The Moon Dragon's Lair

LUNAR: The Lost Episodes

By Jeffrey C. Branch

Volume Twenty-seven: Episode 2-14.21 "Terrorism"

Rating: PG-13

City of Los Angeles, Planet Earth, Sol system, 8 February 2738

Jonathan Grant, Karmella and Sorcerer Spirit were surprised to find themselves staring at Sailors Ebony and Cerebra. For the two LISA agents, running into Senshi was the last thing they expected... or wanted.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Grant asked the women.

"Looking for you, Special Agent Edge," Sailor Ebony replied. The Senshi of Darkness was surprised to see a Sorcerer with the agents. She then turned to face Karmella who glared at her and Sailor Cerebra. "And your partner. The two of you left a pile of bodies behind in Philadelphia. We've been tasked with tracking you down to find out why."

"That's none of your fucking business, little girl!" the Isbanni woman snarled viciously.

"When the bodies in question are Dark Kingdom agents, that makes it our fucking business!" Sailor Ebony shot back. Her mood was still unsettled after what happened in Philadelphia with the Infiltrator, and the hostile attitude of the two agents was shortening her temper.

"What bodies?" a puzzled Spirit asked.

"Six DK agents were found murdered in Philadelphia," Sailor Cerebra calmly replied. She felt the tumult in Sailor Ebony and that concerned her. The Asian Senshi found herself worried about, and for Sailor Ebony, but she didn't know why. "They had been assassinated by these agents before coming here."

"Because they were out to kill us!" Grant replied testily. "We recently learned about a DK operation, and that put us on their hit list!"

"Judging from your surly attitude, I can see why!" Sailor Ebony retorted.

"Excuse me. I hate to break up this sterling repartee, but we have to get into space, and fast!" said Spirit. "A dozen DK agents just left here in a stolen shuttlecraft! They're going to launch an attack at Starbase One!"

"What is the target?" Sailor Cerebra asked.

"We don't know. It involves freeing some captives," Grant replied, annoyed with Spirit for revealing details of the mission to the Senshi whom he no longer trusted in the aftermath of the Eliana Charvat incident.

Hearing that, Sailor Ebony's eyes widened and a gasp escaped her lips as the realization set in all at once. "Captives? Serenity's Crown! The Slashers!"

"What about them?" Karmella wanted to know.

"Four captive Slashers were brought in on the Isis two days ago. That must be what the enemy's after!" said Sailor Ebony. The pieces of the puzzle had finally fallen into place, and the picture it painted was disturbing.

"Captive? As in alive?" said a wide-eyed and startled Spirit.

"Very much alive. They've been in cold storage at Skunk Works ever since they arrived here. Sailor Mercury's experimenting on those creatures to find their weaknesses," Sailor Ebony replied. "The enemy must be out to free those monsters before Sailor Mercury uncovers their secrets. Edge! Have you warned Sailor Uranus about the attack?"

"No. We think there's another mole at LISA. How else would the DK have known about that cargo?" said Grant. "We also suspect the enemy's monitoring our comms, if so, he'll warn that goon squad, and they'll rabbit to who knows where! We can't let that happen!"

"And it won't. We'll contact our superiors at HOMESEC. Our communications are secure," said Sailor Ebony in a confident tone.

Grant snorted from open derision. "Oh, really? Tell me something, honeybunch, just how secure were you bunglers on Christmas Eve when the Royals were nearly killed?"

The Senshi scowled dangerously at Grant. Much as Sailor Ebony hated to admit such a thing, but the LISA agent was right about the horrible incident at the Christmas Eve party. Something she tried to forget but couldn't. Sailor Cerebra shivered slightly from the force of her partner's anger.

"That's why we have to go after them instead!" Karmella snapped at the blonde Senshi. "If you've got a ship, then get us to Luna, or get the hell out of our way!"

"We have a ship, so that's no problem, save for your attitude!" Sailor Ebony snarled at the feline agent who hit mad buttons the blonde never knew existed. "Lady, I'd love nothing more than to fire a lightning bolt right up your Isbanni ass, but we need to get going and stop the enemy! C'mon!"

"By all means, dearie," said a now smirking Karmella. It pleased her no end to get under the skin of a Senshi. She had always despised how smug and arrogant Serenity's soldiers tended to be, as if they were above the common crowd, and the Isbanni agent took great delight in knocking them down a peg whenever she could.

