The USN and USMC did not adopt the Krag-Jorgensen rifle, only the Army did. The Olympia should be using the M1895 Lee Navy rifle which the USN selected for itself and the USMC independently. If Olympia has small arms from the end of her career then the M1903 Springfield would have replaced it.
I'm aware of that, but the Krag's always been a favorite rifle of mine simply for being so odd. The various ships will have small-arms that did exist for their respective time periods and countries, but with a bit of leeway to allow for more individuality. After all, few of the most iconic firearms in history have been issued to Navies, or even Marines. So Olympia has Krag-Jorgensens for the same reason that Scharnhorst has a MP-38 /-40: Not because she was issued them historically (although for all I know the Kriegsmarine *were* issued such SMGs), but because that helps each ship stand out more than having just another near-identical bolt-action rifle.
Similarly, I've been a subscriber to Drachinifel since before he started using his own voice in videos; more than half of the non-Kancolle ships in this story owe their presence to his videos.
Out of curiosity, why have your seawolf be called "Anglerfish" instead of one of the three extant seawolfs? Also wondering how modern shipgirls and WWII ahip girls were in any way balanced. Exelent writing though
Out of curiosity, why have your seawolf be called "Anglerfish" instead of one of the three extant seawolfs? Also wondering how modern shipgirls and WWII ahip girls were in any way balanced. Exelent writing though
For the first question, note that the Abyssals in this story are very similar to ship-Spirits, with the main difference being that each Abyssal was a 'ship that never was.' That is, ships which were planned but never built, or never finished. So the three existing Seawolfs are not Abyssals, but the class was originally planned to be 29 ships...so there are 26 AbyssalSeawolfs.
To your second question (I'll get into more detail on it in the story at some point, but I'm also getting some of my thoughts on-paper here), ship-Spirits aren't 'balanced.' Ships from as far back as the late 19th century 'came back' during the Abyssal War, and had to fight Abyssal designs who stretched all the way up to Seawolfs (and probably Zumwalts, since their story is rather fun). No 'levelling effect' as is often there in Kancolle fics, no Oerlikons and Bofors suddenly being a match for Sea Sparrows when it comes to downing planes.
Ship-Spirits fight like the ships they were, with only two differences:
1) They can drop their steel-hull and 'shift' back to their Avatar at the drop of a hat, so a ship with ordnance incoming can become Human-sized and hope that it misses, if she thinks that relying on her armor and damage-control teams aren't the safer bet.
2) Ship-Spirits can fudge the 'rules' on what equipment and ordnance they ever sailed with a little. So, say, USN warships who sank early in WW2 can get radar sets that they never carried IRL; IJN warships can get that late-war Bofors copy that the Japanese never quite made enough of, etc. You won't have things like a Clemson four-stacker strapping CIWS mounts onto her deck, but it helps.
So that fighting went about as well as you'd expect. But ship-Spirits (both 'friendly' and Abyssal) 'respawn' rather quickly: a matter of weeks for a DD, up to only 2-3 months for a BB/CV (/CVN!). This is part of what made the Abyssal war so long: it was more akin to the grinding attrition warfare of WW1's Western Front than most naval warfare has ever been.
That also has bearing on the Reapers, and how KC and ME canon has been melded: Reapers aren't that much more powerful than ~2185-era Citadel-space dreadnoughts. Reapers don't care how often they are destroyed in battle; they can keep coming back, while (as will come up in the story soon) 'steel-hull' ships destroyed once the main Reaper host has arrived cannot come back as ship-spirits until after the 'Reaping' has finished.
Evidently, the Abyssal-Krogan marines that had been overrun thanks largely to Monitor's and Virginia's actions had been a rear-guard of sorts. With them out of the way, the Normandy ground team encountered only scattered teams of more gremlins as they pushed deeper into the Turian facility. Groups of four-to-five Abyssals, Krogan or not, were very quickly subdued by a pair of Spectres supported by a squadron of ship-Spirits and a Hierarchy maniple.
