Ever since humanity achieved space travel have we wondered what lay beyond our star system. The Voyager probe, theories of other intelligence. Even as we mastered other planets in the Sol system like we had Earth, the question lingered. When we achieved slipspace travel in 2291, from studying an ancient artifact on Pluto, the universe opened up to us, with the establishment of Earth's first interstellar colonies. Reach, Alpha Centauri, Harvest. Mass effect relays allowed constant communication required for us to accomplish such a feat, unheard of since the British Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries. We believed that we could go ever onward, to see the ends of the galaxy, or at least the Orion Arm.

Then came the Covenant.

An alliance of aliens, with two races specifically at it's head. We first encountered them at Harvest, where a ship appeared to investigate lost communications to find a ball of glass where a planet had been. The atmosphere had been burned away, the water, boiled to plasma. Everyone planetside died.

All that remained was a message. "Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument."

Then they came more overtly. Once again at Harvest, the UNSC saw them face to face for the first time. The small Grunts. The sniper Jackals. The terrifying Hunters. The monstrous Brutes. And the leaders of the forces, the Elites. Each had their own classes, with Elite classes showing up meaning the Covenant weren't too far behind. Once a Zealot-class was spotted, the planet was doomed.

Humanity was pushed back, every victory only a barely organized retreat, every defeat devastating. We lost every colony, while adhering to the Cole protocol: jump randomly, then to Reach, or Earth. The Covenant must never discover them.

Then they came for Reach. The Assault on the Spire. The Long Night of Solace. The fleet arriving. The glassing of New Alexandria. The destruction of [REDACTED]. Now, Earth was the inevitable target. Humanity was at it's darkest hour. Not even the Spartans could stop them.

Then they did. Or one did. Master Chief, John 117. After the ship carrying him jumped away from Reach, they found a ring in space. Alpha Halo. The Covenant pursued them, and Chief was able to destroy the ringworld and the Covenant. But that only delayed the assault.

The Covenant arrived, unleashing it's fury on our world. But the expected glassing never came, as the aliens instead made planetfall in Africa. The reason was an alien artifact, left by what the Covenant called 'the Forerunners', lay beneath Voi, and that artifact could open a portal to the Ark, the control of all the Halos. Alpha Halo and Delta Halo, another ringworld Chief lured the aliens to to distract them from Earth, were only two of a complete set. The Ark could fire them all.

Then Chief defeated them. But he never came back. Only the front half of Forward Unto Dawn, Sergeant Johnson's flagship returned. The rest of the fleet had withdrawn from the portal once the ground forces had deployed, with the Brute fleet destroyed by Half-Jaw's own. Only the Arbiter had made it out alive.

We honored Chief. We had to. The man had possibly been the only thing between humanity and complete annihilation. Now allied with the Arbiter and the Sangheili (And wasn't that fun, finding out the guy who helped save the universe was the one who pulled the trigger on your worst loss?), humanity began to reclaim their colonies, starting with Reach. Every one had a memorial constructed in front of the UNSC headquarters on planet.

But now we face another enemy, one more primordial than anything we've seen. ONI has termed them Abyssals, humanoid spaceships who look like a cross between anime and Cthulhu. It's now up to me, the only other admiral left in the UNSC, besides Hood, to find a way to stop this force. We've set up a new base in orbit of a new planet, one named Formante. A new research group, the Phoenix Organization, supposedly has what we need to combat this new threat.

But unlike with the Covenant, we hold the advantage. Study of the Forerunner artifacts found on Earth, in the Sol system, and known of by the Sangheili allowed us to create technology on level even far beyond the Covenant's holy city, High Charity. No longer are we on the backfoot, fighting an overwhelming force arrayed against us. We are the giants now, and we won't be forced into the corner again.

Journal of Admiral Steele, January 1, 2558

Today I arrived at the base, henceforth to be known as FOB Ascendant. Why, I don't know. Some philosophical soul, I presume. It almost hurt to step onto the platform and watch the Pelican return to what was my flagship, the newly launched UNSC Infinity. None of my crew wanted me to leave either, but Fleet Admiral Hood wanted me here. Considering I was the only Admiral besides him to survive the Covenant War could be it. But what we're facing ain't the Covenant. Not even the Sangheili know what they are. The eggheads have designated them 'Abyssals', and I'm out here to fight them. Their mere existence is classified to hell and back.

