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Haida's Travels, an Arpeggio Blue Steel fanfic, part 1

Author: 

  • Set3

Audience Rating: 

  • Younger Audience (g/y)

Publication: 

  • 500 < Short Story < 7500 words

Genre: 

  • Fanfiction

Character Age: 

  • Teenage or High School

TG Elements: 

  • Memory Loss

Permission: 

  • Posted by author(s)

Haida's travels, an Arpeggio Blue Steel fanfic.

By: Set3

It was the near future, all was well. Or so we thought. Without warning, a fleet of warships came out from the depths of the ocean, we now know as the "Fleet of Fog". Resembling, in appearance, warships from World War Two. But, they were capable of so much more than their "mundane" inspirations. Identifiable by their old style, they can be much easier to identify these ships by the glowing tribal markings that ran along their hulls. This "Fleet of Fog" seemed to have only one mission: to forcibly remove through deadly means, all ships controlled by humans, warships and civilian alike. They hailed from no country and showed no favourites. The nations of earth were forced out of the oceans whether they wanted to or not. All the nations of earth that had even the semblance of a navy banded together in the pacific ocean to confront the "Fleet of Fog" for one decisive battle. The best and most advanced humanity had to offer to rid the oceans of this menace. Humanity failed.

The might of earth's nations paled in comparison to the overwhelming ferocity of the Fleet of Fog.

Since then, humanity could no longer sail the oceans without fear of reprisal from this powerful enemy. The Fleet of Fog even went one step further and began destroying satellites preventing communication world-wide further isolating nations from each other.

We'll be following one ship from this Fleet of Fog. Resembling a Tribal-class destroyer by the name of "Haida"...

Haida came to from herself, shaking the spacey-ness from her mind. She was sailing back from attacking a secret military base deep in the Hudson's Bay. She could recall destroying the base smiling in memory of the fireball the base made when it went up. Once she got back, she'll contact the Admiralty Code to report her actions. She was now sailing just past the horizon of the shores of Labrador as she skirted the coastline just out of view. She directed her mental model below deck and settled in. Her sisters would chastise her for sleeping, but, considering the humans were decidedly incapable of matching them, she didn't think it would mater if she was asleep or awake and considered the possibility of actually fighting in her sleep. Nevertheless, she set her lower subroutines to keep watch and wake her of any "trouble", no matter how small. With the trifles taken care of she settled in and pulled the oversized sea cadet dress tunic up to bury herself in and promptly fell asleep.

She was dreaming. She knew this but didn't know why she was dreaming of standing in the military base she just destroyed. Only it wasn't so destroyed as she left it. Her mental model was standing in a room where two men were talking to each other. One man was standing in military fatigues while the other was sitting in a wheelchair, each leg removed above and below the knee respectively. Haida guessed he was one of the few survivors of the final human offensive. A veteran. The veteran was reading some papers, presumably given to him by the military man that was standing. Haida went over to read what the veteran was holding but the paper was blank to her. She grumbled at that, hating dreams at times for this very reason. The two men hadn't been stationary during this time as the veteran had finished reading the paper and looked up at the military man in disbelief.

"You're joking, this is what they came up with?"

The military man stared back in a smug nonplus, "It's the best plan we have for the timeframe we have. We'd like to use it to back-engineer it, but Intelligence believes if we take any longer, enemy reinforcements will come running. This is the only shot we got."

The veteran gave a dry-short laugh, "Se, instead of betting on something we know will work, they decided to bet everything on this cockamamie plan, huh?"

The military man just shrugged at that, "Do you want to see it?"

The veteran tossed the papers onto the nearby table and pushed himself towards the door, "May as well," he said nearly missing the military man's toes, forcing him to step back as he rolled through the door, following after him to eventually lead him on catching up. Haida trailed after the two. The duo lead Haida's mental model down a pair of elevators and security checkpoints, no one acknowledged her presence but she kept a weary eye regardless despite it being a dream. Eventually, they made their way to a large open room, made to hide the remains of humanity's navy. Haida was looking all over at the parked ships and cargo and munitions that she nearly bumped into the two she had been following. Looking ahead she stood fast, a chill going through her mental model. There, in one of the births, was herself. She was shocked!