But that left the obvious question: why were these Abyssal foot-soldiers split up that way, into centri-cred packets that were of no real combat use?
"They're searching for something." Answered Shepard, before Mallex even voiced his own thoughts. "Looks like the Councilor's team has gone to ground. Would explain why we haven't been able to reach them."
"Should we split up as well, then, sir?" asked Lexington. "Find them before these Krogan?"
The senior Spectre shook his head, helmet visor flashing in the harsh lighting of the hallway. "We clear out these hostile Abyssals first and foremost. These penny-packet teams of theirs aren't going to overrun Quentius and his bodyguards before we'd hear the shooting and move to their rescue."
"Sounds right to me, sir."
Mallex nodded along – the Turian Councilorship came with a squad of Blackwatch operators as protection – each one a veteran of years of hard combat and harder training. Spirits, Shepard was one of the few Humans around who'd matched talons — so to speak — with a Blackwatch veteran, and in the end Saren had only died by suicide after holding off Shepard and his team nearly one-handed.
However, after another half-hour of wandering ever-further from Menae's surface, and two more Gremlin fire-teams overrun, Mallex was starting to get anxious. Had they already gone past where the Councilor's team had hidden themselves?
This time, he was the first one to voice what he was pretty sure everybody was thinking. On a private channel to Shepard, Mallex asked "There's not much more of the facility further down than us now, sir. Should we double back and make sure we haven't passed them?"
The armored Human glanced briefly over his shoulder, before leading the team into the next large room. "Everyone, take two." He gestured for Ashley to follow him aside, while the rest of the Humans used their own ways of working the accumulated stress of deployment out of their systems.
Although he had been among them for only a few days now, Mallex certainly felt the difference in the Normandy's ground team now that Tenryuu and her four destroyers were detached to guard over the injured ironclads. No adorably-earnest straightening of hair or eager conversation. Instead, Surcouf and Olympia puffed away on cigarettes while the rest of the squadron leaned against the large crates which dotted the room, or against the walls. Well, most of the rest of the squadron; Anglerfish called up her omni-tool and was tapping away at it, lost to the world.
Mallex stuck close to Ashley and Shepard, of course. No matter how many personal-interest stories could be written about the various ship-Spirits, the galaxy's most-famous Spectre was a more interesting subject.
Shepard doffed his helmet, and brushed back matted fur from his face. Lowering his head and putting one finger to his ear to indicate that he was speaking via radio, the Spectre said "Normandy, do you have a—"
"Commander!?" shouted a voice from Mallex's left. Away from the rest of the group.
A two-toned Turian voice.
Speaking English.
A blur of movement was all the warning Mallex had before he was knocked aside as someone charged past him and tackled Shepard, moving so quickly that Mallex was surprised by the lack of a biotic glow.
"It is you!" The Commander was pressed against one wall by a Turian woman who held him in a tight embrace, head pressed to his lower chest and mandibles splayed wide in ecstatic happiness. Instead of a combat hardsuit, she wore an Alliance officer's uniform awkwardly cut and re-sized to fit her angular frame.
Mallex's rifle was half-raised on instinct before his mind could catch up and put two and two together. Turian woman, in Alliance uniform, speaking English, and in a Hierarchy facility that was set-up to summon ship-Spirits.
At his side, Ashley slung her rifle over her shoulder, evidently on the same page. "Normandy." It was not a question, and there was an audible smile in her voice.
"Gunny!" Just like that, the blur was back as Normandy bounced off of Shepard and hugged Ashley just as tightly. "I knew you guys would find me!" The first Turian Spirit whom Mallex had met in-person barely came up to Ash's shoulder. Now that he could get a closer look at her, she seemed barely old enough to head off for basic training; her fringe still bobbed slightly as her head moved, not yet as solid as those of an adult.
A young Spirit, then. Not too surprising, given the short career of that first Normandy, no matter how eventful it was. It also made the child-like glee in her voice all the more expected as she raised her head and shot a glare into the shadowed corner of the room. "See? I told you they would make it! Commander always succeeds!"
