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."

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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."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"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!"

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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!"