, tumorous things were related to Gauna?

"I've caught a new specimen!" Izana reported, her Guardian's camera focusing on a container with something angry bouncing around inside, "I'll have unit 581 send it over to you."

"Okay, what is it?"

"Some kind of space animal? I see energy signals on it, but no Gauna core."

"...An animal?"

"It fired spikes at us!" Tsumugi added, "This means it's a porcupine, right?"

"Porcupines don't launch spikes, at least they dob't have tentacles."

"Then it should be a hedgehog? I want to ask Dr. Tahiro... Oh! There's something bigger moving under this ship tagged Terra Nova, We should check it out next."

"Sure. Izana, just keep your automatic decoder running, remember, we need to make our radio system compatible with theirs at the soonest."

"It's running! Here, forwarding you the first shipborne message I caught, without delay! It's on a loop."

"Thanks, file received. Roanoke team, come in. En, Ichigaya, what's your status?"

"Busy!" The unofficially acclaimed angriest Honoka barked back, "Permission to come back for more ammo and katana blades!"

"Hardened!" Teruru replied in the authentic socially awkward artificial human manner.

"Pardon me?" Yuhata was about to ask for elaboration on what the away team was fighting, but Schneider helpfully synchronized the android's camera footage to the main screen - just in time for everyone to see En tearing off tendrils from a mummified human skull, then crushing it with her own hands. Her tattered pure white pilot suit, same as the suit on Tou behind her, was plastered by splotches of darkened blood.

"We're being attacked, no joke! The dead are possessed, they don't stay down unless I fucking cut them, must be Gauna!"

A wave of disheartened murmurs washed over the bridge, and the public radio channel.

"Prepare for evac! I've already set up decontamination for your return! You've at least found out there's no human life on board, we'll disassemble the station from the outside, same with the ships."

"The Roanoke's reactor isn't stable enough in its current state." Teruru said, "It can explode if we pick the structure apart, we have to turn it on first, then fully off."

"I hate nuclear power... Pull back, stay at the docks, I'll arrange supplies. En, let your sisters give all your guns to Ichigaya. You're switching to new guns, her hardware can't use them."

Kobayashi has spared a few of her covert weapons, the glove-shaped personal gravity launchers for this mission, just in case the diplomatic party would need to defend themselves in emergencies. They're devastating to any biomass, but the energy discharge would interfere with cyborg and android components.

"Screw your guns, my dad gave me great armor! What's wrong with disarmament!" Teruru was greatly annoyed.

"These abominations wants to kill us, same as the Gauna!" En shouted back, "Start ripping flesh already, or you'll find out if they like to eat memory alloy!"

"Argh! I'll punch them harder than you can! Let's go get your gravity launcher already." With that, the teen robot turned away and headed off. After all she was both a civilian and an undocumented minor press-ganged into the expedition.

"Redeployment time! Sen, Baku, Tou, Shou, katanas out, let's watch each other's back."

Yuhata blinked, wondering whether she heard En call for Shou, or was it the connection lag making her hear Tou twice: "No worries, team, good job so far. Just bring us some organism samples."

"These tentacles and a quarter of a skull should do, right? We'll be back with you soon."

"Disgusting..." Izana whimpered into the radio, her Type 18R2's video focusing on a cluster of interlocked cargo modules she took off the CMS Terra Nova. At its center was a glass container; a humanoid with glowing eyes and blade-like teeth was writhing inside, bone blades scratching at the glass.

"We can't risk a live sample this big. Seal it in anti-Ena glue." The Commander ordered, "Cut it in half first?"

"Maybe it's a live alien. Humanoid Ena don't move like this..."

"Was it this angry when the SCAF lock it up?" Tsumugi wondered, "I sense no relation to Gauna."

"Creatures that look like it have been hostile to En's team. We'll see about first contact later."

Then, the humanoid broke open its glass casing, at the cost of both its arms. It wriggled out of the box, then lunged at Izana'a cockpit, trailing behind flash frozen streams of blood. However, it was far from accustomed to near-absolute zero space; a few seconds later it crashed onto the Type 18R2's armor with a dull thunk.

"Problem ended... Applying glue now."

"Permission to speak, boss?" Tired of the comedy of errors, Schneider rose from his seat cocoon and floated next to Yuhata, "We have enough alien specimens, Commander, and none of these are things I've seen before my trip across. Do you think we should send them back to Sidonia, or call Dr. Shinatose to spare us a few biologists?"

"Sidonia has enough to worry about." She saw the choice in a heartbeat, "I'll request Dr. Tahiro alongside the firepower. Send back a part of the non-combatants until we can go to the planet."

"Roger that, logging it all." The Foreigner smiled, "You're running this operation better than anyone I can think of, Commander. My trust is all with you."

"Thanks."

"I trust you, Yuhata." She imagined her brother speaking to her. Midorikawa Izumo, man with the dubious honor to be either the 4th or 5th pilot killed by a Gauna since Nagate's first appearance, "You'll see the end of this mystery and bring us back."

"Bring us back." She could practically see him on Schneider's cocoon.

////

I was expecting Commander Fabrik here." The Overseer greeted Kendra over the video call, in a tone of notable soft disapproval.

"Apologies, sir, can't get him to move. He's with the crew and pilots, giving them his reassurance, saying it's not the worst considering we drove the unknown Guardian away."

"How long should that take?"

"He got alcohol brought out and made a toast to Nagate's health. Personal opinions, sir? I think he's putting on his best show to get off the alien girl's shitlist."

The Ravager was now docked at the closest base with acceptable security clearance, located on the frontier planet of Uxor. Nagate was rushed to the local EarthGov military ER, closely watched by all the other pilots; everyone except Shizuka was sent back to ship.

"Reasonable, for now. Thank fuck we know he's out of range for the new underground sermons, and his god is money."

"Like you said, I'm glad he's a weasel, not a Markerhead."

"Material science department will work out a way to utilize Kabi on countermeasures smaller than a Javelin Gun... Now, did anyone catch anything about the attacker?"

"Nothing. Buckell examined metal scrapings on our Guardians, trace elements say they're all from different planets, different foundries. Looks like a Magpie home brew if we don't know what is a Guardian."

"You can blame me on this. The intelligence committee chose to pay off Unitology with the oldest data we copied from the computer, we had no idea how strong it turned out. Well, our relations can still play some church internal politics cards to stop it from proliferating."

"If they have one more operational machine, everyone on the Ravager would be dead or thrown into a freezer ship already, boss."

"Don't worry, we have backdoors on their freezer ships."

Finally, the door slid open and in walked Commander Fabrik, the solemn expression he wore in front of the crew replaced with a loyal enthusiasm: "I must have missed something important, boss, but these guys? They want me to think the boy should be the one Kyne goes around barking about. He better have eternal life himself! Brace it finances department, my bill of painkillers to comp is long."

"Okay, Fabrik." The Overseer waved with bare minimum acknowledgment as Kendra moved aside from the camera, "Titan is on high alert to receive your ship, and the hospital is ready for Tanikaze's transfer."

"How long will you have to keep him?"

"How long do you think we need to drain his imprinted Marker data? On Aegis, he absorbed more than twice the amount expected to be humanly possible."

"Fuck." Fabrik yawned, Kendra could see him feeling ready to sleep off the alcohol he shared with the pilots.

"Go think of a story to feed the pilots, extend their vacation however long as you see fit, my men will handle the paperwork."

