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."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

& 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.