Mallex followed her gaze in time to see a handful of shadows separate themselves from the crates and step into the light. Turian shadows. His omni-tool beeped as several new contacts linked themselves to the local friendly-forces tracking net.
Two were no less shadowy in the light, covered fringe-to-feet in the matte-black armor that gave the Blackwatch their name. Even their visors seemed to absorb light as much as reflect it. They stood still as statues except for a slight nod of the head to the third, who stepped forwards. His blue-and-black armor was clearly battle-worn, and not all of the divots and grooves were freshly-carved.
This non-Blackwatch operator shook his head and spoke. "I should have known to listen to her. But we really should stop meeting like this, Commander." He removed his own helmet, revealing the scarred face of Garrus Vakarian.
Shepard, grinning, stepped up to his old friend and the two clasped hands. "Can't say I know what you're talking about. Bottled up in a warehouse, under siege by Krogan? Doesn't ring a bell."
Ashley elbowed the senior Spectre, adding, "Sorry about that; he's been missing too many of the old crew these last few months. Joker's had too much of an influence, I'm afraid."
"Oh!" Normandy burrowed her way into the group and stood in front of Shepard, head craned back to look up at him. "Is Joker here? I want to talk to him!" She hooked a thumb over her shoulder at Vakarian in a very Human gesture, awkwardly contorting her hand. "This meanie hasn't told me what happened to everyone, but I just know that they've done great things after—" her voice cracked, and she swallowed before continuing. "After, uh, that. And stuff."
Shepard idly patted the small Turian on her shoulder. "We'll have time to catch up later, on the No—" The Commander caught himself, before flashing a smile at the first Normandy. In a much softer voice than normal, he said "Well, it's a surprise!"
"Ooh! I love surprises! A good scout frigate finds all the surprises, so nobody else has to!" She put one hand on her hip, and jabbed a finger overhead for emphasis. Shepard, seemingly unable to resist the cuteness, patted her on the head. Normandy — Normandyone, as Mallex would have to start differentiating the two — melted into it, her subharmonics humming her happiness for all to hear.
Behind the happy reunion, the two Blackwatch operators were joined by another pair who emerged from behind a crate. One was another of their detail, while the last — "Sir!" Mallex snapped his hand up in a salute. The Councilor may technically stand outside of the Hierarchy's command, well, hierarchy, but he was still one of those people that merited the proper response.
"As you were." The Hierarchy's recently-appointed representative to the Council answered in a weary voice. Turning to the two Spectres, he continued, "I am glad to see that you made it through the forces besieging us. Even with Agent Vakarian's unexpected success," he nodded to Normandy, "we were rather hard-pressed and forced into constant withdrawal from the upper levels." Without a helmet, the Councilor's face was easy to read as his mandibles clacked together grimly. "These Reapers—"
The emphasis on that word triggered Normandy to reach over and, in a massive breach of decorum for one of the four most powerful people in Council Space, grabbed both of the Councilor's hands and hold them down. One of the Blackwatch operatives reached forwards briefly, before catching himself as Normandy indignantly exclaimed "Hey! No finger quotes!"
"I—" Councilor Quentius's brow-plates rose in confusion, while one mandible twitched, belying the smile that he held back. "Ah, yes. As I was saying, these very-serious Reapers are more 'diverse' in their soldiers than was anticipated. Menae has not seen an assault by Krogan in many centuries."
"And they're jerks! Not nice like Uncle Wrex!"
Mallex blinked in surprise, trying to reconcile a young Turian's mention of her 'Uncle Wrex' with the contentious figure of Urdnot Wrex. Unifier of Tuchanka — for good or for ill, depending on whom in Council space one asked.
An autocratic philosopher-king leading his people to a brighter future, or the grim herald of a second Rebellion.
But not 'nice.'
