Chapter 22, Resonance
Kaworu 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."
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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.
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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."
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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!"
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"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?"