"Thanks, sir, though I see the pilots are getting sticky."

"Sticky?"

"Attached. It's more than about break, breathing room, or hazard pay. They need emotional support, someone to fill the gap when their main man is out. I'd say it's a tactical and training concern too."

"Everyone but Hampton are supposed to be hardened veterans."

"Bad idea to let them build a spirit of unit cohesion, I guess, or let them win too much. Anyway, consider this as my formal request for more pilots and Guardians, as soon as material science builds more. My ship needs to have 8 Guardians on board." The Commander smoothed out his extravagant long hair.

The Overseer rubbed his temples and stretched in his char: "Fine, there are more Singularity models almost done on Titan... We'll let CEC wait longer for their share of civilian units. Who do you want for pilots?"

"I've got a few old navy test pilot buddies in mind, but I actually like them. So, Mike Johnston. He passed on the training sims, and I can't see one downside if he gets himself killed too soon. His cousin is a certified small spacecraft pilot, plus she was on the Ishiguro, so we should ask her to join. And then..." He looked around the room for inspiration on filling the second team, "Alyssa Vincent. She is only rifleman certified, but so was Carver. She'll keep the Johnstons in line and be an emotional collar on Hoshijiro."

"Hoshijiro? She is coming with Tanikaze, she'll be cooperative for his sake."

"According to firsthand video evidence, she physically crunches on Stasis energy. I've seen her lick the piloting computer and tell me how much salt should I add! Please think twice about putting the universe's most destructive person in a stressful environment, yeah?"

"What about separation anxiety, though?" Kendra asked, genuinely curious, "You can't keep him away from her for too long, it sounds like."

"You two go work out a solution with Phelps and Shiraki." The Overseer interrupted before Fabrik could reply, "He has a point, she will remain on ship to intstruct the new pilots. Anyway, keep the squadron useful."

"Thanks, sir."

////

There were too many coffins floating in the orbit of Tau Volantis. Specimen containers, freezers, sealed chunks of spaceship debris, actual coffins with names written on them, dissected aliens - plus an entire residential section of the Roanoke station filled with a sterilized soul-like homogenate that was suspected to be reduced from its inhabitants by an organic disinfectant chemical.

Finding dead things was much luckier than finding angry reanimations. On the fourth day of the expedition, three Honokas out of the eight assigned to Mizuki required medical attention, one of them was sent back for a robotic leg to be custom built. Even Tsumugi volunteering to use her secondary head to explore the station's air duct system didn't push the progress too much, until she fought a massive biomass growth at its reactor cores in what Teruru described as a "battle of the tentacles".

"Ren found this thing, she thinks it counts as an animal." By the side of the Chimera cabin's Ena recovery pool, Yuhata gave herself a moment to relax as she used a wall paint roller to apply cosmetics on the secondary head, "A mechanical animal!"

"Awww! I want to clean off its rust!" Tsumugi rubbed her hand-tentacles together, "No, I could be too heavy handed. Izana should be the one to keep it."

"Resource collector online. Hello, sir or madam, or - cloned entity." The collector bot beeped and wagged its tail as Teruru poked at it, dermal armor disengaged.

"I'm an AI like you, see?" she waved in front of its camera, "I think you should call the Honokas 'madam'. Neutral people aren't just cloned entities either."

"I wish I can speak English..." Tsumugi settled for crawling next to the bot and chilling next to it, waiting for her industrial-portioned cosmetics to dry.

"Japanese vocal input detected. Hello, madam in balloon mascot outfit."

"Awwwwwwww!"

Seeing her friends entertained for what it's worth, Yuhata went back to her phone to address the thing on her mind: Coffins. Heavy, industrial-looking ones marked with Toha and Kunato trademarks everywhere.

"Shijimi." She called the expedition's head mechanic, "What are those about? Did the Captain just send us coffins the first thing she heard we saw hostile aliens here?"

"No, Commander, Miss Hiyama requested this special package for us."

"What?"

"They're Max Security Containment Boxes..."

"She wants live specimens? I thought we told Sidonia these things look infectious!" She angrily whispered, "I even left a note saying if Kou suddenly dies there, do not recycle her, disintegrate ASAP!"

"Uh, Commander. Please hear my explanation." Shijimi took a tired long breath, "Each MXCB contains a member of the Kagaku Teishintai, Science Martyr Brigade, or parts to rebuild one. They're ancient cyborgs highly specialized for combat, at a performance level similar to Ichigaya Teruru. Most of them only have an organic brain left, because they're deranged transhuman cultists who keep 'upgrading' their body parts and follow Ochiai's teachings. Some of them even wore components he replaced. After the Ochiai Disaster, the Captain couldn't find a sure fire way to kill them, but they agreed to surrender and spent the last century frozen. Miss Hiyama heard about infectious aliens, so she went to the Captain and asked to send over these soulless, bloodless monsters."

"Thanks, old timer wisdom..."

Yuhata has gotten used to the density of information in her hangar officer's typical monologues. She shrugged, and looked at the direction of the Chimera cabin door - Izana has arrived after a hacking assignment. Wait a second, did Izumo's ghost just open that door for her?

"Flesh is weak, gravity is eternal!" Shijimi unlocked the first cyborg container, and the metallic man inside greeted his new colleagues.

Chapter Text

Chapter 25, Lost Stars

"Turn it off, bring everyone home." Izumo appeared the Roanoke's fleet commander office and summarized the insane wall writings for Yuhata. Both of them learned English in officer school, but here were too many notes written in two alien languages.

"We can't go back home yet, brother. It's not safe at Lem. The devil is back..." She stopped herself, "Gauna 487 killed you! Why are you here too?"

"Life can be endless."

"Forget it, I won't act surprised if someone finds out souls exist in Hyggs wave form." At least having a hallucination to talk to can help with bouncing around ideas, she thought, "We can't simply go back to Sidonia, while they can't stay there too long. Brother, what should the Mizuki expedition aim for?"

"You need Earth."

"We do... Wait, so by home you mean Earth?" Indeed, the birthplace of humanity as described by Schneider was the center of all its technology and action. Whatever they have to trade would be expensive, but Sidonia's problems needed breathing room and scaling capacity to solve. They'll figure out ways to work together, and... Nagate should be there too, of course.

"You can figure out how to salvage the ghost ships, Yuhata, I trust you. They probably still have navigation data available, at least their Shockpoint drives and powerbanks will help you get ahead further."

"Salvage the ghost ships, yeah, seems I already made up my mind early enough." She looked out of the fleet commander office's windows and saw the Mizuki waiting at a safe distance, idling outside the debris orbit.

The expedition engineering team has calculated they could restore one of the smaller ships, CMS Greeley or CMS Brusilov, to a Shockpoint-suitable integrity within a month, and send it to planets of interest ahead of Mizuki. Sidonia would need help from Earthgov to make the jump across universes itself, at least more resources and manpower to fend off Gauna. At the very least, information on Nagate... Though, Yuhata considered it necessary to keep any contact between Mizuki and Sidonia minimal, in case the strange biomass-melting contagion would hitch along.

"Now, what about the 'turn it off' message?"

"Sister, you must have heard of the mental health complaints from the expedition crew."

"It's all stress from our discoveries." Yuhata sighed, "Everyone is seeing ghosts, all I have is boring old you."

Everyone except Teruru saw or heard at least one vision of dead people. The Honokas saw teammates eaten or disintegrated by Gauna, not to mention Hou; Tsumugi experienced disjointed flashbacks that fortunately didn't try to interact with her; even the cyborgs weren't as heartless as advertised, only that they freely abused emotion-related implants.

