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."

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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.