"Not a bad platform for a trojan horse, huh?" the military man asked the veteran.

End Part 1

Haida's Travels, an Arpeggio Blue Steel fanfic, part 2

Author: 

  • Set3

Audience Rating: 

  • General Audience (pg)

Publication: 

  • 500 < Short Story < 7500 words

Genre: 

  • Fanfiction

Character Age: 

  • Teenage or High School

Permission: 

  • Posted by author(s)

Author's notes, It had occurred to me that not everyone would know about the anime I was writing the fanfic about so I wrote a brief outline of the anime to help out. I'll also post terms that would come up to help avoid confusion. If anyone has any questions about the anime or more specifically my fanfic, then I would encourage everyone to ask and I'll answer them as best I can

Term notes:
Klien field: this is essentially an energy shield that can block incoming weapons fire.

Corrosive torpedoes: This is a form of torpedo that explodes into a ball of energy. When it dissipates, it essentially disintegrates everything it encompasses.

Haida's Travels, an Arpeggio of Blue steel fanfic
By: Set3

Part 2

Haida spun her head to stare at the military man. How were they able to capture her?

"I don't like this dream," Haida stated worriedly at the nightmare her dream was becoming. She tried to initiate the subroutines to wake her up, but they seemed refusing to respond at first. She sighed in relief as she felt them working and could already feel herself beginning to wake up.

Before the nightmare faded away she heard the veteran mussing about hiding on the ship. And then she woke up.

Haida sat bolt upright with a start. Breathing hard, she ran throughout her shipself searching for anyone who could be hiding on her. She knew every compartment, every nook and cranny. She ran through herself three times finding no trace of any humans having been onboard. It was after her final search that she finally calmed down. She laughed at herself for getting caught up in her dream/nightmare. There was no way any human could capture any of her kind, let alone a destroyer like her. Taking a quick breath she made her way back to the open bridge section and stared at the horizon. She could easily see beyond the horizon with her ship sensors but there was something about seeing the horizon with what the human would call "mark one" eyeballs.

"Maybe humans aren't all bad," she thought as she watched the sun rising. She was broken from her silly reverie when she heard cannon fire off her starboard front. She used her sensors to see what was going on. She saw one of her sisters, the light cruiser, Ontario and frigate, Annan. They looked to be firing on a small human fishing boat. Her sisters were making a game of firing near-misses on the fishing boat, getting a little closer each time. The boat rocked haphazardly each time the concussive forces of the shots hit near. The humans were holding on for dear life, but, it would be a futile attempt as they would soon be killed. Whether by the explosions of the weapons fire, their boat, or just from drowning.

Haida frowned at this cruelty. "This isn't right," she whispered in a daze as she pushed her engines to full. It wasn't long before she was moving between and behind her sisters. The boat had broken up under the pounding but the humans were still alive. Barely.

At the last moment, she turned one of her turrets to port and the second bow turret to starboard and fired on the light cruiser and frigate, targeting their facing stern sections. She immediately followed up by splitting her torpedo rack and launched two torpedoes to each ship. The hits from her turrets prevented them from raising their klien fields that would have prevented a good deal of the damages her torpedoes would have caused. The corrosive torpedoes hit home unimpeded. Both torpedoes exploded in orbs of destruction atomizing the structures of the ships they enveloped. When the destructive orbs collapsed, it was as if a sphere-shape hole was missing from both ships, crippling them instantly. Haida further followed up by firing her turrets into the gaping holes of her sister's hulls causing secondary explosions. Both ships were effectively destroyed and as their bows sunk below the waves Haida was beside herself.

"What have I done?!"