"We pushed past their rear-guard faster than they likely expected, Councilor, thanks to some of our specialists." Shepard gestured towards the ship-Spirits, who were crowded together and glancing curiously at the newcomers for all that they kept a polite distance from the conversation.
Normandy quickly brought her head around, seemingly only now noticing her fellow Spirits. "Oh! New people!" She darted off.
Mallex's helmet chirped in his ear once more, as Ashley opened a private channel. "So cute!"
The reporter glanced between his bondmate-to-be and the child-aged Turian Spirit, and sighed ruefully for all that he also let a smile break out onto his face. He had a feeling that he and Ash would be having the 'children talk' sooner rather than later.
While he had been distracted, Shepard had been talking with the Councilor. "—might have been driven off already. As we reach the upper floors, we'll check with orbital support and make sure the way out is clear. If needed, we can call down a barrage on the Reaper, now that all of the eezo upstairs is gone."
Mallex blinked in surprise, which faded to annoyance. He hadn't thought to scan the crates as he passed them after the summoning-pool firefight, although he should have. But then again, anybody accepted into the Spectres was someone who kept their thoughts about them even in the thickest of combat.
"M'sorry." Came Normandy's voice as she called over one shoulder from where she had tightly attached herself to Dr. T'Soni's side. "I was hungry."
Yudachi giggled. "Normandy-chan ate all that? Akagi-san has competition!" Her laughter only redoubled as the frigate buried her face in the Asari's side, mandibles visibly twitched in embarrassment.
" 'm not fat!" she responded, before glancing down at herself and tilting her head to one side. Normandy then looked up and back at Garrus. "Hey, can Turians get fat? I don't think I've ever seen one!"
Mallex made certain that his camera caught the utterly flummoxed look on the former detective's face. "Uh…"
Shepard evidently decided to cover for his old friend, loudly announcing "All right everyone, break's over. We've got our VIPs — and one extra — so now we retrace our little stroll. Keep your guns ready and your eyes down-range; chances are that there's more of those Gremlins still out there."
<> <> <>
As it turned out, only a single last encounter was had with the Abyssal Krogan. The four Gremlins, rather lost-looking by this point, barely got a few scattered shots off before Shepard charged forwards, channeling his biotics into a powerful wave that reduced one unfortunate marine to a shredded corpse and sent the remainder flying in disarray. Rifle-fire picked them off before they could regain their feet or crawl into cover.
The expedition paused for another break as they passed the summoning-pool. Shepard fiddled with his omni-tool in an attempt to break through the still-present jamming, while Normandy wandered off to the eezo crates, checking each one in turn. Apparently confirming that they were all empty, the youngest Spirit eventually sat down on the edge of the pool, legs swinging to and fro as she gazed down into the water. Mallex was close enough to catch the faint tune that she was humming, albeit with her subharmonics losing the rhythm and going off on their own occasionally, as happened to most Turian fledglings.
He shook his head. Now he understood all of the references he'd found in Human records to the eerie nature of many of the younger ship-Spirits and Abyssals. Normandy looked young enough that she should still be hiding behind her parents' legs at public events, just barely finishing her pre-Basic schooling. Playing games with friends in parks and fields, not marching through a corpse-strewn battlefield along with a team of Blackwatch elites.
Spirits, was this how it felt for Ashley to look at the likes of Akatsuki and her sisters? He knew that they were supposed to be among the youngest-looking ship-Spirits, but Mallex hadn't yet gotten the hang of estimating a Human's age. At least the older ones were easy to tell, with their greying fur and creases showing up everywhere. He remembered what had happened that one time when he'd asked Ash if Human women at least were like Asari, where you could take a rough guess at their age by their chest-size: the larger, the older.
He'd slept on the couch, that night. He still wasn't certain what he'd said wrong, so he hadn't revisited the conversation since.
Shepard, at least, was all business. "—nfirm no enemy presence above-ground, Joker?"… "I'm sure he did. Tail between his legs, you say? Sounds like she's earning her keep, up there."