"Have you run any tests on the power signals detected by Hyggs radiation monitoring systems?"

"Mind-altering radiation? Brain concentration waves? All you do is echo on ideas I already have, and you're still dumber than Ena! Why can't the voice of reason inside my brain be Nagate!"

"You know I am simply a voice to help you reason, the one who should take the role of a hero is yourself."

"I want the crew's nightmares fixed. Do they come from some kind of psychic beacon, pumping out insanity waves? How, how in Ochiai's cauldron should I find this thing that should be turned off?"

"Follow the radio energy waves, you will see where they converge."

"Turn off the source of disturbance, fine. Shit." Yuhata accidentally knocked over a half-full bottle left by Graves, leader of the SCAF expedition. She pondered whether she should throw it at Izumo's phantom, or drink it to drive him off.

"Time is running out, don't let your crew end up dying alone like the previous owners." The previous owners were here to look for Markers - hopefully they weren't using and expending the alien creation in the same volume as Kabi - and they found a few alright, currently pulled off the planet and put on the CMS Brusilov, kept alongside their artificial ones.

They were radiating a kind of electromagnetic wave worryingly similar to Kabi radiation back home, too. Everyone who knew this fact shared the same unspoken fear that this pulse could lure Benisuzume out of hell again, since it was also banished to this universe. What if it multiplied? What if it has already converted Nagate and spawned a litter of space skeletons?

Oh, shit.

"You will figure things out. Take us home, sister."

"Ichigaya, come in." She thought it would be a good time to check on the Marker investigation process, at least to drive off the stray imagination.

"Situation is quiet." The artificial human replied, "The cyborgs are still recovering data from the ship computers."

"Have your team done anything about the SCAF Kabi... The Markers?"

"We cut off some samples and did spectrometer tests, all match SCAF reports. The substance and energy pulse could be helpful for Hyggs systems, but we need to ask Toha headquarters for further research directions. Mr. Schneider is running calculations on the alien text." Teruru paused, then added a hasty comment, "It felt like glass when I touched it, while Megastructure is more like porcelain."

"You touched it?"

"No problem! I activated dermal armor mode."

"We'll, replacing a robot finger is easier than replacing a meat one..."

"That's the spirit!" One of the Ochiai cultists overheard the conversation, "Shed your mortal skin, shed your weakness!"

"Sorry, Commander. The Marker... A voice talked to me when I touched it."

"What? No, Teruru!"

"It called me an abomination, said I'll never receive the gift of life. Sounded very angry that I touched the artifact. Message app logged the sender as 'enemy breach in progress', haven't seen that before."

"Have faith, young machine!" The cyborg shouted from the background again, "You are born lucky, built perfect, while we were only upgraded from meatbags. Your father Ichigaya Taro is a genius like our master!"

"...Thanks, Mr. Sugita."

"The ghost ships prove meat is untrustworthy, uncontrollable. Meanwhile, iron and tungsten still loyally do their part after meatbags abandoned them centuries ago. When my wetware brain is lied to, glass and metal showed me pure truth!"

////

"I need your help." Shizuka opened her special copy of Altman's Tongue and hushed into her Hyggs communicator, "Thank you for coming, Mr. Eckhardt and Miss Le Guin."

"We're ready to serve." Kyne replied, "Cash, information, media, everything I have. My colleagues will speak for themselves, though. People called us the Kyne Faction, and I'll act like it."

"I need power." She gave the cold statement with a flash of weakness on her face, "I'm asking you to help me gain an edge over the things that hurt Nagate."

"He's hurt?" Behind the nominal leader of this splinter heresy, the other two audibly gasped.

"Yes, we're attacked by an unidentified Guardian. We're back in the Solar System, the ship's doctor sent him to Titan General yesterday. He told me it was hard to even keep him in stable condition. I'm not allowed to visit him..." She shook her head, trying to compose her anger against her despair, "I think he isn't guaranteed to recover."

"An unidentified Guardian..." Eckhardt sighed. The worst fear of the adults present has already materialized.

"But his natural regeneration..." Kyne tried to grasp for a professional opinion, "Altman forbade it, how bad was it?"

The Doctor has retained his habit of attributing his spiritual guide everywhere; once he has seen the truth behind the officially accepted history, he saw Michael Altman as an even greater humanist, a defender of nature.

"A plasma weapon broke through every armor layer, he looks like, he's..."

"...Oh. What in the name of... Oh no, no, kid, I shouldn't have asked. I've seen too many like that during the Mars Riots."

"Please, Mr. Kyne, I want vengeance. Whoever is behind the attack, I need to be stronger."

The scientist hesitated to respond for more than half a minute. Shizuka couldn't blame him; the goal of setting up the Kyne Faction was to dissuade the average Unitology believer from its apocalyptic aspects, his conscience wouldn't allow pushing them towards confrontation with a major player.

"Have you talked to Dr. Brennan?"

"I don't want her and Mr. Clarke to worry! they'll put themselves between us and the next attack."

"You have the soul of true greatness." Daina said with the loyalty of a full zealot, "In mortal danger, only a hero like Altman himself could spare these concerns."

"Please don't make me remember the true nature of my soul. I killed 48 pilots in less than 15 seconds, because they stood between me and Nagate."

The adults fell silent staring at her.

"Eye memory exams after each mission turned weekly, I've... Relived many moments."

"Nicole and Isaac survived Ishimura, just like you two." Kyne tried to cheer her up. "We'll arrange their security, some metalheads to watch over them."

"Let's talk about the Guardian." Eckhardt nervously interrupted the conversation, "Not the Type 17 you knew, right? Plasma weapons, Shockpoint capable? Fuck."

"It's a Type 14 Raikou with the features you said."

"Altman save me, the Church built it after all. They're ahead of schedule, it shouldn't even been possible with the specs we fed them! Just how much money did they sink into building it?"

"What?" Daina and Kyne stared at him.

"Okay, okay, we don't actually know who built it, but it's the model Earthgov spared for the Church to work with. Terrence and I drafted a project document with performance ceiling estimations that aren't supposed to be done..." He felt Shizuka's eyes burn through the screen, "As far as I know, other Paragons in CEC rejected it."

"Did CEC finish their Guardian stasis integration?" Daina whispered.

"Not yet."

"So Mr. Eckhardt, you mean the Church of Unitology has sent it as a show of force." Her voice became calmer and colder.

"The Pontifex probably can direct enough resources to make it happen, give it to his Oracles. He's an unanswerable strategist. Who else? The Circle? I know Jacob Danik helped us for his own gains, but he should see not to cross you of course, dear Messenger. And then... Maybe someone sent it back to Earthgov and let them have a go..."

"I've put Nagate in danger again."

"Kid, the hit wasn't directly aimed at our little rebellion." Kyne took a deep breath, "This is the Kyne Faction, Altman saw it, I'm still alive. The schemers behind that Guardian wanted to test their new weapon against him!"

Shizuka felt slightly insulted, looking back; that Type 14 did not stay to engage her once it caved in the Type 17's cockpit. What happened to humanity's greatest threat?

"Please help me." She went back to her original thought, "I need power, it would be a lot to ask of you and the worshippers."

"Anything you need." The other two also nodded.

"First, I would like to study more about Mercer's Stasis weapon. Please send me anything he wrote, it was able to damage my Ena unlike regular Stasis."