End part 2

Haida's Travels, an Arpeggio Blue Steel fanfic, part 3

Author: 

  • Set3

Audience Rating: 

  • General Audience (pg)

Publication: 

  • Short-short < 500 words

Genre: 

  • Fanfiction

Character Age: 

  • Teenage or High School

Permission: 

  • Posted by author(s)

Haida's Travels, an Arpeggio Blue Steel fanfic
By: Set3

Part 3

She watched in horror as the ships she destroyed sank below the waves. Thoughts of "Why did I do this?" and, "What will I do now?" ran around in her mind again and again as the paralysis continued to hold her actions until she finally registered shouting and crying amid frantic splashing ahead of her bow. She blinked, back in control of her actions and looked on at three humans trying to keep afloat in the water. Haida hesitated at what to do. She briefly considered getting rid of the humans to save face but the damage to that had been done and there would be no forgiveness for such an act.

She was again gripped by the paralysis of indecision until she heard the child screaming out for help from her mother. Haida slowly moved her shipself forward, turning to port a little to come alongside the trio who were still desperately holding onto a piece of floating debris. She grabbed a net ladder as she jumped down to the starboard-side closes to the water and draped it over the side.

"Climb up!" she told them, but only got looks of fear from the trio. "I want to help you," Haida pleaded.

It was the apparent father of the trio that made a grab for the net ladder pulling the other two to over and having them climb the ladder onto the deck. The smallest child did as she was told quite possibly just to get out of the water. The teenage girl was more reluctant arguing with the man.

"You can't be serious! These things were trying to kill us a second ago and now you want us to climb onto one just because it says it wants to help us?!"

"Do you want to swim to shore then?" the man fired back, not waiting for an answer as he shoved her up the ladder. the teen only put up a token resistance before climbing up on her own. Haida looked at the floating debris for anything useful that the humans would need and spied a floating cooler that had remained intact. Haida jumped over the side and landed on energy barriers that she created so she could walk over to the cooler and picked it up before carrying it back to her shipself. A quick jump and she was back onboard herself. She gently set the cooler down and turned to the trio who were now shivering from the wind.

"You can go below deck to warm up if you want to. You're safe now, no one will hurt you," Haida told them.

The teen got up, stomping over to Haida's mental model, and before she realized the teen slapped her across the face with enough force to have her take a step back.

"What kind of sick bitch would try to kill us one second and "save" us the next?" she a demanded, her lip quivering and an angry accusation in her eyes.

"Grace!" the man called out pleading her to hold back.

"Shove off, dad! These things killed mom and I'll never forgive them for that!"

End part 3

Haida's Travels, an Arpeggio Blue Steel fanfic, part 4

Author: 

  • Set3

Audience Rating: 

  • General Audience (pg)

Publication: 

  • 500 < Short Story < 7500 words

Genre: 

  • Fanfiction

Character Age: 

  • Teenage or High School

Other Keywords: 

  • Caution: minor language

Permission: 

  • Posted by author(s)

"Shove off, dad, these things killed mom and I'll never forgive them for that!"

For reasons beyond Haida's understanding, the girl's statement hurt more than her coming to terms with sinking her sisters just now. She felt a well of anxiety well up inside her as she stared at the girl doing her best to kill her with her eyes.

The older man grabbed the girl in a bear hug to hold her back. He whispered a warning in her ear as he turned to Haida, "I'm sorry for her outburst," the girl, Grace, tried to protest before he put a hand over her mouth, "We're really thankful for you saving us, really! I don't know how much longer we would have survived if you hadn't come along. I don't even know what we can do to repay you," he thanked profusely, still keeping his daughter's outbursts in check.

Haida swallowed hard trying to force her growing anxiety down, "What were you doing out here? You should know that you can't go this far out to sea," Haida told him incredulously.

Grace war finally able to remove her father's hand from his mouth before shouting, "It's because we're starving you fucking machine! Thanks to you, we can't trade with other countries because you cut off the ocean supply lines. We can't even talk to other countries. What do you think would happen?"

Her father tried to shush her, "We're getting by, things are just a little tight right now," the father excused trying to get hold of his daughter again but she wouldn't have it.