Ah. By the sound of it, Destiny Ascension and Warsaw were getting revenge for their destruction only two short years ago. The Trebia system may have been crowded with warships right now, but a vessel of Destiny's scale tended to stand out in a crowd, so to speak.
Eventually, Shepard quipped one final response to the Normandy — Normandytwo — and turned to the group. "Coast is clear; we're heading up."
"A moment, Spectre." Councilor Quentius spoke. He gestured to the Hierarchy maniple that had been tagging along with the Normandy team — if largely unneeded, in the end — and said, "I will remain here, and see what can be done to bring more Hierarchy-built ships… 'back.'" His mandibles flicked an indulgent smile at where the young Normandy was talking with Scharnhorst, and then gestured to Vakarian. "I believe that we have enough of an understanding of the process, now, to spare the services of our ship-Spirit expert. I believe that he will be more useful to us all as part of your crew, once more."
Before Shepard could answer, the hyper-active frigate butted into the conversation once more and latched onto Vakarian with the same limpet-like determination that she had shown earlier. "Yay!" As her forehead audibly clanged into the former-detective's armor, she added a dull "Ow."
Even while Ashley raised one hand to cover her warm smile, a quick shake of the head was apparently enough to get the frigate back on-track. The child-like frigate looked up at Councilor Quentius, and spoke to one of the most powerful people in the galaxy with all the bluntness of someone of her apparent age. "Oh! I forgot to say – I tried to wake up some of the other ships that I went past when Da— uh, when Garrus called. But they were too sleepy and didn't wake up. But I left the lights on when I left! So they'll wake up soon, I know it!"
The Councilor looked back at her, puzzled. "You…left the light on?"
"Yeah! It's really dark in, uh, there, so I thought that maybe they would sleep in if nobody turned on the lights!" She separated from Garrus, and dropped her gaze to her feet as she shuffled them slightly. "I tried to pull them out of bed, but they were so big!" She looked back up and held her hands out wide, which would barely reach across an adult Turian's shoulders. "But I'm a scout frigate, so I know it's my job to mark the way for everybody to follow, so I left all the doors open and lights on from my bed to this pool! I know they can follow it!"
Shepard asked "And these were Turian Spirits?"
"Oh!" Normandy looked down at her freshly-summoned Avatar once more, running one talon along her other arm. "Uh, I think they were? I wasn't really sure what was going on, and it was dark at first, and they were kinda scary, and—"
Garrus cut her off, which was probably a kindness. "You did good, Normandy." He set one hand on her shoulder, which caused the young warship to beam a blindingly-bright smile and re-attach herself to his side.
Meanwhile, the Councilor shook himself. "Well, as I said, it seems likely that we will have more allies here, soon." He reached out one hand and shook first Shepard's and then Ashley's own in the Human style. "Thank you and your team for your prompt assistance, Spectres. I believe that we part ways here."
"Councilor." Shepard inclined his head, followed by the more-junior Spectre. For all the famous friction between Humanity's first Spectre and the former Councilor Sparatus, it seemed that he had warmed to the Hierarchy's new man on the Council. It probably helped that Quentius had apparently taken Shepard's warnings more serious than had his predecessor, for all that he managed to keep it secret enough that Mallex had not even heard a whisper of Hierarchy experiments at ship-Spirit summoning.
The march back up the rows of auditorium seating facing the summoning-pool saw the Normandy-2's team meet up with Tenryu and her four charges, who immediately swarmed over the newest recruit. The heartwarming sight of the resulting pile of small ships struck at a nerve deep in Mallex's soul, for all that he would be loath to admit that to Ash.
He had the image of the 'Stalwart Turian' to maintain, after all. All 'stiff upper lip' as the Humans would say, which rather gave him an advantage in light of the dense plates that grew both above and below a Turian's mouth.
A pity that Ashley knew how to read the actual emotional signs on the Turian face.