As the group headed towards the HOMESEC shuttlecraft, which was at the far end of the shuttleport, Sailor Cerebra looked at Sailor Ebony, her lovely face lined from deep concern for her teammate.

"Beth..." she whispered, a note of anguish in her voice.

Starbase One, in high lunar orbit, Sol system, 8 February 2738

"SB-One Flight Control, this is Lima Charlie Sierra 0719, requesting clearance for landing," came a voice over the speaker in the base's flight control center. "Our transponder code is 5938-01121959. Please confirm."

Lieutenant Pete Mitchell, the duty officer in flight control, keyed in the transponder code he was given for authenticity and waited for the result to show up on his screen. A few seconds later, he got the following message:

LIGHTWAVE-CLASS EXECUTIVE SHUTTLE: LCS-0719

TRANSPONDER CODE: 5938-01121959

STATUS: VERIFIED

"Your transponder code has been verified, LCS-0719. What is the nature of your visit?" Mitchell asked.

"Delivering the CEO of Takeuchi Enterprises and her staff for a business meeting. Usual dull milk run stuff. Know what I mean?" said the pilot in a bored tone. A soft yawn was then heard.

Mitchell chuckled. "I do indeed. Flown a few of them myself. You're cleared to dock in bay 94."

"Bay 94. Roger that. And thanks. LCS-0719 out."

Maneuvering itself through the steady traffic of vessels arriving and departing the huge space station, the shuttle arrived at docking bay 94. Once the ship was secure in the bay and the engines shut down, the door whooshed open and twelve hard faced Caucasian men, dressed in navy blue jumpsuits sporting shoulder patches that read 'Starbase One Maintenance Staff' and carrying duffel bags silently filed out. The leader, his head shaven looked around him, and then smirked.

"Excellent. We got through. So much for Lunar security." The man removed a communicator from his breast pocket and keyed a button on it. "Trojan One to Trojan Prime. Are we secure?"

"You are, Trojan One. The scrambler's on and operating," came an electronically altered voice through the small speaker, making it impossible to determine the person's gender. "Are you in the station?"

"Affirmative. We just arrived. And that annoying obstacle ashore has been dealt with. What's the status of the captives?"

"One's been cut open, the rest are still on ice," said the voice in a low whisper. "Unknown if anything significant was learned by Mercury, but it's only a matter of time before that bitch discovers a way to defeat them. You'll need to move quickly on the assault. Do you copy?"

"Fully, Trojan Prime. Are you continuing to monitor the enemy's communications?"

"Yes. So far, the channels are quiet, so we still have the element of surprise. But that won't last long."

"I understand. We should arrive at the target area within twenty minutes. Trojan One out."

The bald man turned to stare at his companions. "All right, you have your maps. Split up, groups of three. Operation Pincer. Converge, surround, and then neutralize the guards. Any questions?"

"Is there any risk of our being discovered before we reach our objective?" one of the men asked.

"None. Like Trojan Prime, we're effectively masked from the GM's internal sensor systems thanks to our... appropriated physiology," the bald man replied. "Our primary goal is to free the captives, under no circumstances must they remain in enemy hands. Should liberating them prove difficult, we destroy them, and Skunk Works if possible. That's what the devices you have are for. Needless to say we're all expendable."

"Will we actually be able to get into the facility?" asked a second man. "It's certain to be heavily guarded after the incident with the Eurenak Doppleganger."

The bald man smirked. "Not to worry. The way has already been paved for us to get inside. Once we do, we raise hell. Is that clear?"

The other eleven men, silent as death, nodded.

"Move out."

After breaking up into four groups of three, the DK agents left the bay on their mission of mayhem.

Crystal Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 8 February 2738

Mercury Private Suite

Despite how rigidly analytical she was, Amy Anderson could never quite understand how some of her best scientific ideas came to her while making love to her husband.

Laying under white satin sheets on the large waterbed, Amy stared lovingly at Etan, asleep and softly snoring. The blue haired woman brushed a stray lock of hair from her husband's face and kissed him gently on his forehead. Despite being a Planetary, first and foremost, Amy was a woman, a woman with all-too human needs and desires that only her husband could satisfy.

"Thank you, beloved," she whispered fondly to Etan. "You never fail to inspire me."

Sitting up, Amy stretched like a cat before rising from the bed. After donning a baby blue silk robe over her naked body, Amy padded over to a corner of the master bedroom where her computer terminal was. Once there, Amy punched a few keys to bring up her notes on her examination of the Slasher. While her idea of using a neural disruptor to kill the fearsome creatures was a good one, Amy dreamed up an additional modification she felt would make her idea better.