Officially (I.e., what the UNSC has decided to say anything about), this is just me keeping an eye on possible Covenant-like disturbances. Actually, this is known as Operation Shining Star. I question the naming procedure guy's line of reasoning.

But, it's just me on this space station, above Formante, in the Alpha Scorpii system. Before now it was known as Prometheus.

I think I'm noticing a theme here.

Regardless, my office is set up, and the base is in order. In order enough for me to practice marksmanship and physical fitness. Yes I am aware that it's technically markswomanship. I bet Spartans don't have to deal with that crap.

So now I'm keeping a journal for this whole assignment. Considering I could be here for a few months or the rest of my natural life, it will be a chore to remember to do. I set a reminder for every night, before I go to bed. Phoenix Org. said they'd have the first five assignments to the base out tomorrow. So there's that to look forward to.

Journal of Admiral Steele, January 2, 2558

Phoenix emailed me in the morning to tell me Subjects Akatsuki, Hibiki, Ikazuchi, Inazuma, Tenryuu, Ooyodo, Mamiya, Irako, and Akashi would be arriving by 1400 hours. I responded inquiring as to why FOB Ascendant looked like a base for a standard 1-2 million garrison, and not a weapons testing facility or something like that. I got silence in return. Pricks….

I also took the liberty of installing a translator program to my glasses, since those names were all Japanese, and fuck if I was gonna have a bunch of Japanese speakers around and not understand them until someone else came around. While everyone enlisted in the UNSC (i.e., you were selected, though they've both loosened restrictions and cut back on conscription since the desperate war days… Contradiction, thy name is military.) took mandatory language courses, those were mostly English. Since Phoenix is an outside party, I was taking the necessary precautions.

That left me at 0700 hours with nothing much else to do. So I went through my computer and began to do some other work. Among it, decorating.

I am an Admiral, I think I've earned the right to liven up my quarters a little. Blank white isn't my taste. I did keep the lights though. I'm no electrician.

I also took the liberty of encrypting and classifying this journal to hell and back. If anyone were to get past the encryption wall, all they'd see is a redacted to hell and back piece of writing. Probably the only people who can actually read the thing are me, Fleet Admiral Hood, and maybe anyone in the high side of the UEG. Depends on if the UNSC finally gave up martial law.

As a side note, no high officer gets where they are clean. The higher up you go, the blacker your personnel file gets until the only unredacted things on there are your name, rank, and maybe, something having to do with a high profile victory. Everything else? Black ink - er, black highlighter really. Good old technology.

My file? I think the only words legible are my name, rank, and how I earned my first admiralty. You worked your way up the ladder with Covie blood in those days.

After a light lunch (2 pounds of food, compared to 6), I mostly just did paperwork while waiting for 1400 hours to roll around. When it did, I went out to greet the Phoenix ship dropping off the Subjects, though I was really having my suspicions about what they were.

I will say, a group of teenage girls and young women were not on that list.

Akatsuki, as a little pop up on my glasses HUD told me, was apparently a destroyer. What? Are they really expecting me to believe these are humanized warships? I'm quite tempted to fire off an email inquiring as to why someone is wasting time and resources with a prank. Either that or I haven't woken up yet. But, well, I did pinch myself. Hurt. Blah.

Hibiki looked a little like Akatsuki, but either a load more tired or a load more bored. She also spoke Russian-accented Japanese. I may have to keep an eye on her. I can smell vodka from here.

Ikazuchi seems rather cheerful. She almost immediately asked to be sent out. I said that we were waiting for further orders.

Inazuma is rather nice. A little clumsy, but she has a heart on her sleeve, for sure.

Together those four are DesDiv 6, though I question where 1-5 are. Maybe they're coming later. Anyway, those four are watched by Tenryuu.