"We're barely surviving on what we have right now. We're only just getting enough food on the table," she looked hard at Haida, "Since your kind killed my mom and cut us off from the rest of the world, food riots broke out all across the entire continent, not just the country. Lots of people died in those riots, lots that could have helped us now!"

Haida turned to the father, "Is what she saying true?"

The man was reluctant to answer at first before nodding, "Lots of specialized people died. Factory workers, farmers. Hell, doctors and other medical specialist were gone. After the riots, it was anarchy for awhile. Things are slowly getting back under control now but there's still some raiders on the smaller roads that intercept supplies going to small towns like ours."

"And ours got jacked," Grace added, "They're focusing on fixing the cities first before fixing the phone lines in smaller towns not near the trade routes. We won't survive long enough to the next supply run so we decided to chance fishing since we still had the boats."

"We were one of three boats," the father said. "One sank a day ago because it wasn't repaired properly and the second that was with us got sunk by your friends before you came along," he said in anger but quickly pulled it back when he turned to Haida again.

"Between the two boats we would have had enough fish to make it to the next supply shipment," Grace finished, her father just nodded in agreement. "Thanks to you things," Grace said stressing the last word to make it sound like a slur, "You things just killed our town!" she said condemning Haida accusingly again.

Haida took an involuntary step back from the girl, feeling the anxiety well up again. The Admiralty Code was the guiding rule to be held up by the entire Fleet of Fog. It was the entire reason they did what they did. Haida grimaced in anger, this caused the father to pull his daughter back protectively. Haida suddenly felt very angry. The Admiralty Code told the Fleet of Fog to do this, but, had she known what Grace and her father told them was true then there was only one thing Haida was certain about. The Admiralty code was wrong! And she would do everything she could to help these humans and make things right again!

Haida turned around and told the humans to follow her below deck. The humans were both reluctant, Grace more so, but at long last decided to follow her while carrying the cooler between them. Once the hatch was closed Haida had her ship-self submerge below the water. Grace started to scream that she was going to kill them despite Haida's reassurance to the contrary as the destroyer continued to submerge, the glowing tribal markings on her hull lit up the water around them in an eerie light. At thirty meters down Haida used her onboard supply of nanites to fashion a net and had her sensors pinpoint a school of fish. Seeing a cloud, she fired the net out and with the net being made up of her nanites she was able to catch most of them. She found another and did the same again, pulling both into her ship-self by opening up her belly and pulling the fish into an impromptu-made hold for said fish. With her hold filled of fish she sealed her belly up and made for the surface.

"Your town won't die," Haida told Grace and her father with an utmost conviction, "I won't allow it!"

End part Four.

Haida's Travels, an Arpeggio Blue Steel fanfic, part 5

Author: 

  • Set3

Audience Rating: 

  • General Audience (pg)

Publication: 

  • 500 < Short Story < 7500 words

Genre: 

  • Fanfiction

Character Age: 

  • Teenage or High School

Permission: 

  • Posted by author(s)

They had stayed in the area for an hour longer to scavenge what Grace and her father thought to still be useful, like a toolbox that was still floating. On finding and retrieving everything that they could, they were underway back to the small seaside town. A three hour trip and the sun was starting to set which set Haida's hull in an eerie glow from her hull markings. They were close enough to hear people near the docks shouting and they could see people running away from the docks. Haida could see a few with rifles taking defensive positions behind whatever cover they could find. A part of Haida that she tried very hard to silence in her mind laughed at their attempts to mount any defense. Haida's anti-personal weaponry would have been more than enough to depopulate the town. Haida stuffed the feeling down as she crossed her arms. Grace was at her bow waving her arms and shouting to shore, her father behind her doing the same. One of the defenders on shore stood up, Haida could see he was looking through a pair of binoculars and said something to the other people before walking to the docks. The mood felt tense as Haida slowly pulled up alongside the docks. Haida had no lines to tie herself down but she was more than capable of keeping herself stationary.

Grace jumped down from her bow, her father opting to disembark from her midsection. Haida produced energy platforms arranged like steps so he could step down without injury. Haida simply jumped to the dock from where she was on the open bridge section but stayed back a few meters behind Grace and her father. The apparent leader greeted Grace's father.