"Sure."

"Next, I'm asking you to build a new Guardian, based on the Type 17. I have personal thoughts on upgrades and read through Nagate's writings, but I don't know engineering. If it's not too much to ask..."

"I'll divert parts for a frame from CEC." Eckhardt answered, he knew a kid's wishlist for new toys was extremely serious business, the same for a juvenile war god's vision of her new vessel.

"Please be careful, don't rush it. I will only need it when the new pilots finish their training." Her voice, calmed down minutes ago, was now accompanied by Hyggs static, "However, I want it to be the strongest Guardian in the galaxy. Enough speed and armor to punch that Raikou to death, then weaponry tailored to my experience."

"Your highness, we'll see the fires of burning credits consume our enemies." The design requirements has arrived at the screen in front of the adults. Eckhardt flipped through it, "Actually, it won't cost more than the Type 14 we drafted."

"Then please let it cost more. You owe Nagate."

////

Hazama Kaoru tackled Tahiro Numi out of the mutant's way, a second after he realized what did cracks in the epoxy casing meant.

"Run! Let's go!"

They have just arrived with the expedition's supply ship on the previous day. Kunato Norio said Kaoru would be more useful if he could be her personal guard instead of a pilot, and he agreed after seeing confidential footage from the Honokas and cyborgs.

The Outer Space Life-form Institute set up a temporary lab in a removable pod attached to the Roanoke to study the various abominations found in the ghost ships. Now, it was time to cut open the humanoid monster that tried to break out of its glass box on the Terra Nova. There was another like it inside the cargo hold, but it was disintegrated by Tsumugi's secondary head as it tried to jump the Honoka exploration team.

The scientist froze in place, eyes glued to the tying flailing with its armless upper torso: Orange sparks were flickering at the broken joints, Hyggs sensors in the lab began to beep at interference. Kaoru pressed the alarm hotkey on his watch.

"Doctor, please!"

The monster was within biting distance to either of them, and the remaining solid epoxy won't hold any longer. Though, Numi shoved him off with surprising determination, and reached from the nearest powered sampling tools.

Squwwge.

When he looked at the humanoid again, it has grown a new arm seemingly just from thin air. Gritting his teeth, he pulled out his katana and stabbed it through the freshly regained arm, pinning it down by the shoulder. Numi was apparently greatly encouraged by this success; she hurried closer to retrieve tissue sample, just in the horribly right moment for the creature to regenerate its other arm.

"No!" He pushed her away again, then grabbed her by her left hand - one with the communicator watch - and dashed towards the lab's full roof-sized shutters. Slapping the watch onto the lock for her clearance level, he unlocked the gigantic doors leading into space.

"I got you!"

Honoka En shouted; her Guardian was posted outside the lab attachment just for this kind of emergency. Then, its head mounted Hyggs turret fired on the Regenerator.

Chapter Text

Nagate looked okay on the outside, but he was connected to, monitored by and practically encased in Titan Station's best medical appliances. Shizuka suspected these devices were barely holding him together.

"He regrew his skin at a rate nobody has seen, I'm sure he will recover sooner than expected." Kendra tried to assure her, "Plasma burns aren't usually this easy to treat, they stay on most people forever."

Both of them were watching him through a reinforced glass wall. What was this supposed to protect against in a hospital?

"You know, I used to have a younger brother. Kieran was almost just as popular as him." The older woman continued, flipping through get-well-soon cards from the SD704 members, "Unfortunately, it was a much tougher time to grow up back then."

"I'm sorry to hear that..."

"Yeah, it still hurts, I might know how it felt like for you."

"I really hope Mr. Fabrik isn't in a hurry to put him back in a cockpit." Shizuka tried hard to not sound bitter. The Commander has pushed hard on the pilot course's progress before the fateful mission on Aspera, for all his generosity in other aspects.

"Fabrik won't. He trusts you to take over Nagate's role in the training program and leaves all progress under your authority."

"Really..."

"It sounds like his way to give you more time off. It's your call to slow down training, pause it, or to have another pilot substitute you for as long as you need."

"Oh! I do think he cares about us. Right, the new pilots and Mike Johnston also need time to catch up." Shizuka nodded, already thinking in the middle management way after taking over for Nagate.

"Fabrik's superiors have assigned some kind of intel processing mission to SD704, which means my team and the research team will work on data we retrieved from the test site planets. We're looking for potential targets for the next deployment, so until we have a discovery, the Ravager will stay at Titan."

"Does it mean we're now allowed to fly Guardians next to the Sprawl?"

"I believe so, the higher ups are going to reveal Guardians to the public soon, on the CEC open day. Using the Ishimura as a backdrop."

"The CEC open day... What if Dr. Brennan comes over? She and Mr. Clarke must be worried for us." For the good of everyone involved, Shizuka really didn't want to involve their functional parents in this universe into SD704's business. They always asked for status updates, and by now gossip must be out that the Ravager has returned to the human world.

"Commander Fabrik has insisted on a two-way privacy between Special Detachment members and their relations, we aren't allowed to check. But... Do you think there could be anything I can help with?"

"I'll go talk to them if they come looking for us. Nagate has always been on the frontlines, they can understand." She crossed her arms and looked away from Nagate, "Miss Daniels, I think we should go back to the ship."

"They're coming." A voice that sounded like Nagate said from behind the glass.

Shizuka felt her Gauna nature disturbed at the sudden and ghostly message. She rubbed her forehead and sobbed, covering her right eye as its pupil split into the sensor array for the first time since at Unitology Temple Prime. What, where, how?

"Mamonaku, they'll be here." She heard his voice again. Ma mo naku? "Without delay" was a Sidonian bridge crew phrase that stuck in her mind from the officer course, one often used at wrong occasions and accidentally undermining valid urgency.

"Who will be here?" She thought. Kendra was clocking the two out at the hospital visitor interface.

"Everything you feared at home is coming to this universe. Some already made a visit, others are on the way."

There was a disturbance somewhere around or inside the Sprawl. In her human form, it was impossible to pinpoint. This raised a more important question: How far away can a Gauna sense another? Benisuzume had little memory of it. When could be a good time to pull up the firmware performance factsheet...

"How did you know this, Nagate?" It was him speaking, right? "What are they here for? We're the only ones with Kabi or Hyggs."

"A Shockpoint reaction crossing over the universal barrier has been made. Wouldn't you know it, Benisuzume, as you successfully attempted the first one?"

All she could remember from the Hyggs singularity gravity implosion she created on the floating continent, was a mess of extreme emotions. Inhuman emotions! There was no calculations she could speak of, even in the digimortality computer language Gauna spoke.

However, if there was such a recent Shockpoint incident, someone at Earthgov or the Church may have noticed it. Perhaps she should argue for SD704 taking a more active role.

"They're hungry, they're coming. You don't want them to find you first."

Shizuka felt Kendra's hand gently tapping her and offering her some tissue paper. Nodding, she turned off the sensor array to wipe off her tears. And then, she saw Nagate standing beside his own lifesaving system, behind the glass wall - smiling at her, slowly fading out of existence.

////

Yuhata wanted to gather more information about the planet surface, so Izana had to tag along the Honoka team to search the CMS Terra Nova. This ship gave her cyborg arm fewer interference than the CMS Brusilov; the downside was at least ten times more monsters.