Tenryuu herself is a pretty hot-blooded girl. She has a sword, and an eyepatch. Looks high-tech. I'll bet anyone reading this twenty bucks there's a laser eye under that thing. I'll make sure that sentence is unredacted so anyone reading just sees a bet with no context. I like her though. She has spirit. Though she claims to be a light cruiser… Sure. And Noble Six talked up a storm.

Ooyodo, according to her, is a light cruiser specifically to be my secretary. She's going to handle the menial shit I don't have to do myself, or just have to sign off on. I can only imagine how bad the paperwork will get later, so I'm glad to have her around.

Mamiya and Irako are chefs, basically. They went into the kitchen and took it over. Mamiya acts like a mother and all, and she certainly looks the part. Irako is younger, but just as dedicated to cooking.

Lastly, Akashi is the medic of the group. She mentioned she was here to repair any damages… whatever that means.

So yes, I have nine girls that I believe to be in varying stages of delusion. They're all named after Japanese warships, and all speak Japanese too, so that translator was a good idea. How it works is it translates words said to English, then pipes it into my ear via earpiece. I think they have translators on them already, though I haven't seen any earpieces.

Since they're here now, I decided that I'd test their accuracy on the range first. There was a zero-G range next to the standard lane range, so I figured that would shake them up a little.

The destroyers and Tenryuu floated in the range, a glass sphere lined with rails for targets to move across, and target launchers as well. It was meant to simulate the vacuum environment we'd be fighting the Abyssals in. Well, they would - my responsibility was to ascertain where and when to send them. I was fairly worried for them when they refused vacuum suits, but they seemed to be breathing just fine once they floated out of the airlock.

Turning to the controls, I set a pattern for twelve Covenant Phantoms and thirty Seraphs, the same attack pattern as when the Covenant Supercarrier appeared over Reach.

I saw Tenryuu bark something, an order maybe, but the thick glass separating us mutes it entirely. Then a whole bunch of World War 2 era naval ship weaponry manifested around them. The four destroyers split up slightly, each focusing on a different target. Phantom targets fell quickly, while Tenryuu moves to either fire upon Seraphs or slice them to bits with her sword.

I made a mental note to get her to play Metal Gear Rising.

After they filed out, cheerful about wiping out some targets imitating Covenant tactics, I let them go on to the mess hall for dinner. I sat back in the zero-g control room, utterly shocked.

These girls were actually the ships from World War Two. They were over a thousand years old, former bodies long gone, and about to fight an alien force other aliens knew nothing about. I had seen the Halo carnage reports from the Master Chief's AI, Cortana. She'd scanned the thing and some other Forerunner artifacts so thoroughly if these Abyssals were known, she'd have seen them. They weren't the Flood, that's for certain. They hadn't even left the sector we'd first spotted them in, which the uncreative idiots back at HQ had named Sector A. I mean, come on. Name it something meaningful, you know?

Back to the shipgirls. Shipgirls. I'll float that name by them and pray I don't get shot to death. But staring at the business end of a Covenant glassing laser kind of makes you dull to any other fear responses.

I absently wondered what my sister would think of all this.

"Beautiful, isn't it? Someone should take a picture." Spartan II Jorge-052 muttered as he watched the Covenant Corvette crumple around an Orbital MAC strike. He then placed an armored hand on the shoulder of Spartan III [REDACTED]-B312. "Nice work, by the way."

"I aim to please." The newly minted Noble Six responded, still watching the glorious carnage. A light buzzing indicated their comms were being pinged.

"Five, Six… Get down to the science wing. Doctor Halsey wants a debrief, and Command's saying we're all hers." Spartan III Carter-A259 ordered.

"Repeat? Sounded like you said Halsey." Jorge sounded surprised as he responded to the odd summons.

"I did."

Jorge turned away from the hole in Sword Base as he replied. "Copy that, on our way." Six turned to follow him as he muttered, now off the radio; "Don't need Command to tell me…. Been hers half me life." Six, like usual, stayed silent. Despite her SPARTAN III upbringings, Six still remembered reading about the original SPARTAN programs, the first ORION, then the SPARTAN IIs.

It was a quiet walk down to the science wing. Neither Spartan were feeling particularly chatty at the moment. Catherine Halsey… there was someone you didn't meet everyday, even if you were a product of her SCIENCE! Lovechild.