"Mark!" the man said, shaking Grace's father's hand, "We were beginning to get worried. What happened to the others and how the hell did you get a Fog working for you?!"

Mark let out a breath, "The others are gone, Bill," he answered grimly, "One boat sank from the shitty maintenance work that was done on it and the other and mine were sunk by two other Fog ships. This one," he said sticking his thumb towards Haida's shipself, "Saved us and blew-up the others that were shooting us, saving us."

Bill gave him a dubious look as he pulled an arm across Mark's shoulders, turning away from Haida's direction, "You sure that it wasn't just using you two to lure it back here to take out the town?" he asked pointedly.

Mark gave him a deadpan look, "Bill, we're a tiny town on the coast. The most we have is a half-dozen guns and the boats we had were rust buckets. When those two Fog ships came at us, they were playing with us out of boredom. Our boats broke up from near misses. I doubt they would have cared enough to track back where we came from."

Bill grunted while raising his eyebrows unconvinced. "If you say so," he turned back to Grace sparing quick glances to Haida, both her shipself and mental model. "Well, I am happy to see at least you and Grace made it back it still leaves us back to square one and we don't even have the boats to fairy people along the coast to the next town. We have mouths to feed, Mark," he said grimly.

"We brought food, fish. Lots of it," Grace spoke out, turning to Haida, "Show them," she told Haida.

Haida turned to her shipself gave a nod. Her shipself opened up a door in the side of her hull that hadn't be there before and she had energy fields shaped in a box to carry her hold of fish out and over to the shore where the dock met land.

"Is there anywhere you want me to place this?" Haida asked.

Bill, along with the other defenders, and more than a few curious townsfolk who'd came out of hiding stared at the box floating in the air swimming with fish.

"Su-someone get the tank over for the fish, and ice! Get the smoker ready and the cleaning tables cleaned and ready before this all goes to waste," he shouted gesturing wildly as the defenders that were with him put their guns down to help along with the other townsfolk. "This'll keep us going for at least a month," Bill remarked. Haida noted that he sounded relieved, like the life was coming back in him.

"This is right," Haida thought to herself as she waited for them to get everything ready.

High in the sky above them flew a war plane that an aficionado for military jets would say it resembled a F2H-3 Banshee a severely outdated warplane in the modern world had it not displayed the glowing markings of the Fleet of Fog. The craft was controlled by a Fog aircraft carrier by the name of Bonaventure that resembled the early Majestic-class aircraft carrier. The mental model of this ship seemed to be dozing in a hammock. She had long dark hair that reached just past her mid-back, appearing to be of aboriginal decent. She wore a tight red coloured sleeved shirt that had a keyhole in the chest to show off her generous cleavage and tight hip-hugger jean pants with cowboy-style boots with the spurs on the heels. Her look was topped by a dark cowboy hat that she had currently pulled down over her face.

"That's interesting," Bonaventure said with curiosity and mirth in her voice, pushing the hat up to show her smiling face. She continued spying at her little sister through her aircraft. "I'm going to have to keep an eye on you, won't I?" she remarked as she then pulled the hat back down. On the flight deck, another banshee launched to relieve the one that was currently above the now busy little town. "Curiouser and curiouser," she mumbled, sounding as if she were falling asleep.

End part Five.

Haida's Travels, an Arpeggio Blue Steel fanfic, part 6

Author: 

  • Set3

Audience Rating: 

  • General Audience (pg)

Publication: 

  • 500 < Short Story < 7500 words

Genre: 

  • Fanfiction

Character Age: 

  • Teenage or High School

Permission: 

  • Posted by author(s)

Part Six

It had taken hours to get all the fish cleaned. Some were salted, others smoked and otherwise prepped for long-term storage. After dusk fell, the townsfolk decided to have a small celebration with some of the fish they had cooked, some were fried, others baked, and a small few were put on a spit. With the future of of provisions allayed for now the people relaxed some with some music playing, both live and recorded. People were laughing, kids were playing in between stuffing their faces. Right now, life was good.