Regenerating monsters! Why was there another one hiding at the shuttle hangar of this ship? Fortunately the Sidonians had some precautions written after the first one broke its confinement in the lab. They were further validated by the discovery of alien insect Necromorphs, and hair-raising SCAF reports of these bugs burrowing into unwitting human mouths.

"Ren! Can you open the hangar door from the outside? I can't vent it, says gears are stuck!" Izana called out at the shuttle maintenance station.

"Hyggs cutter is struggling..."

"Just melt the door! I've grabbed shuttle codes."

"Brace for flash and shock!"

She hid behind the sturdiest piece of console, activated magnetic shoes and kept an eye out for vents or other possible entrances. Meanwhile, cyborgs and Honokas also anchored themselves at fighting positions, watching out for lesser Necromorph units. As the precautions required, every team member with over 40% biological components had their helmets on.

The Terra Nova was a promising candidate for making the expedition's first Shockpoint mission back to the civilized world, though many parts of it were considered irreparable and marked out to be plugged with epoxy, metal, or Tsumugi's Ena. They'll land on the planet with the Mizuki's own shuttles.

A dull blast shook the shuttle bay and control room; Ren's blast was still set at its lowest output. However, inside, power surged and sparks danced across the dilapidated electronics.

"Drill it, Tsumugi!" Izana heard the Honoka request heavier firepower.

Hssssssss. Leaks appeared along connectors and movable joints servicing the hangar.

"Hydrogen peroxide." A helpful cyborg radioed in. Thank Ochiai for augmented olfactory sensors, "Is that the shuttle refuel line?"

Using the hacking cable on her arm, Izana went into the shuttle bay's system looking for settings to drain its air. The leaking fuel would still burn in self-oxidation, but the risk of explosion would be smaller that way.

Then, everyone heard inhuman shrieks echoing along the passages surrounding the hangar. Exploders were closing in! They could either act as extra combustion failsafe, or seal off escape routes.

In the sector En faced, there were two of them emerging from a door stuck open; her glove accelerator was out of ammo. Unfortunately for the Necromorphs, she was tired of following all the rules of safe and cautious fighting Yuhata set up.

She waited for two more seconds, then drew her katana with the gravity glove, and let go of it as the accelerator launch sequence activated, all in a fluid swing. The sword cut through the Exploder in front, slicing its torso in half while disconnecting the organic bomb; it continued its path deep into the wall next to the monster.

The expedition has made solid progress in understanding SCAF's native gravity Kinesis technology, and Toha researchers modified a few recovered GRIP Kinesis-Stasis modules with one key difference - disabling their safety locks that prevented traction on living or moving targets. En activated hers on the second Exploder's vertically divided torso, almost comically fetching it over pieces of the first one; then, once her Sidonian gravity glove has recharged, she pulled the other half towards herself.

Squelch.

"Refreshing." She muttered to herself as the thing was ripped in two vertical halves, "Can we move now? I need my katana back. How about you throw it over to me, Shou?"

Still at her hiding spot, scanning for the Regenerator's heat signature, Izana found herself approached by a familiar but subliminally expected face.

"Hoshijiro?"

"You need to run. Get off this ship, go home."

"What?"

"Run, Izana!"

"Stop wearing her face, and don't use Tsumugi's voice!" She drew her gun and flicked the safety, "Get lost, Benisuzume!"

A roar thundered behind her, and the phantom of Hoshijiro morphed into a tentacle, darting at her before she could fire - it knocked her to the ground, then continued onwards. She could only watch with her magnetic shoes still engaged, anchoring her in place.

The tentacle was Tsumugi's secondary head; she was going for the Regenerator, who freshly emerged from a vent when the mirage distracted Izana.

"Leave it to me!"

Pink lightnings emerged from the rubbery Ena, armoring its outer surface with hardened Kabi. The monster was speared through its torso like a bug on a chameleon's tongue, then carried all the way to the hangar door.

Warning: Airlock malfunction detected

Finally, the shutters creaked open. As soon as there was enough room for Tsumugi to deliver the Regenerator kebab outside, she moved her main torso over and showered it in a storm of Hyggs energy from her eye cannon.

"Tsumugi, you're the best!"

"Commandment 87 of master Ochiai: Dirt should be sterilized in fire!" A cyborg with a Mohawk joined in the cheering.

Hoshijiro was still in the hangar with them.

////

Another day done at the CEC.

Nagate exited the train carriage holding his breath, navigating through the crowd of commuters; he was only starting to get used to the bustling Sprawl. It was already 17:50 on the corrected Earthgov clock, which meant the city's public solar lights have progressed to a dim warm sunset. Bombarded by the sounds of intrusive ads and loud conversations, he still allowed himself to feel grateful for everything that life had given him thus far.

He loosened his tie, strolled along the motorized street until he reached his modest home located in a quiet standalone habitation tower. Home was always within an arm's reach. With every step he took, memories flooded back of his childhood, surrounded by ever-growing spires and endless spacing traffic that looked like meteor showers. He knew he wouldn't have wanted anything less than what Titan meant - opportunity to grow without limits. And yet, despite all the noise and chaos of the city, he still needed something else to make him whole.

Waiting just outside the building was his beloved wife Shizuka, who always greeted him with a reserved smile at the same spot in the small public garden, in one of her usual outfits: Long pale yellow skirt, white shirt and blue overshirt. She picked him out of the dim light, too.

They boarded the elevator hand in hand, for a wordless, calming ride. Then, upon entering their apartment, Nagate was immediately enveloped in a bear hug from the skinny arms of Tsumugi, their 5-years old daughter! She was tall for her age, even gave him some worries about gravity on the Sprawl in the past, but Shizuka raised her as healthy as anyone can hope for.

"Karaage is ready! Gravity chicken, dad. I've been waiting for you."

"Oh? You didn't add orange to mom's cooking this time, did you?"

"Marmalade for dipping..." The little girl hurried off to the fridge in her flowing white dress.

Nagate adored these humble home cooked meals more than any five star restaurant in the world. It wasn't fancy or complicated, but it hit the spot perfectly after a long day at work. Come to think of it, he could remember sharing karaage chicken with Shizuka when they first met almost half a lifetime ago.

There were plenty of good happenings to chat about today, too. Tsumugi held up her tablet to him and showed off what she learned in theater class at school, Metamorphosis for Kids: "We finished the story of Greg the Bug! He built a cocoon for himself and changed again. He become a big butterfly! Or is he a moth? See this picture, dad."

"I think he turned into a very good moth."

"I don't like moths... Why can't he be a kabuto beetle?"

"Moths are great, too. They're fuzzy." Shizuka smiled, "Nagate, how was your day at work?"

"We're closer to improving how circuits for zero-point energy and Hyggs could be combined together. It felt great to have so much trust and be the head of my team, so, this time we only need to figure out how to set up the solenoids of..."

"Dad, in class we drew something like your project!" Tsumugi interrupted him, showing him a drawing she took home from school, made on rare physical paper. He was both surprised and pleased; it was the perfect sketch of a Marker's internal energy resonance amplifier structure - and the intricate lines drew him in, folding his mind entirely into itself.

Chapter Text

Chapter 27, Swept by A Storm

Mizuki-2 was deployed to the solar orbit of Lem, under the command of a Foreigner: Jessica Li, who had the most warship command and organization experience among those Magpie freelancers. The numbers of Sidonia's officers and officer school seniors have taken one hit after another since the return of Gauna; they were mostly pressed into piloting just to replace the attrition.