Noble Team was gathered in a room when Five and Six arrived, speaking with Dr. Halsey through a security wall and shield door. It seemed Halsey was chewing out Carter for some perceived slight.

"I requested your assistance, Commander, and do not need a report on events that occur on my own doorstep. What I do require is a detailed account of your previous engagement-" She stopped talking as Jorge and Six entered. "Jorge. It's been too long."

Jorge just said "Ma'am."

"Now what have you done with my armor?" Halsey almost sounded like a parent asking their child what they'd made in crafts class that day.

"Well, never thought I'd see you here."

Noble team glanced around at the empty hallway, before focusing ahead.

"I really hope you didn't think those Marines that fought alongside you and probably bit it came from nowhere. Alongside the Longsword fighters and orbital strike." A female officer, wearing a Vice Admiral's uniform came around a corner, hands behind her back and a look of supreme irritation on her face. "After all, when I'm ordered to bring down a Covenant corvette near a well known ONI base because of a team of Spartans, I don't expect one of them to be my sister." Six flinched, enough that Carter noticed it out of the corner of his eye.

"Six?" He left the question unasked.

"Or should he say, Terra Steele, Spartan Beta 312?" A now thoroughly incensed Vice Admiral Aqua Steele glowered, the look on her face promising dire retribution on any direct questions.

"I… I think-"

"She thinks you'd do well to leave and let us have ourselves a little family reunion." Aqua said in a very, very false cheer. "Otherwise we find out how durable a Spartan's armor systems are to repeated percussive force."

Most Spartan IIIs weren't the most cowardly types. But a high-up UNSC officer looking like nothing short of the Covenant glassing Reach at that moment would stop any violent recourse was enough to even send Emile walking by at a pace a step too fast. That left Six alone to deal with the thunderous Vice Admiral, who bore down on her with fury written all over her face, in big fuckin' letters.

"Now, sis, I can explain-" Six began, holding up her hands, before Aqua cut her off.

"Explain what? That you're here instead of putting down Insurrection cells in the Middle Colonies? That I was pulled to do what a mythical Spartan couldn't? Or that you never called or wrote? Pick one." Aqua snarled.

Six sighed. She really hated when her older sister got like this. "Sorry, sis, but ONI was really strict about communications. Even when I was out, they kept an eye on me. We weren't permitted to talk about this to anyone. Hell, only Vice Admirals and above are the only ones to even know we're Spartan IIIs, not IIs." The spartan fiddled with an equipment pouch as she explained herself. "That a recent achievement?"

"Yes." Her sister replied shortly. Then she sighed. "Take off the damn helmet. I feel like I'm trying to reconnect to a robot." Six reached up and pulled the helmet off, short blonde tresses emerging from the protective headgear as she pulled the helmet off for the first time in years, became Terra instead of B312.

"You know how much of a pain in the ass getting that back in is, right?" Green eyes met gold as Terra griped about her hair. A small smirk appeared on Aqua's face.

"Hence why I keep mine short. Granted, it's been a while since ODST Commander, but old habits die hard." She shrugged. Then she wrapped her arms around the armored girl. "I missed you, Ter."

"And I missed you too, Sis." Terra gently returned the hug, trying not to crush her big sister with her enhanced strength. The two separated, now grinning. Aqua sighed as her communicator began to chime.

"That'll be Ignia on the Dawn. I have to go." She then punched the Spartan on the shoulder. "Write next time, okay?"

"I will." Terra answered before gathering up her hair and replacing her helmet. Six was back, where a girl had been. "Stay safe."

"It's the Covenant." Aqua snorted. "None of us are safe."

She'd be having a riot. For all ONI touted their creating sociopaths, they either overlooked or failed with my sister. Didn't stop her from doing her job damn well, but Steeles get it done.

I stood and made for the mess hall. It was a rather short walk, during which I glanced around at the station's greenery. It was obviously imported - there were no Terra apple trees on Formante - but the greenery spiced up the station enough to almost make me forget about it all. The last time I had spoken to my parents they had asked when they could expect grandkids. I said later. They asked why. I replied with 'I got a new assignment far away from any human reproductive organs, that's why.'

