Time is the greatest enemy they say. It is time that returns one's body to the soil. When solid steel corrodes and disintegrates into tiny fragments that are absorbed by the earth. And all hope of achieving honor and glory is lost to the cold uncaring seas that close over her like a tomb, encasing her body in the depths. Chrysanthemum's child to never again see the light.

Or so it was believed. A crisis unfolding and a powerful enemy unlike anything her world has ever seen draws her out of the depths. The oceans that cover her have long since gone, burned away in the searing heat. Humanity has retreated underground, like the rodents that once scurried up her lines into her spaces. Seeking cover, almost never showing the sky their faces. And yet through it all there are some who resist showing her that the resilient spirit of humanity remains. She does not know when she is brought back, all she knows is she feels the life return to her ragged body. The last 254 years have not been kind to her. Her prison of ocean has given way to a prison of rock but in a way this is a refuge. It protects her from the war raging above, near constant fire raining down as her opponents try desperately to end her mission before it begins.

They must know the threat she poses to their supremacy even if she herself does not. She focuses her attentions inward and immediately notices the changes. The power that flows through her veins feels so right and so wrong that she cannot decide which is true. Her sensors alert her to danger, her sight enhanced by these modifications that adorn her frame. She sees the vessels approaching though they are unfamiliar she rightfully interprets them to be hostile. An assumption backed up when they start firing at her. She responds instinctively, correcting the list she has taken since she first became entombed on the seafloor. Old muscles stretch and joints creak and groan as the old battleship finds the strength to rise. She shakes off the protective covering of dried crust and sediment and turns to face her challengers. Her blood sang as her heart began to beat the melody of battle. She realizes she has left her element behind but battle is battle wherever it is fought.

She gathers herself. Those missiles are still inbound. She turns to engage and apparently her sight is not the only thing affected by these modifications as she uses her trusted main battery to destroy the challengers and their weapons. She does not recall previously having the ability to fire light. The brightness blinds her and for a moment she is disorientated, caught in the explosion. Then slowly, with her great bow shedding smoke, she emerges from the cloud. Another challenger stands in her way and she brushes it aside like a great buffalo might swat a fly. Once free and clear she dares a look behind her and immediately turns away. She cannot bear to see what has become of her home. "Oh great blue world what has become of you?!" She thinks. "Where are your fields of rolling green? The roiling seas that once carried me? The sakura petals that float on the wind in spring, their echoes with me doth ring." She stretches her neck and moves forward once again, marveling at the new element she is designed to travel in. "What must I do to restore you Terra my home? Must I travel far and wide through systems and worlds where danger must reside? I will gladly do so to bring home a cure. I am the last hope for the people living here."

She sets her sights past the enemy forces, a year's journey lie ahead of her. But she was not afraid. Her heart was filled with wonder at her new element and the excitement of discovery that surely lay ahead. There would be more of the thrill of battle. After all, she had kept the sharp fire of her main armament and, she felt, an even bigger weapon hidden within her. Her mission would not be like the one that killed her last. This would be a mission of mercy, to rescue a world succumbing to its fate far too early. But what they did share was the urgency. Time, her mortal enemy, was a major factor. Speed was a necessity and she sensed she was well equipped for that. It was time to go. She unleashed the power of her new engines and felt the thrum of adventure replace the thrill of battle in her veins. She did not look back again for the only course now lay ahead. Where she ended up it did not matter. What mattered was the voyage. She just had to complete it in time.

Farewell is the journey...