Haida sat at the docks near her shipself being careful not to raise any further concern with the humans. Her bringing the fish muted most of their suspicions, but there was still plenty of fearful gazes in her direction when they thought she couldn't see them. Haida couldn't blame them as she looked to the glowing hull of her shipself. She let out a weary sigh before she was startled by Grace walking down the docks towards her with other kids a few steps behind her. Grace was carrying a plate of food in her hands.

"Hey, uh, Haida right?" she asked nervous of herself as she approached.

Haida nodded, keeping her expression muted for now, not wanting to spook the girl despite their fiery interactions earlier in the day.

Grace stopped in front of her, "I just wanted to say thank you for saving me and my dad. I don't know why you did but, thanks. So here," she said offering the plate of food to Haida.

Haida took the plate deftly, shocked at the gesture, "Thank you," she said quietly as she picked up the fork and poked a mouthful of fish into her mouth. The taste of the cooked fish was indescribable, a tear ran down her cheek. "It's been so long..." she trailed off before she was distracted by one of the kids that followed Grace down.

"Holy crap, a real Fog ship!" he gaped, holding a hand out to touch Haida's hull.

"Craig, what are you doing?! That's the enemy!" the boy said, pulling his friend back.

Haida bristled at that. She had just brought a bunch of food, saving the town and this kid was still calling her an enemy. He probably ate some of the fish she brought earlier too. Catching herself, she just let her shoulders slump in resignation and just let it go and continued to eat the fish. Surprisingly to her, Grace stood up for her.

"You guys shut up! She took on two other Fog ships. By herself! If she didn't do that, me an' my dad wouldn't be here right now. She even caught all the fish in minutes that would have taken us with the boats days! I saw you stuffing your face earlier, Steve," she chided.

The boy in question looked away with his arms crossed, a sheepish look on his face, "Yeah, well..." he trailed off, not being able to issue a comeback to that.

Grace turned back to Haida, "Why don't you come join us?" she offered.

Haida gazed longingly to the people celebrating but shook her head, "No, it's ok. You go back and party with your friends, I'll be fine here, thanks," she assured Grace.

Grace was reluctant but acquiesced and turned back to the party, bringing the two boys that came down back with her.

"...Home made food," Haida whispered as she brought another forkful of fish to her mouth.

As Grace walked back, smiling as everyone seemed a lot happier now that they had food again. It was nice. She continued to look around, debating whether to go dancing or grab another plate for herself when she saw Bill and several other adults still loading the convoy to leave.

Running towards them she called out, "Hey, what are you guys doing? We have food now, why are you loading up still?" she asked her dad when she saw him talking to Bill.

The two adults gave each other a look before her dad turned to her and got down on a knee to speak to her, "We're still leaving," he told her, disappointment in his voice.

Grace just stood there, not being able to process what her father told her for a minute, "But, why? We have food now," she turned to Bill, "You said we had enough food for a month!" she accused the man.

Bill let out a breath as he scratched the back of his head, "I did," he said simply.

"Then why are we leaving?" she asked again.

Bill gave a grimace, "He have food this month, but, what about the next month? You were there, we lost all our boats. And even if we still had them, the Fog are still out there. We got lucky this time."

"But Haida's here now. She can get us more fish when we need it," she reasoned.

Bill gave her father a look who turned his head back to look Grace in the eyes, "Grace, you now how much I appreciate Haida for helping save us and getting us food for the town. But she's from the Fog and she killed two of her own. As much as I'd hope the Fog would ignore us, the odds aren't in our favour. You saw how they were playing with us, they could have sunk us with one hit, but, they made a game out of it. Now two of them are dead so now they're probably going to come for revenge and if the find out it's Haida, they'll find her here and take out the town since she helped us," he took a breath, "And even if they don't, word will get back further inland about a Fog ship that decided to moor here and government people will come to do who knows what and we'll have to leave anyways. Or the raiders will come to either try to take Haida for themselves or attack us for being friends with the Fog. Even if it attacks other Fog, these people won't understand," he told her, putting a hand on her shoulder to try to comfort her.

