Quote:When Pyenku first wrote this, neither he nor I had heard of Kantai collection nor shipgirls. Which got me thinking, and this is shared with his approval:
“Wave Motion engine online! Sir, Helm is ready to answer all commands!”
“Standby, Helm.”
Kodai Susumu spun his chair to face Okita. “Sir?”
“He was waiting on us, Guns,” a new voice came, and Kodai saw a pair of men he’d not seen before. Both of average height, the one on the left blonde, the other a redhead but neither in the designated duty uniforms. He started to open his mouth, as counter-boarding operations were part of his department when Okita made clear these two were invited.
“Sangnoir-issa. Thunders-sensei. Glad you could make it.”
“Apologies, Kaish?-ho. Planetary bombardments play havoc on traffic,” replied the redhead in the loud print shirt of a style that had all but vanished after the Hawaiian Islands had been bombarded. He turned to his compatriot, who wore heavy gray cycling style leather; a UN symbol on the man’s left shoulder and a scalloped badge on his chest with L T in large romaji letters on it. Under one arm he carried a helmet that also bore the symbol of the United Nations in the center of the forehead.
“After you, Ell Tee.”
“System. Saint Peter’s Gate,” the blonde said, putting on the helmet. “Play song.” Next to him, the redheaded one tapped the cane he was holding on the deck. *Boooooommm*, a resounding tone rang, somehow dopplering out and away, feeling a bit like a large machine had just powered down; leaving the light seemingly slightly dimmer, sounds a bit muted. Yet the song coming from the Helmet, and the chant of the Redhead came through clearly in spite of that.
«I was lost in the dark…and the fear was in my heart.
All around me, the forest and the rain.
Then with the flash of a light, I saw it in the night.
I must be getting near…Saint Peter's Gate.»
“Heart of fire, bones of steel
Arms that strike and Soul that shields
For a time now be made real,
YAMATO!”
“Attention on DECK!” Sanada Shiro called out, as from the right a group of ghostly men wearing the uniforms of IJN officers of the mid 1940’s seeming stepped out of nowhere. From the left, a tall Japanese woman wearing a white dress evocative of a western style wedding dress.
The officer in front, in the uniform of a Captain, looked at the two civilians across the bridge. *Sangnior-Issa, Okita Sho-ho. This really was not necessary*, he said in the haunting voice one would associate with someone who had been dead for 254 years.
The redhead covered his mouth and made a noise that was part sneeze and part “Bullshit!” The ghostly woman gave him a hard look, then shook her head in resignation before starting to cross the brige.
“And I think we both know it was, Kosako,” she chided the other spirit. His eyes swung away from Okita and widened as he took in the woman, who nodded gently. “IJN Yamato, reporting for duty, Itt? Kaisa.”
“Necessary or not, it is an honor to receive these honors, Aruga” came a new voice as yet another ghostly personage stepped onto the bridge, this one in the uniform of a flag officer.
“Ito-Kaisho! Sir, your flagship stands ready for your commands.” The new arrival nodded then turned to where Okita was standing and saluted.
“Okita Kaish?-ho. We,” the sweep of his arm included the Captain next to him; “Request relief.”
Okita returned the salute. “Ito Kaisho. Aruga Itt? kaisa. I relieve you.”
The ghostly admiral nodded and turned to his flag captain, but stopped when the woman in white held up her hand. “Imoto?” she called.
“Hai, Onii-san.” Then a younger woman, just out of her teens really, stepped out and stood where the woman in white first appeared. Her outfit could best be described as a cross between a rather abbreviated shrine maiden’s outfit and something similar to the male uniform tunics of the duty uniform, and on her head was something reminiscent of a battleship’s fire control sensors. On her back, sensed more than seen, was a backpack that reached around and seemed to bear ship type weapons.
“IJN Yamato requests relief.”
“UNCS Yamato relieves you. Rest in peace, Onii-san.”
“Guard them well, Imoto.”
A soft vibration started coming through the deck but went unnoticed at first, as the ship’s company remained on the ghostly forms that somehow filed out as if stepping through an invisible portal as the song wound down. The redhead tapped his cane once more and a sound dopplered up and in, as if the earlier one was rewinding; around them the light brightened, and other sounds rumbled, the shaking of the deck becoming more pronounced.
Kodai spun and faced the bridge windows, where what he’d assumed was part of the ship was cracking and falling away, revealing the outside world. “This ship… She was the ship we saw on the seabed?”
“Yes, Guns. Your aboard her now. All hands, return to stations! Sanada, fire the final separation charges! Shima, take us up! Kodai, take out that missile! SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO! HASHIN!”
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It wasn’t until the ship had cleared orbit and Kodai was relieved by the second watch that he’d had a chance to start absorbing those strange events. So when he saw Sanada, Yuki, and Shima sitting together on the mess deck, he decided he’d join them.
“What WAS that?” he wondered aloud in a bid for information.
“Cretin,” Yuki sniffed dismissively at him. “You realize the original Yamato was a WAR grave? With over 2000 souls inside?”
Sanada nodded. “And while their bodies were removed and re-interred with all due respect, it would be fair to say that the Captain decided to… help our odds. The two at the front of the formation were Aurga Kôsaku, Yamato’s last captain, and It? Seiichi, her last admiral.”
“So, who were the two women?”
Yuki rubbed her brow in disbelief of the question. “Ships have souls TOO, Kodai. Weren’t you listening? The one in white was the Yamato that was lost during Operation Ten-Go.”
Shima sat back and whistled. “And the other one. She’s all around us, isn’t she. Part of us, just as we are part of her?”
“Yes.”
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IJN Yamato: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20...ara/.91306
UNCF Yamato: https://www.deviantart.com/naikhara/art/...-390889718
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to rock the sky?
Thats' every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry!
NO QUARTER!
No Quarter by Echo's Children
Thats' every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry!
NO QUARTER!
No Quarter by Echo's Children