Jessica earned her commission after an interview with the military leadership and some familiarity training with the Mizuki's bridge crew. She used to be an Earthgov Marine Corps landing craft commander at a younger than average age, until her former tactical group leader - that well manicured son of a weasel, Fabrik - roped her into one of his get-rich-quick schemes that crashed with everyone's investment except his own.

Her new colleagues Samari and Seii were great people. The regular pilots were impressive too, showing good prospects as role models for the freshly graduated Class 8 pilots assigned to the ship. The manpower situation could have been better if Mizuki-01 could return from the expedition back to her home universe on schedule; however, Yuhata kept asking for delays citing very disturbing discoveries.

As a cutting edge ship optimized for combat, the Mizuki-2 was stronger than any Earthgov ship she served on, let alone the glorified transports she commanded. Few ships outside of Planet Crackers could match its over-700 meters length; even discounting its guardians, its firepower overshadowed the USM planetary assault ships Fabrik operated from during his pilot days.

However, nothing was enough in the face of Gauna.

Minutes after the forward deployment team activated the ship's mission payload, the Semi-Autonomous Energy Converter, bridge crew detected the familiar Hyggs reaction pattern of Kyuketsuga. It flew at a reduced speed, and a signal strength between one and three cores of full output. Like Hoshijiro Shizuka's pilot ID 702, Yamato Eiko's student ID 291 was blacklisted to prevent it from exploiting Sidonian radio.

"All squads, from around the Gravity Net." Jessica tried her best to evaluate a counterattack plan, "Samari, what's your ETO back? We'll ready your loadout. Sui, Shou, you two take the armory racks and wait for her."

"90 seconds at stable acceleration." The answer was reassuring; it would be easy to hold off that skeletal alien for now, as Mizuki-2 has a full 24 Guardians assigned while the Mizuki-1 carried 16 for its exploration role, including Tsumugi. That ship even had only 200 crew members instead of the full load at 1000!

"A gravity anomaly is traveling with Kyuketsuga!" The observer reported, enlarging the scan image, "Ena wavelength in passive mode, directly connected to its front."

"Underside Hyggs cannon, max scatter mode, fire on target acquisition. Heavy Mass Cannon B turret, track and load Kabi ammo." She assessed ways to deal with the Gauna's mysterious payload. It was time to be proactive like the many street fights she had on the ground, during the Mars Riots, "I've heard you can crack planets better than we do, Sidonian technology. Show it!"

The Mizuki's bridge was slightly shaken by the dull burst of energy beneath. Nearly instantly, the scorching cyan beam impacted the passive Ena, blasting it into a cloud of pink smoke. Still, the unidentified object proceeded with its course.

"Kyuketsuga is slowing down... Ena materialization detected!" The inexperienced observer audibly took a gulp, "Identifying Gauna cores. 3 large cores, more than 500 standard type. Logging unidentified object as SMUS-22!"

The weaponry and Guardians of a single Mizuki could reasonably take on 5 single-core Gauna SMUSs, using the previous SMUS-21 Ocarina as reference; three cores and at least one Kyuketsuga meant a tougher match.

"Seize the window, if your old plan fails, at least use it as a bluff." Fabrik said this a long time ago; it sounded like a good argument for Jessica to maintain her approach when the Ena was still reforming itself.

"Fire! All turrets and main cannon, load!"

SMUS-22 continued on like an unguided missile, freshly formed raw Ena colliding with the HMC projectile; as if too good to be true, the first core was destroyed by this almost blind shot. Then, Kyuketsuga emerged from its foaming explosion, while the other two main cores advanced on course.

Samari was now in position to retrieve live ammo for her High-Cost Test Model Guardian, taken from the hangar by the two youngest second-batch Honokas; Shou's T18M rearmed her, while Sui's gold-painted T18DL stood guard. These kids were supposed to receive their own T19s, but the production lines have been strained ever since Kunato asked for a second custom Guardian for himself.

In a blink, Kyuketsuga was within spitting distance; two of them, holding bony hands, spread their vampire wings wide open above the three Guardians.

"How the fuck..." Jessica's hand hovered on the fire control override console; a hailstorm of weighted Kabi could nick the wings of at least one skeleton, but only Samari's Guardian would be guaranteed to survive the collateral fire.

The bridge's communication and observation screens were filled with static; Kyuketsuga has played its usual energy bombardment trick. Not life threatening for Mizuki or anything hardened like the T18M, but still an effective electronic warfare method.

Sui's cry for help was the first thing everyone heard when radios were back online: "Aargh! It burns! Take the wires off me!"

The T18DL, in its pursuit for frictionless pilot input and response integration has taken an aggressive approach with intrusive data-neural interfaces, using both physical and wireless connections. It was designed by a junior mechanic and realized by a Kunato research grant, neither of them positive indicators of pilot wellbeing.

Behind Sui, the HCTM wasn't taking the attack too well either; there was little room to re-design its defenses with the various prototype and untested modules already in place. Samari wasn't hurt, but the machine would take some time to recover. One Kyuketsuga took the opportunity to enclose its wings around her.

At least, the other monster was isolated, and chased off to a safe distance by Seii and Tsuruuchi.

"Die! Why don't you eat this, hungry Gauna!" Shou has grabbed the Kabi nodachi prepared for Samari, and charged at the skeleton. The oversized blade was designed before the Ochiai incident, as a sword that also doubles as a spear, but the youngest Honoka's training was more focused on shooting. Since she managed to overcome her fear of Gauna, at least visibly, so she should handle herself decently, right?

The nodachi sliced into the flabby, fleshy wing, making one of the Gauna's stacked skulls turn towards her. She fired her Guardian's head turret, just in time to collide with the monsters blinding pink beam.

"I'm good! Back off, let me have it." Samari declared in an authoritative voice as she unleashed full auto fire, still under the tangling melted wings, "Bring Sui away from them!"

"Die! Gauna, die! No!" Shouting and chipping away at the wings, Shou was dead focused on attacking the Kyuketsuga. By luck, she pulled back and made a heavy cut that collided with the HCTM's armor underneath the Ena. A large piece of the wing, along with half an arm, flew off. Ena reformed at the cut, shuffling armor around.

Warning: Gauna core exposed

Samari could see the core on her camera before the cockpit message confirmed it. Waiting for one more second, she rammed the Guardian's left fist onto it and activated the pile bunker on its forearm armor.

Warning: Foaming disintegration confirmed

Another Hyggs pulse shook her machine as she scanned for the other Kyuketsuga; it was right behind her again. Extending its sickly skeletal arms, it reached over her, but latched onto Shou.

Warning: High energy reaction detected

A flash of pink and red filled her vision. In the next instant, the monster and its prey were both out of sight.

////

The Earthgov Guardian pilots have gotten another step closer to be able to train each other. Returning from another practice battle in the rings of Saturn, Shizuka took a breather and watched the trainee pilots recount the session.

"...Forearm mounted vulcans have great articulation, but your firepower is still concentrated in the front 90-by-90 degrees cone." Mark Rosen, one of the new pilots alongside Hailey, debated with Gabe. He had a decent level of space flight experience before, referred to the program by Robert.

"What, you've gotten too comfortable with automatic turret aiming? Exercise your arms, it's not that hard manually tracking targets."

"Gabe, Gabe, you ever watch your own video records? Almost every kill you did is a body slam. You always run out of ammo too fast, because you flail around doing your jackass suppressive fire!"