Shepard cleared his throat, breaking up the storm of 'nanodesu' this and 'khorosho' that. "It sounds like things have been wrapped up, topside. There's enough of an opening in the space-side battle for Nor— Joker to get shuttles through, but get aboard quickly and leave nothing behind."
Really, it was more of the sort of address one would give to new recruits coming back from their first field-exercise. But given the various characters on the Normandy-2's ground team, spelling out the basics that way was probably a good idea.
"Oh! Okay, wait one second!" the younger — well, younger-looking, for all that she was years older than the second — Normandy spun on one heel before running to the edge of the seating area. She raised her left arm, and an omni-tool-esque display popped up. The young Spirit took several photos of the summoning pool as well as the Councilor and his bodyguards before returning to the party. "Okay, now I'm ready!"
<> <> <>
Mallex made very sure to get into the same shuttle as both Shepard and the first Normandy. He knew a scoop when he saw one, and the public had ate up stories about that Normandy's exploits even before she 'came back' as an adorably-energetic child.
The frigate in question disdained the bench seating, instead wandering around the crowded interior of the Kodiak, mandibles wide in wonder. "It looked so small in my hangar…" Eventually, she ended up standing in front of Shepard. "Hey, Commander, I saw the letters on the outside." She pressed her nose in close to the seated Spectre's face, grinning like the child she was, but as if years' worth of birthday parties were all happening at once. "Does 'SR2' mean what I think it does!?" Her voice was giddy with excitement. "Do I have a sister!?"
Shepard smiled and held up one finger for a pause, before tapping a few commands into his omni-tool. The tac-screen along the front of the Kodiak's passenger compartment now changed to display a video feed, presumably from a front-facing camera on the vehicle. "You'll see."
"Oh! SPACE!" Normandy climbed up onto the bench and stood next to Shepard, the top of her crest just level with the top of Shepard's head where he sat. From his seat, Mallex had the perfect image of the child-like frigate gazing wondrously at the view.
For several minutes, the compartment was silent as nobody wanted to interrupt the sheer happiness writ large upon Normandy's small face. In the end, she was the one to break it as the silver speck in the center of the display started to acquire the outline of Normandy-2. "Oh! Ooh, is that her? Is that my sister?" She asked without turning her head. "She's kinda…big."
Shepard turned around to send a meaningful glance at Vakarian. After a few seconds, the former C-SEC detective cleared his throat and stepped forwards from where he had been leaning against the wall. "Ah, the Alliance built two more frigates to your design, with some small changes. If I remember right, they called them Ain Jalut and Waterloo." He stumbled slightly on the alien words, but then Mallex wasn't the one to ask if the names had been pronounced correctly.
"That's so cool! But, uh, how big were those changes? She looks pretty different from here…"
Apparently getting deeper into his new role, Vakarian answered slowly. "Well, that ship is not one of your sisters. But…" he delayed, getting the timing almost perfectly as the name written in large letters across Normandy-2's flank came into view around the swell of her hull, "she is a 'Normandy'?"
"I HAVE A DAUGHTER!?" screamed the Alliance's first Normandy, the uncontrolled subharmonics of an over-excited child clawing at Mallex's eardrums. "I HAVE A DAUGHTER!" The frigate leaned in so close to the image that she audibly clunked her head against the display, before collapsing down to sit on the bench, staring at the wall, head tilted to one side in confusion. "I have a daughter?"
Vakarian chuffed a laugh, and the Spirit spun in her seat and looked between him and Shepard. "Wow, the Alliance really worked fast, huh?"
"Ah." Was the Spectre's only reply, as he visibly struggled on how to respond.
'Ah,' indeed. His fights against Cerberus during Shepard's tenure as the Commander of the first Normandy were well-known. It was likely that the frigate held no love for the rogue organization, bordering on outright terrorism as they did.
"Oh. Was she build in the Hierarchy?" Two eyes peered closely at Shepard as he floundered, and with a very un-childlike focus. Normandy-1 then reminded Mallex that she was a recon frigate, and for all that her stealth systems had stolen most of the attention she did have a very oversized sensor suite. "Okay, not Hierarchy. Uh, Republics? I guess they might do something like that…no?" Hesitantly, she asked, "The…Migrant Fleet?"