"A kinetic disruption blast, based on Droylian technology, to penetrate the energy resistance, followed by the neural pulse to destroy the brain," she whispered while typing furiously on her keyboard. The more Amy thought on her idea, which came to her in the aftermath of a powerful orgasm, the more excited she became about it. "A perfect one-two combination that would ensure stopping the monsters dead in their tracks. Literally. Yes. This has great potential."

Booting up her personally designed 3-D CAD program, Amy painstakingly drafted the schematics for the blaster modification to be used against the Slashers. A broad smile spread across Amy's face while she worked. This was one of the times that the blue haired woman loved most: employing her mind to create new technology to better the people she served. Even though this particular technology would be used to kill, Amy knew the device would, in the long run, save lives.

After she finished, Amy leaned back in her chair and looked over the schematics she created and nodded appreciatively, liking what she saw. Glancing at the clock in the upper right hand corner of the monitor screen, which read 9:35, Amy decided to go to her labs and start work on her invention. Giddy like the schoolgirl she used to be centuries ago, Amy stood and hurried to the bathroom to shower. Overwhelmed by eagerness, Amy couldn't wait to get to Skunk Works.

Inbound for Luna, Sol system, 8 February 2738

"After the debacle with the Charvat imposter, I find it hard to believe that LISA could still be plagued by a mole," said Sailor Ebony, at the helm controls of the HOMESEC shuttlecraft as it sped towards Luna. "Sailor Uranus was said to have gone out her way to make sure that didn't happen again."

"And she had. Apparently, despite her best efforts, and ours, we've still got problems," said a scowling Grant, checking his supplies of shuriken throwing stars in the pockets of his fatigues. "And I don't like that in the least, people. I'm proud of working for LISA. The notion of another spy causing trouble in my organization makes me very, very angry."

"Regardless of your feelings, Agent Edge, I am not comfortable with the idea of our operating without sufficient backup," said Sailor Cerebra.

"That makes two of us, Sailor Cerebra, but, regrettably, our hands are tied," said Karmella. "If, as we suspect, our comms are being monitored, the mole will warn that assault team, and they'll scatter like roaches when the lights come on. And that dovetails right into something else about this situation that worries me much more."

"Like what?" Spirit asked.

"Those goons we saw boarding that shuttlecraft in Compton all carried duffel bags. I seriously doubt they had dirty laundry in them." The Isbanni woman turned to Grant. "You thinking what I'm thinking, Edge?"

Grant nodded. The same grim thought his partner had gnawed at him as well. "I'm afraid I do. Sabotage. Blowing Skunk Works to kingdom come would severely damage, if not cripple our scientific and research capabilities, potentially setting the GM back years, maybe decades."

"While giving the Dark Kingdom the leg up they badly need to bridge the sizeable technology gap we currently have over them," finished Spirit.

"Even worse would be what might happen if something goes wrong and those slugs are forced to abandon their plans," Grant added. "Imagine one dozen backpack bombs going off at Starbase One. The loss of life would be catastrophic. Running silent is our only option. Sailor Ebony, what's our ETA?"

"Nineteen minutes, tops. I've got the engines firewalled, and I've already alerted SB-One to give us clearance for emergency docking," the blonde Senshi replied. What she heard from Grant left her stomach tied in knots from worry.

"But the enemy's still got a huge head start on us," said an equally concerned Spirit. "Blast! If only there were a way to warn somebody without alerting the mole!"

"There might just be a way, Sorcerer Spirit," said Sailor Cerebra, her brows knitted as she mulled over the germ of an idea. Something she had tried only once before in practice with her father in the serene environment of her home. Whether or not what she had in mind would work under the duress of combat was another matter entirely.

"Please tell me you've got a plan," said Sailor Ebony, turning to face the Chinese Senshi.

"I believe I do, Sailor Ebony. But I do not know if my idea will work until we reach our destination."

Skunk Works, in high Lunar orbit, Sol system, 7 February 2738

Amy, dressed in a powder blue turtleneck and a pleated navy skirt was surprised to discover someone at a terminal in the technical library when she entered the main building.

"Valeris? What are you doing here at this hour?" she asked the young woman while removing her coat.