I was lost in thought as I entered the mess hall, only to notice Tenryuu and her charges standing, and saluting. Well, not the UNSC salute. If anything, it would be an IJN salute. A quick 'at ease' got them to sit back down and continue eating, as I got my food from Irako and came to jon them. Inazuma scooted over a bit as I sat next to her.

"So how's your first day here?" I asked after a quick taste of my beef sandwich - not eating half the thing like a starved animal after the first bite.

"Mmm, I like the target practice, but something else would be nice, I think." Akatsuki said. The rest nodded. Unanimous. I was breaking out the holoconsole tonight it seemed.

"I gotta say, I wasn't sure about ya. First thing I hear when I return is something about space and all that, then it turns out we are in space, then we're getting a 'United Nations Space Command' Admiral. It was a real big wakeup call." Tenryuu pointed at me with her knife. "But I like you. Didn't interfere in the practice. Never floated at my targets before, but I suppose that's what this is for." She pointed out her belt, which had a pair of thrusters like HALO packs on the sides. The rest of the girls had them too. "So far, so good."

"Good." I nodded, finishing the last bite of sandwich. Mamiya and Irako's cooking was far and away better than any Navy canteen slop I'd reluctantly digested when working my way up the ranks. The mess hall might be a decent eating place now. Then I dropped the big one.

"Are you actually ships?"

All of them were quiet, looking at each other as if asking the other to answer.

"Yes."

The blunt answer in Russian-accented Japanese had me glancing towards Hibiki. The destroyer for her part looked utterly unbothered by that. For me, I stood, walked to the store room, and grabbed the largest bottle of Jack Daniels I saw.

"I'm going to need this for this explanation." I dryly declared before twisting the cap off and upending the bottle. Three seconds of chugging later and I dropped it, the now two-thirds full bottle 'thunk'ing onto the table. "Do tell?"

"So, when our ship selves sank, we all just kind of went to sleep, nanodesu." Inazuma started. "Then we heard this call, and when we woke up, it was like this in a room."

"Magnificent." I droned, taking a swig. Tennessee may be flyover, but dammit if whiskey wasn't something they could do right.

"Then these guys came to talk to us in these odd uniforms. Said we were being transferred to here, from there. Then we got on this real big ship and into these tubes and it got cold and suddenly here we are." Ikazuchi picked up. "So why is it always night?"

I stood up, dropped my right hand on her shoulder, and gently guided her to a window.

"Look down." I said. She did.

"Wha! What's that?!" She cried.

"That is planet Formante, one in the…. What was it, Alpha Scorpii system? You're on a space station. That ship? A starship Phoenix Organization has. Tubes? Cryosleep tubes for slipspace travel. At least the Sangheili helped us get the travel time and accuracy better." I then drank again. "Welcome to the 26th century, and the United Nations Space Command. Wait. Didn't Tenryuu mention this earlier?"

"I did."

"We just finished fighting a genocidal alien cult collective ten years ago, and now we're out here fighting goddamn Great Old Ones or some shit." I polished off the bottle of whiskey and went to get a new one. "Life sucks."

When I did get my new one, I left the mess hall to check on my office, then turn in. I passed Ooyodo sitting at the desk outside the office -secretary, right- and saw nothing out of the ordinary. I bid her goodnight as I came out, then made my way past the barracks I now knew were shipgirl dorms to my quarters. I dropped the (now empty) bottle onto my desk, shucked off my clothes, and just flopped onto my bed, the pressure sensors dimming the lights for sleep.

The Rant

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell~o there!

So, this here's what I've been spending…. Some of my time on. I really wrote this in about a week. If that'll keep up, I dunno.

So why crossover KanColle and Halo? Well, I saw one that was done really well (For Earth and All Her Colonies, heavy recommend), with a Halo shipgirl in the KanColle verse, so I thought I could do the same in reverse! Sort of.

So I spent a weekend going over UNSC ship classes.

I made a list.

It will be provided next. Enjoy… or not.

AWAY!

Revision: Don't you just love updating the chapter and having to reformat it by hand? Fucking FanFiction, amiright