This time, the look that Shepard shot at Vakarian was less 'do your bit' and more 'save me!' So the former detective did his best to soften the blow. "Well, Normandy, it turned out that there were many different groups trying to build their own, uh, Normandies. Some of them governments, and some of them, uh…" his subharmonics were loudly broadcasting his awkward uncertainty and embarrassment to anyone with ears.
Normandy-1 slouched back against the wall, brow-plates coming together with a click as she thought. After a few seconds stretched into a longer, embarrassed silence, she suddenly let out a breath. With a weariness that belied her small frame, the formerly-ecstatic frigate let out a faint "Cerberus."
Apparently her mind was certainly sharp, no matter her apparent youth. It would have been eerie had the pouting slant of her mandibles not been so Spirits-damned cute.
"Cerberus." Answered Shepard. "They built her, and they re-built me."
"They…built you?" Some energy returned to the Normandy-1 as she looked up in confusion. "But you got away. I know you did. I felt it, even through the— through the pain."
Ah. From her destruction, by the Collectors.
"I…didn't get away, Normandy. I…died. Over Alchera."
A wordless cry escaped the small frigate as she reached over and hugged the Spectre, so tightly that Mallex swore he heard the Commander's armor creak in protest. "I'm So-o-o-ry!" wailed the Spirit.
Shepard brushed his thumbs against her cheeks, evidently forgetting that Turians lacked tear ducts. But Mallex could see Normandy's inner eyelids flickering back and forth in an instinctual display of abject sorrow.
Ashley stepped past Garrus, and sat on the other side of Normandy from Shepard. She leaned over and embraced the frigate, running one hand along her fringe repeatedly. "It's okay, Normandy. You got almost everybody to safety. You lasted much longer than a ship of your size should have, getting ambushed by a cruiser out of nowhere like that."
"But I shouldn't have gotten surprised at all! I'm a stealth ship! I don't get ambushed! But I did, and everybody died!" For all her perceptiveness earlier, she now was the classic child: inconsolable upon discovering that they'd accidentally but innocently given the family pet food that ended up being poisonous to them.
But she was crying over the death of military servicemen; the whole situation was downright unsettling.
Ashley spoke very softly. "But lots of people lived thanks to you, Normandy. Garrus lived, and Tali lived, and Liara lived, and Joker, and Doctor Chakwas, and—"
"I couldn't save Jenkins, and then Kaidan, and, and—" Normandy descended again back into incoherent sobbing.
This time, several of the other Spirits stepped forwards. In fact, almost all of those in this Kodiak did. Surcouf, and Ikazuchi, Inazuma, Scharnhorst, the whole crowd. They crouched down in front of the wailing warship, and sat on the edge of the bench next to her. All as the hangar loomed in the camera feed, ignored.
"You can only do your best, nanodesu. And you did!"
"Yeah!" added Inazuma's sister. "E-every ship can do her best to be dependable, but sometimes that's not enough! But it's not the ship's fault! It's not your fault!" Scharnhorst nodded grimly. "We are warships, young Normandy. We are built for battle, for fighting. Every person we lose is a tragedy, but they knew what they signed up for. And your crew even more so, better than it was for us."
Normandy managed to fight back her sobs enough to squeak out a single word. "Oh?"
"Ja. Your crew knew that you were a living person, with much more certainty than even my most-devoted men. They knew that some part of them would live on as part of you, kleine Fregatte. And they do."
"Hey!" added a small voice, as if waiting for her cue. Normandy halted mid-sob, staring down at the procession of fairies that strode out onto her shoulder as if at a Naval review. One stood out, dressed in an impressionistic caricature of an Alliance Lieutenant-Commander's uniform. "Hey!" she repeated.