"Catching up on my reading, Dr. Anderson," said Valeris with a friendly grin. "I've been dying to go over your paper on Vulcan xenobiology for weeks but haven't had the time until now. It's really engrossing, ma'am!"

In spite of herself, Amy blushed. Even after over seven centuries, and all the accolades she had earned, the Planetary was still humble to a fault. "You flatter me. It wasn't that good."

"Oh, but it was! I enjoyed it a lot!" Valeris gushed. "If I may ask, Doctor, why are you here? More work on the creature?"

"Sort of. I believe I've devised a means of stopping the Slashers. Care to see what I've come up with?"

Valeris nodded, her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Most definitely."

Amy led the younger woman into her office and sat down at her terminal. After booting it up, the Planetary opened a downloaded copy of the schematic file for her experimental blaster modification she uploaded from her computer at home. Valeris arched an eyebrow as she took a long, hard look at the plans on the screen. "Fascinating," she said. "A kinetic, narrow-band disruption beam emitter coupled with a neural pulse array. Do you think it will work?"

"I'm positive that it will, Valeris. As long as you're here, would you like to assist me in the R & D labs with creating a mock-up of the device?"

"By all means, Dr. Anderson. I'd love to help you." There was an odd gleam in Valeris' eyes as she fingered an object in the pocket of her trousers. As Amy rose from her chair, her back to Valeris, the woman removed the object from her pocket, a small, box-like device with a tuning fork on one end. Valeris, a vicious, feral look in her eyes, shoved the fork hard into Amy's back and pressed a button on top of the device.

Amy screamed from pain as the device discharged a powerful jolt of electricity that surged through her body. Her eyes rolling back in her head, her clothes smoking from the charge, Amy collapsed. Standing over Amy's body, Valeris glared evilly at the blue haired woman for several long moments before kneeling to check for a pulse. Satisfied at finding one, and surprised at how strong it was, Valeris removed a communicator from another pocket.

"Trojan Prime to Trojan One. Come in," she said.

"Trojan One here. We're supposed to be operating under radio silence, Trojan Prime. What is it?" came a voice on the other end, annoyance clearly be heard in his tone.

"A problem. Sailor Mercury unexpectedly showed up. Fortunately, she was in human guise, so I was able to subdue her," Valeris replied. "As I feared, she came up with a way of stopping our bio-soldiers: a combination disruption-neural pulse emitter. And it looks like it could actually work. Should I kill her before you arrive?"

There was a pregnant pause before Valeris got her answer. "No. Destroy any information about her device, but keep the woman alive. We'll take her with us after freeing the captives. The Dark Kingdom Science Directorate would certainly enjoy picking Sailor Mercury's brain. Do you comply?"

"I do. I'll make sure she doesn't interfere with our operation."

"Good. We'll be there in fifteen minutes. Out."

Going into the hall, Valeris opened a first aid kit affixed to the wall and removed from it, a hypospray prefilled with septonodrine, a potent tranquilizer. Returning to the office, Valeris pumped the drug into Amy's carotid artery, keeping her unconscious before deleting the files for her invention.

"Now to sit back and wait for the fun to start," Valeris said with a wicked smirk.

The HOMESEC shuttlecraft docked at bay 25, the closest berth to Skunk Works. Sailor Ebony, Sailor Cerebra, Spirit, Grant and Karmella quickly filed out and went to the nearest viewport that gave them a clear view of the science facility. The fivesome saw no shuttles in the station's bays.

"The bad guys must've docked here, then gone to Skunk Works on foot," said Grant. "Sailor Ebony, do you know where the Slashers are being kept?"

"The sub-basement level. A cryogenic chamber was set up there to keep them in storage," Sailor Ebony replied. "I was part of the team that transported the creatures there from the Isis. Sub-zero cold is the only thing that can keep those horrors immobile."

Grant nodded from acknowledgement. "Tigress, scout ahead and get the lay of the land. Find out what those dirtbags are doing."

"You got it." Before the eyes of Spirit and the Senshi, Karmella morphed into her fearsome were-creature form. Neither had seen a Clan-warrior in the flesh before, and were startled at the menacing apparition before them. A soft, lengthy growl came from deep in her throat. "Don't be too long, or I won't leave you anyone to play with."

Silent as a ghost, Karmella took off, moving with all the speed of a cheetah, and was gone in the blink of an eye. Sailor Ebony couldn't help but shiver. "All things considered, I'm glad she's on our side."