Grace just stared at him a moment before shrugging his hand off her shoulder and turning to run back to the docks, "No! I'm not running away and I won't leave Haida alone!" she shouted as she ran back. She stopped briefly, getting her friends to help her carry a cooler full of prepped fish and a camper stove with a small tank of fuel.

The two adults were watching the small group of kids were struggling getting everything down to the docks while Mark got up on his feet and started making his way down, "I'll get the kids back," he told Bill over his shoulder.

Haida noticed Grace and her friends struggling to the docks carrying a cooler and camping stove and was confused by the sight so, got up and made her way to them. "What's going on?" she asked the group, her head quirked in puzzlement.

"Haida!" Grace called out breathing hard, "Help us get this stuff aboard, we're going to be leaving soon," she told her, finally taking a breath.

This confused Haida more, "Why are we leaving? I suppose I can take us fishing again but," she was cut off by Mark calling them.

"Grace!" Mark called out to her daughter, "You can't just run off like that! I'm sorry you don't want to say goodbye to Haida but she can't come with us and we can't stay here," he admonished when he got to conversation range with his daughter.

Haida watched the interaction of daughter and father arguing back and forth when the sensors from her shipself pinged. Haida spun her head to stare out to the sea. IF she were human, her blood would have gone cold. "Get on!" she demanded the group as she stood there trying to think of what to do.

Mark turned to her, "What are you talking about?"

Haida was already in motion and had her hexagonal force fields lift up the humans and carry them to her ship self. The group shouted yelled and screamed in surprise as they moved through the air to her shipself. This action got the guards who were watching her on their feet as they readied their weapons.

"What are you doing with them?!" one guard demanded as she aimed her rifle for Haida's head.

Haida made another hexagonal force field appear between her and the guard, "There's no time! Get everyone out of here, the Fog are coming right now, so move!" she screamed at the woman.

The woman only hesitated for a second before turning to her fellow guard telling him something. The fear of god ran over the man's face as he turned to the still celebrating townsfolk screaming, "Fog! The Fog are coming, get everyone on the convoy, get moving!"

There was a brief moment of confusion as the man ran through grabbing random people to urge them to get going. A few got the hint but most looked to the docks in confusion until they notice several points of light trailed by plumes of smoke come up from the ocean beyond Haida. The screaming and near pandemonium started in earnest as everyone made for the convoy of vehicles in a mad dash. Some ran for their homes to get whatever they wanted to bring with them.

The female guard at the docks ran toward Haida, demanding to be let on to "Make sure she wasn't taking hostages". Haida did so without question, wanting to get underway. Backing away from the docks, she trained her guns on the incoming missiles while she raised he klien field. The last time she had the element of surprise, now though, she wasn't so sure of her odds.

End Part Six

Haida's Travels, an Arpeggio Blue Steel fanfic, part 7

Author: 

  • Set3

Audience Rating: 

  • General Audience (pg)

Publication: 

  • 500 < Short Story < 7500 words

Genre: 

  • Fanfiction

Character Age: 

  • Teenage or High School

Permission: 

  • Posted by author(s)