Mallex frowned, for all that the sight was fascinating. To the best of his knowledge, XO Pressly had looked nothing like this small figure, save for the uniform. But then, from his readings he had learned that only very few ships returned with fairies that closely resembled any of their prior crew. The official conclusion, agreed upon by Humanity's Spirit-speakers and religious authorities, was that a ship-Spirit's fairies each held a part of the spirit of one of her crew, but were not a full rebirth of that person.
That hadn't been enough to keep the Alliance from all-but-officially advertising Naval service as a path to 'immortality,' and from how outsized that navy was for the Alliance's size it seemed to be working.
"I—" whatever the consensus, Normandy seemed taken with the sight as dozens of fairies saluted her in unison. "I—" Her nictating membranes were flickering back-and-forth over her eyes at an ever-increasing pace. Apparently giving up on vocalizing her answer, she slumped against Shepard's shoulder, eyes drifting closed.
"Hey?" asked another fairy, walking forwards and prodding at Normandy's jaw with one pudgy arm. "Hey."
"Ah, asleep." Shepard nodded, careful not to shift the sleeping frigate. In a hoarse whisper, he added, "Well, back aboard you go, then."
"Hey!" Normandy's fairies whispered as they saluted Shepard, waving farewell at him as they filed away into the various folds of the ship's formal uniform.
The assembled crowd of Spirits dispersed back to their seats around the other benches in the Kodiak just in time for the hatch to hiss open. The hangar outside was empty, save for an EDI avatar standing right outside the Kodiak, her normally-subdued face alight with happiness that slowly faded to worry as she gazed at her 'mother.'
Shepard and Ashley exchanged a glance, before Shepard carefully draped Normandy-1 across both hands and stood up.
Mallex suspected that the Commander had planned a more cheerful meeting between the two Normandys. But as the ancient Father of the Hierarchy had said so many millennia ago, 'No plan survives contact with reality.'
At least the sight of Shepard gingerly carrying Normandy off of the Kodiak and towards the elevator without a word was a rather tranquil end to what had become a rather draining expedition.
In the shuttle behind him, Mallex heard Tenryu proudly proclaim — albeit in a tired, subdued voice — "Ya did good, girls." He didn't need to look over his shoulder to know that the light cruiser had enveloped all four of her charges in an embrace likely just as tight as Normandy's death-grip on Shepard's shoulder, earlier.
Mallex stepped off the shuttle along with Ashley, who gestured for EDI's avatar to walk with them as they set off towards the briefing room for the post-mission summary.
I hope Normandy-1 turned out all right; this is my first time trying to write a character that young. After all, the Akatsuki sisters may or may not look as young as they do in KC by now, given that they each have many years of life during the Abyssal War. Actually, I think I'll go ahead and add ~10 years to the apparent-ages of each ship who fought in the Abyssal War, so that Akatsuki actually is that much closer to being a proper elephant elegant lady instead of a cute child.
However, I couldn't think of a good reason to write Normandy as anything other than a young child. In canon, she was in service for much less than a year, from her maiden voyage to Eden Prime to her demise over Alchera. She was also noted as being well on the small size for an Alliance Frigate. But in her short life, she certainly got a lot done; so here she's a rather hyperactive young child.
That said, I do feel kinda bad for making a (fictional) kid like Normandy cry. Poor girl had a bit of a rough ending, there at the start of ME2.
Regarding the 'Asari ships have holes through the middle' design, general fanon consensus is that Bioware were making a gender-related comment about how, as a purely female species, Asari ship designs would trend towards the yonic, as opposed to the male-dominated human norm of phallic. There is no canon answer as to what exact purpose the hole was supposed to serve because it was most likely an artistic decision first and foremost, and more than a few people have pointed out that Asari ship designs look superficially similar to female genitalia in much the same way that normal human rocket\ship\aircraft\etc designs look superficially similar to male genitalia.
In short, Asari ships have holes through the middle because vaginas. (And Reapers are tentacle monsters. Now you know why the Destiny Ascension never stood a chance.)