"Amen to that," said Spirit. He then turned to face Sailor Cerebra, whose eyes were closed, her face creased and her teeth tightly clenched from intense concentration. "Sailor Cerebra? Is something wrong?"

Sailor Ebony whirled around to stare at the Chinese Senshi and a chill ran down her spine at the state she saw Sailor Cerebra in. Almost immediately, Sailor Ebony's eyes widened and her heart leaped into her throat, as she was afraid something had happened to her partner. "Sailor Cerebra? What is it? What's wrong? Speak to me!" she cried.

Sailor Cerebra's features softened and she opened her eyes. "There is no need to shout, Sailor Ebony. I am fine."

The Senshi of Darkness sighed from relief. Thank Serenity! I feared the worst! Li Mei, if anything were to happen to you... "What were you doing?"

"Attempting that idea I mentioned on the way here," said Sailor Cerebra. She felt the waves of relief emanating from Sailor Ebony, the feelings of sheer bliss nearly overpowered her. That only served to confirm Sailor Cerebra's suspicions about the blond woman. "But I do not know if it worked."

"If what worked?" Grant asked.

Before Sailor Cerebra could respond, Grant's communicator beeped. "Go!"

"I'm at the main entrance to SW. The guards are dead. Took a low power stun beam to the back of the head. Must've been the mole who offed them," said Karmella in a whisper. "The bad guys are only a few minutes ahead of me. I picked up their stench right away. Where's the target?"

"The sub-basement. Suddenly, I'm starting to wonder if our plant came from LISA after all. Don't wait for us. Kill anything that looks suspicious. We'll be right there."

"Roger that. Tigress out."

"Sailor Cerebra and I can get there fast," said Sailor Ebony. "We should also look for those backpack bombs you mentioned, Edge. If you're right, they'll use munitions as a last ditch option to destroy the creatures."

Grant nodded. "Good idea. See you in a few."

The Senshi rushed off in a burst of superhuman speed. Grant then turned to Spirit and smirked. "Still want to play with the big boys, Will?"

Spirit returned his best friend's grin. "Paleface, you couldn't get rid of me now if you tried! Let's go!"

The two armed guards posted at the entrance to the sub-basement level were puzzled to see Valeris exit the turbolift and walk down the hallway towards the guard post, her hands behind her back. The slow, steady click-clack of her high heels echoed eerily off the walls in the quiet stillness.

"Good evening, Ensign Valeris," said one of the guards, eyeing her suspiciously since the woman wasn't on the after hours access list for the sub-basement level. "Do you have a reason for being down here?"

"Yes. To kill you," Valeris said in a frosty tone. She produced a hand blaster from behind her back and expertly shot each man in the right eye at point blank range, blowing blood, skull fragments and brain matter on the wall behind them. "The coast is clear," she called over her shoulder.

The turbolift door opened and Trojan One along with five of the spies emerged and walked up to Valeris. The lead man nodded appreciatively at seeing the dead men. "Nice. How do we get inside?"

Valeris lifted the arm of one of the dead guards and used her blaster to sever the man's hand just above the wrist, showing no emotion while she did. She then placed the palm of the severed hand on the sensor pad in front of the door, and produced a microcomp, pressing a panel, a perfect recording of the guard's voice issued from it. The security computer recognized the guard with a soft beep. A green light flashed on the panel and a second later, the heavy double doors slowly opened, and lights automatically flickered on. "I hacked into the AI just enough to shut off its access to the Skunk Works," Valeris said. "It also won't sound any alarms."

Casually tossing the limb aside, Valeris led the six men inside the chamber. What the group saw in the middle of the chamber, were three large containers with glass doors that were frosted over from intense cold. Thick tubes ran from the bottom of each container to machinery than quietly hummed, maintaining a steady temperature of 30 degrees below zero. Trojan One walked up to one of the containers and wiped away the frost from the glass, and he saw the unmoving form of a Slasher.

"It's remarkable that the GM scum were actually able to capture the bio-soldiers," said Trojan One. He then turned to the woman at his side and gave her a hard, questioning look. "Do you know how they were able to accomplish that?"

"One of the Senshi, Sailor Persephone, was able to induce a coma in the creatures by shutting down their brain activity," Valeris replied. "That's what gave Sailor Mercury the idea for her neural emitter."

"Ominous; something for our scientists to consider for the next generation. Let's get to work freeing them."

Nodding, Valeris walked up to the control panel for the cryo-tanks and began the sequence to shut them down.

TO BE CONCLUDED...