Although the Earthgov military was also often short on resources and manpower, Shizuka felt it hard to understand that they didn't share Sidonia's emphasis on precision in combat. Every Guardian pilot of SD704 shot recklessly in the early phases of training; as time went on, some made volume of fire into a personal competitive edge. It was interesting comparing the piloting styles of former spacecraft pilots with former soldiers, too.

"Everyone got the vibroblades, and I see chances to use them, asshole. You can't even hit me when you're standing still."

"Yeah? You haven't hit me when I'm standing still either, fucking GI!"

Well, debate was a charitable word. At least they weren't fighting with the 1/10 scale dummy Kabizashis like the Johnston cousins were, to settle whatever those two were arguing about... She took a few more seconds to evaluate, and messaged Alissa for help with maintaining order.

Shizuka looked forward to the day of Nagate returning and touching up her substitute work. After all, piloting school did not offer enough practice, while her time as Benisuzume offered few things she could teach human pilots. Why did everyone knowledgeable refuse to say when he could leave hospital?

There was that vision of him warning her that something has made the Shockpoint jump across the universes, just like she did; however, according to Kendra and the few declassified Sovereign Colonies documents, Markers only communicated through copies of dead people. However, he was just next to the supposed ghost, his vitals abnormal but far from braindead. How?

She made a few scans for familiar Gauna signals afterwards; nothing has turned up.

Since weeks ago, even before the Raikou attack, she felt her anxiety grow day by day. Training, data recovery and Necromorph cleanup all proceeded as planned, but all thoughts of Sidonia worried her. What would the Earthgov pilots be good for if they couldn't join the fight for survival at Lem any time soon?

Kyne wasn't able to replicate the randomized Shock anomaly that brought her here, even with her brain scans at Temple Prime on hand. All herself did was formulate barely coherent thoughts with her brief seconds of humanity during restructuring - wishing for two conflicting impossible things: To be together with Nagate far away from the fighting, and to tear apart absolutely everything opposing her, with the same priority.

The Ravager's scientists were all relocated off ship for safety reasons. She was only given one channel to find out anything about the research focused on connecting the universes - up the command chain of SD704. She had a nominally higher authority than Robert and Alissa within this unit, better make use of it and send a request in person.

Before she knew it, she was at the door of Fabrik's office. He preferred to keep it unlocked outside of missions, claiming it was good for awareness.

"Sorry, but they put me out of the loop, too." He was straightforward with it, while Kendra used various expressions to dissuade both him and Shizuka, "I've been itching to civilize some space tumors myself, excuse my phrasing, but command hasn't given me any schedules."

Shizuka could tell the Commander wouldn't simply shut down the topic, so she waited for him to continue.

"If I should take a guess, it's the shortage of Hyggs engines and Kabi. Our reactors on the Black Moons will be hard to maintain and resupply over there, also..." He leaned in to whisper, making Kendra wince, "We made Kabi alright, but it's mostly inactive Marker glass."

"...Oh."

"The good news is, if we're only talking about getting across the universal border fence, that's surprisingly easy!"

"Why do they..." She combined willpower and a small touch of subconscious Gauna personality limitation to turn her scream into a plain incredulous gasp.

"Okay. We are supposed to brief the pilots about it sometime soon, anyway." Kendra intervened in her designated responsible adult role and gestured the other two toward the office's main computer screen, linking her RIG to it.

The video was titled Payload test EX-06: The main subject was a vast and perplexing system built somewhere in silent deep space, comparable to CEC's dock stations; Shizuka could tell there were at least two active Shockrings in this array from ship identification cards she read. They were set up perpendicular to each other while both facing a central focal point.

One of the Shockrings lit up in green. An asteroid, spray painted with identification marks, was launched into its center with a magnetic catapult at low speed.

INERT PAYLOAD SUCCESSFULLY ENTERING TARGET AREA, a subtitle emerged on the screen, while a smaller window cut in to displayed a view of the other Shockring. The painted rock was flying leisurely on the other side, text scrolled across the screen to estimate its movement characteristics.

The next video started before she could take in all the information. This time it was "Unmanned astronomer X-19", starting with Buckell showcasing a probe on the same launch rail. It was capable of mapping out the relative positions of stars in its calculated exit position before returning, in order to determine time passage and precise spatial orientation.

What was the calculation result? Year 3395 plus time passed, margins within 8 months. Eyes glued to the numbers, Shizuka suddenly felt sources of dread materialize in her mind, few of which she realized they even existed.

"See, although I can't write you a solo recon mission just yet, let me offer you the next best thing." Fabrik moved in front of the screen when he saw she quickly composed herself, "Special vacation, one month, anyone asks, I'll say you're off to visit family."

"Nobody will let me through that gate."

"It's a month of free time, SD704 will keep itself together in your absence against its pilots' best efforts." He chuckled, "Really, you don't need me to remind you what you wanna do, what you can try. Put a few good words in for us alright, Little miss Messenger?"

The Commander has laid out his superiors' intention of making a deal: The Kyne Faction, the Messenger's family, has things to exchange for the Shockpoint research. Shizuka understood immediately, though she told herself to give it more thought.

"Your break is approved." The electronic permission sheet flew onto her RIG, "I always wanted to try a Guardian myself, you know? Used to be a pilot."

"...Thank you."

Chapter Text

Chapter 28, Rebound

On the Tau Volantis orbit, Midorikawa Yuhata had a checklist of setbacks the expedition encountered, and it slowly grew every day.

Resource consumption rate was still tolerable, thanks to the Mizuki carrying its designated full load of food for the reduced crew. However, the crew was always on edge about contamination; they were straining the organic material conversion reactor to disinfect everything.

An extra precaution they took with decontamination was tossing offending SCAF inventory straight into the planet atmosphere with Guardians, from clutter to coffins.

On top of that, the crew received both helpful and unhelpful advice from visions of their lost relations. The ghost sightings were sporadic on the Mizuki, but the intensity began to rise once anyone steps out too far from the ship. Proximity to Hyggs reactors could mitigate the effect, though the Honokas made a strange discovery - one that made them question if some laws in this universe was written by Tsuruuchi - so did exposure to photosynthesis lights.

Then, there were the Markers found on the CMS Terra Nova and Brusilov. Notes collected from the research ships already told Yuhata what these obsidian pillars could do, but their Kabi-like properties were too important to ignore.

"They aren't holy, however they can be useful for our survival. We must take at least one inactive sample to study its integration into our systemic Ena-Kabi-Megastructure research and application. The SCAF built 6-20 operational Markers in a relatively short timeframe with technology far behind ours, so I would like to share my confidence with Toha material science. Elevated threat situations at Lem demand us to push for new Kabi production methods that rely less on humanoid Ena and Chimera processing, no disrespect to Kunato researchers' effort. Simultaneously, Marker energy reseaech can be a viable approach to replicate the Gauna core merging signal without using Kabi, preferably as a directed energy weapon. Between the writing of this report and the next scheduled contact, I will hold a vote among all expedition officers on whether to send one Marker to Sidonia on the Shockpoint flight. In conclusion, our findings here will improve compliment our strategies, and give us a more complete understanding of alien energy-matter relation."

Stretching her arms, Yuhata sent the message home through the Hyggs Shockpoint drive. The ship shuddered with a minor power surge, as if it tried to Shockpoint into the same location in short succession; it has become routine to the crew, like a fee for calling this hotline back to Sidonia.