Part Seven

Haida fired her guns managing to hit a half-dozen missiles as her shipself pushed away from the docks and back out to sea, towards her opponents. She continued to shoot at the missiles as they came and even had to use her anti-personal lasers when the last few got within practical spitting distance. Her shipself rocked as she used her personal shields to block the last missile, her human companions screamed as the deck shook knocking them to said deck. Haida grimaced as she looked to the three attacking ships. Four corvette types, the Baddeck, Norsyd, Fennel, and Mimico. All based on the appearance of the Flower-class design. Haida was about to call out to them to try reasoning to not wipe out the human when she got pinged by all four over the Fleet of Fog's Joint Tactical Network. Haida accepted the handshake request and her higher consciousness was instantly transported to the shared communication's link, represented as a gazebo with a table set up with a faux version of a fancy chocolate cake, ready for serving. The four corvettes were seated around the table on the opposite side from where Haida stood. Haida sat down on her side as she took in the four's appearance. They all appeared slightly "younger" than herself, if not a little shorter. Baddeck was wearing a light green sundress with a deep green velvet collar around her neck. Green seemed to be her colour as even her eyes were a sparkling green, which brought out her fiery red hair that fell stylishly down to just above her shoulders in subtle waves and presented an aristocratic air about herself as she sipped from a cup of tea, pinkie finger out. Norsyd was dressed in a grey non-descript shirt and trousers, she had mussy short grey hair. She would almost seem forgettable if it wasn't for the manic grin and insane looking eyes she had on her face as she was shaping the cake in front of her into something that was giving her a small giggle fit. Fennel was wearing a yellow t-shirt with a pair of jean overall shorts and stylish boots. Her hair, purple in colour, went down to her mid-back, she was busy playing with Mimico's black hair tying her hair into handlebar-style twin ponytails. Mimico, despite how cute her name sounded, was wearing a pin-stripe men's style suit and seemed annoyed with Fennel playing with her hair.

"My question is this," Baddeck said to Haida and she carefully placed her teacup on the saucer, "Why are you protecting these humans? If you must know, two of our sisters, Ontario and Annan, were killed early this morning and this was the nearest human habitation. Prior to their termination, they have told us that the boats they have intercepted came from here. Now, imagine my shock, when we arrived, that not only were you present at their quaint little harbor, but were celebrating with ill-gotten gains from the ocean. The Fleet of Fog have made our position quite clear, Haida. Humans are to remove themselves from the worlds oceans. Failure to accept these conditions will result in painful discipline," she said hotly.

Norsyd giggled at that, "Splish splash, I was spanking a bag," she sang refering to the attack on the human town they just attacked as she suddenly squashed the cake with her hand, sending icing and other bits of cake flying across the table. "Get out of the way! It's been so long since I got to play with the funny humans," she cackled.

Fennel seemed to not notice anything as she continued to play with Mimico's hair, now putting it into a single ponytail that was tied at the top of her head. Mimico just rolled her eyes at Norsyd's antics and turned to Haida, "Why aren't the humans afraid of you?" she queried, "In fact, it looks like they were quite comfortable around you," she prodded.

"Yeah!" Norsyd cut in, "Not that I'm complaining 'cause now I'll get to, but, why didn't you burn them? You shoot them and they go up like roman candles," she prodded as she trailed off in a fit of giggles again.

Haida frowned at that, "Why?" she countered simply.

This gave the four pause, and even Fennel turned to stare at Haida in surprise.

Baddeck placed her teacup that she was about to sip from back down and dabbed the corners of her mouth before composing herself, "What ever do you mean by such a question?" she asked incredulously. "In fact, I should aske why are you rewarding the humans with food for somehow finding a way to kill not one, but two of us?" she accused.

"Did you even destroy the base in Hudson's Bay like you were supposed to?" Fennel queried staring at her from the side of her eye as she went back to playing with Mimico's hair.

"Yes!" Haida responded a little too forcibly. She leaned back in her chair to ease the tension she was feeling, "There's nothing left of the base," she said but it came out bland, like she was just saying it to say it. She swallowed hard as she looked them over. "Do you even know what the humans have gone through since we kicked them out of the world's oceans? There's been mass starvation, people are fighting each other for what's left, so many have died. That the people in that small town you tried to blanket fire just now are leaving because bandits intercept their supply too many times," she protested.

Baddeck was nonplused, "That, among other things, is why we have exorcised the ruffians from the oceans. That said, if any of the humans in that town were responsible for killing one of us, then we need to be sure they don't spread that information."

"The humans in that town weren't responsible for killing Ontario and Annan," Haida whispered.

"Then, who killed them?" Baddeck prodded as she leaned forward, one hand holding a spoon that was slowly stirring some sugar she added to the tea.

Haida stared Baddeck in the eyes with grim determination.

"It was me," she said. And then she fired her guns.

End part Seven


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