////o

Foster Edgars has just started his break when the director of all Titan Station visited his office. Shrugging, he gestured Tiedemann in.

"Say, what did you mix to keep him out for long enough between sessions?" Tiedemann asked,"Tough brain he has, the boss wants to know more about the safety measures side. Do you think you can prepare something on hand for the other one too?"

"Okay, won't hurt if you know this. I've given up on the chemical methods or draining his blood to keep his immune... His self repair system busy." Both men shuddered at the surplus of potentially Marker-influenced blood sitting in a Titan Memorial hospital freezer, "Stross really gave me a hand when he suggested we switch to something based on cognitive science."

"Him, giving us a hand? I'll prepare myself for him asking for bonuses."

"Maybe he's being charitable. Anyway, that day he was looking at the structure we pulled from his memory, and asked me if we can force him to look up specific images."

"Go on."

"We spent a few hours mapping out what we can and how we can. Eventually, I realized we can loop him inside customizable dreams to prevent him from waking up, until we need to."

"I like the idea. It's outside the box, even though it's only applicable on the table..."

"Trust me." Edgars poured himself some Big Daddy Bourbon Whiskey, then pointed at some paper cups for Tiedemann to help himself, "We've pointed him towards very useful mental images. He knew everything the Marker told him, the dreams asked him to find uses for the knowledge."

"Thanks. What extra safety precautions should I set up for this new method?"

"Nothing I think of. He's not going spiritual like Mercer or Altman, or his girl. Nothing in his Marker memory is about the convergence she preached, though we can make use of some experiences before the trip here. We'll have something out for accelerated pilot training."

The image of the unusable blood bank flashed across Tiedemann's mind again: "You sure this won't lead to robots flying out Marker-shaped trails?"

"Jeez, of course we don't just directly feed it into anyone's brain! I'll copy the piloting moves into analogue first and have the boss find people to screen it."

"Okay. So this also answered my other question... Focus on the artificial Kabi more, then. And a man portable launcher for reasonable effective range."

As they drank in silence, a call came from the Telomere reserve video channel. It was Kendra, as exhausted as ever.

"They've reached an agreement. Departure is greenlit."

"Okay, what's the bad news then?" Edgars shrugged. With Shizuka gone, at least he wouldn't need to worry about her turning the Sprawl into Ishimura with her claws and eye cannon.

"Fabrik wants to relive his flyboy days, Shiraki and I think you should tell boss to start looking for replacements before his next crash landing."

////o

Once more, in the Aegis system.

The Unitologist shuttle emerged at the edge of the Aegis VII debris field, and drifted towards the ESV Ulmok hiding within. Its crew parked right outside the larger pilgrimage ship's hangar, and let Shizuka disembark without docking. In a few minutes, the shuttle went out of sight, returning to the various official church affairs that packed its itinerary.

Inside the hangar, no humans greeted her, not even anyone hiding behind a welder's mask nor an Enigma mask. She knew that even on very lenient paper, the ship has just left port on the way to another star system. A glance told her all the cameras inside were powered down.

It felt a little wrong using her Gauna side to check on things already promised by Kyne, a slight little dip in her confidence to be human. Still, the subject that drew her undivided attention made her feel the awe that she first had when seeing the original Tsugumori for the first time:

A brand-new copy of the Tsugumori, was docked in the hangar facing its ceiling. It was painted in the same shade of demonic red as her ceramic Ena armor, except for pieces cast in pure white forming its rib cage and skullcap. It looked so sharp against both the metallic ship and the pitch dark space, she thought, it was deadly, not dead.

The rib and spine structural parts were especially reinforced to her demands - they were too easily destroyed on her Type 18 after all, the ultimate cause of her assimilation by the Gauna. The Guardian's right shoulder was also left white, and on it was the number 702, scaled up from her own handwriting. The other shoulder had the basic Sidonian personal identification mark.

"Thank you, Kyne-sensei," she nearly sobbed.

"You've put your faith in returning home and bringing the Sidonia here in us, the least we can do is this," he replied over the secret radio, "Type 17B Blood Moon. Our future and true unity of the people is with you."

Shizuka went to the side of the hangar to take a better look at the machine: It had a larger, blockier thruster module, made for maximizing linear efficiency at optimal heat radiation according to the calculations of herself and the best engineers sympathetic to Kyne's faction. The retractable front spike on the original design's thruster pod was removed alongside a few redundant mobility fins at the lower half. Parts of the leg armor were also redesigned to allow simplified maneuvers with intuitive limb mobility. It should dance like her own Ena-constructed older extended body, a manmade Benisuzume.

The Hyggs reactor was already warmed up in idle, a scorching white glow inside; it has twice the capacity of its original. She put her hands on the pod's shell and its hum sounded like a primordial source of power waiting for her to shape it.

"The weapon system is all functional," Kyne said, "I know you still have doubts on cancelling the ammo printer, but I can assure you the volley gun would be equally sustainable."

The chest-mounted grenade launchers of the Tsugumori was replaced by two sets of laser guns, 16 barrels on each side, as Shizuka demanded something fulfilling the instantaneous short-range burst firepower she once employed. She felt equally apologetic and shamelessly proud about the hundreds of shoulder-mounted Kabi needles she used to have, she used them against humanity's best! A weapon worthy enough for unleashing on Izana and Tsumugi... Yes, them in particular for very good reason only bloodthirsty warrior demons know. Pride, not jealousy.

On the machine's arms, two jamadhar swords were mounted folding in forearm shields. This was the brutal dual-handed fighting style she preferred over spears and katanas despite her education; the best weapons should always feel like extensions of her own hands. Shaped-memory alloy made them self-repairing and self-sharpening when sufficiently powered up. The Tsugumori's particle guns were not included in this redesign though their power supply wiring were connected to the swords, and they would provide a glorious surprise for anyone in range, pilot or Gauna.

Shizuka opened the cockpit and sat inside. Systems all green, and the pilot verification was something she set up in advance. The hardware was basically the same as used by SD704, though a few extra data ports were made in case she needed to apply her own Ena connections in absolute emergency situations. Unfortunate but useful reminders of her questionable humanity.

"The target exit should naturally gravitate towards your entry into our universe."

"Kyne-sensei, thank you for seeing me as the Messenger. I'll come back with better news soon."

"Don't be too hard on yourself. We'll take care of Nagate."

Dull clashing of metal shook through the T17B's structural armor, as the docking constraints retracted back into the hangar walls one by one. Shizuka tuned up the thrust, and the machine entered open space. Across the debris field, the improvised Shockpoint gate between universes began to crackle with sparks of life.

WHOOM

White reactor glow turned to red and she was directly in front of the unmanned gateway ring in a blink. Calming down her own breath, she let the Guardian's hand make a salute.

"Shock activating in 10, 9, 8..."

The instant the timer became zero, the artificial Benisuzume was gone. The entire gateway was showered in blood-red energy and flakes of spontaneously materialized Hyggs particle substance.

One second after the light died down, the complex imploded onto itself, collapsing into a disorganized haystack of supercooled metal.

At her end of the video call with Kyne, Dana was visibly wavering from the disheartening vision.

"The government had to tell me in plain words they want the gate built subpar," he said, "But by Altman, this isn't their victory yet."

"We're taking the boy..." she nodded, "Earthgov nor the old men will have their way with everything."

"I don't mean I'm waiting for a second miracle. An extraordinary act of willpower and faith sent the kids here, I hope I've given the Messenger enough for her to do another."