"LUNAR: Tales From Crystal Tokyo"
LUNAR:
Tales From Crystal Tokyo
By
Daryll Pung
Episode
2-04: No Pain, No Gain
Rated:
R
In
the Alpha Zone, in deep space, 3 December 2737
The
SLS Panther
Sailor Magneta stood in her ready room, arms crossed, glaring out of the
window. Her white hair drifted down
her back, and her crystal blue eyes smoldered.
She was obviously quite angry.
The reason?
The Panther was still essentially a hulk in space.
The attack that had knocked out her engines and shields had also fried
all systems associated with them. The
shields were almost done, but engines wouldn't be back online for several days.
Even though she had managed to fight the enemy off by causing an intense
magnetic field to begin crumpling the enemy ship, she wasn't happy.
The Hawk had been destroyed, and her own ship heavily damaged, and
the enemy had gotten away.
The RSN certainly didn't need this, particularly here in the Alpha Zone.
She gritted her teeth. Unfortunately,
as soon as they could move, the Panther had to report to a drydock; she
was too heavily damaged to be useful out here.
At times like this, Sailor Magneta wished she could kill something.
Skunk
Works, in orbit of Luna, Sol system, 4 December 2737
Archmage Ereunak paused as he glanced around the corner.
It had really been quite easy to get in to the Skunk Works, which was the
nickname of the Royal Star Navy Research and Development Directorate.
He had simply placed the guards asleep, and used his blaster to knock out
the surveillance system.
He remained suspicious of further defenses, but wasn't seeing any.
He moved into the study area primarily utilized by Sailor Mercury, and
her immediate development team. He
knew this included Derrelli, and he was after Derrelli's engine enhancements.
It didn't take too long to find what he was looking for, and he was so
engrossed in acquiring it that he almost didn't hear the voices until it was too
late.
Shit! he thought, ducking down.
As he did so, lights came on in the area; he suddenly realized that the
entire fucking ceiling was a sensor grid.
He clenched his teeth.
How the hell was he gonna get out of here with the chip containing the
information he had just downloaded? He
ducked under the desk, and drew his blaster.
No way were they taking him alive!
He could hear the searchers as they drew closer.
With a faint grin, he moved from under the desk and stood up.
"Archmage Ereunak? What
are you doing here?" asked one of the searchers.
"Oh, just... borrowing something," he grinned evilly, raising
his pistol and nailing the lead one in the chest with the beam.
He toppled over, lifeless. The
other one blinked in shock before training took over; Ereunak barely dodged the
retaliatory shot.
"This is going to be interesting," Ereunak muttered as another
blast almost took his head off.
Then he smiled a singularly unpleasant smile.
Crystal
Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 4 December 2737
"I wonder what sort of artifacts we'll discover?" mused Hoshi
as she and Talia strolled down the corridor, freshly departed from a briefing.
They had just filled in Her Highness as to the nature of their dig; for
something as potentially as important as this, she needed to know.
The casually dressed Hoshi, clad in a white t-shirt and jeans, with a
long ponytail hanging out of the back of her red cap, glanced at the more
formally clad Vulcan beside her. "What
do you think?" asked Hoshi as two Sorcerers abruptly raced by, in a hurry.
Talia raised an eyebrow.
"There are many possibilities," replied Talia.
"The sword Excalibur, the Holy Grail... it is true many legends
place these things elsewhere, but no where else on Earth has this sort of
magical shield been duplicated. It
is literally the last unexplored locale on the planet."
Archmage Torym rounded a corner, and noted the enthusiastic discussion
between the two. He wandered over. "Why
are the two of you so excited?" he wondered.
"Anticipation of our upcoming dig," replied Hoshi with a slight
smile.
"Oh," Torym said, in a bored tone.
He really didn't find their particular specialties that interesting...
He shrugged, and made polite conversation.
"So, where is it?"
"On Earth," began Hoshi. "Specifically,
Avalon."
Avalon? Where had he heard
that name before... no way. "Avalon?"
Torym repeated, incredulously. "As
in King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table?"
"That's it," chuckled Hoshi.
Whoa, thought Torym. "Can
I tag along?"
Hoshi looked surprised, and Talia raised an eyebrow.
They shared a look.
"You?" queried Hoshi. "Since
when are you interested in the archaeological sciences?"
Talia examined him carefully. "My
companion has established an excellent point.
What is your interest in Avalon?"
Torym's eyes glittered. "One
word: Merlin."
Hoshi smiled. "Well, I
suppose we could use another set of hands," she teased.
"I guess we'll have to see what we can work out, hmm?"
Torym's grin stretched broadly as he followed the two women; it abruptly
vanished as their Sailor communicators went off simultaneously.
"Uh oh," he said. The
two ladies stopped, and activated their communicators, listened to the brief
message- Torym couldn't quite make it out- and deactivated them. Torym couldn't contain himself any longer.
"What's up?"
"One word: Ereunak,"
Hoshi replied evenly as both women flicked their wrists; their transformation
pens appeared out of thin air from their pocketspaces.
They raised them together.
"SINGULARITY OF CYGNI, ACTIVATE!"
"VULCAN CRYSTAL POWER!"
Blinding light filled the corridor as Torym pulled out his pistol, and
flipped the safety off. Even as the
light display faded, the full import of Hoshi's words hit him.
"Ereunak?!? What
the…!" Torym muttered, glancing at Sailors Cygni and Vulcan.
They shared a nod, and took off down the hall at a fast run.
Torym hustled to keep up, even though he knew it was impossible.
Senshi were simply faster than normal humans; even well conditioned ones
like himself.
"What the fuck is going on around here?" he wondered as he ran
after them.
Starbase
One, in orbit of Luna, Sol system, 4 December 2737
Ereunak ducked under the blaster fire and rolled into the primary shuttlebay of
Starbase One; he closed and locked the doors, and then blasted the mechanisms
for good measure. He had already
deactivated the jamming routines and blasted the AI's override circuitry; and he
knew the starbase's shuttles would have the transmitters he required.
He climbed in one, ignoring the pounding at the door.
He only needed a few seconds...
He uploaded the encrypted data stored on the isolytic chip; the DK
codebreakers would have their hands full with the algorithms to decode it, but
that wasn't his problem. His time
as Ereunak was coming to an end; he would simply have to change forms. He hurriedly programmed his message, and sent the burst
transmission, a microsecond before a starship in the area activated its jamming.
The deed was done. He
crushed the chip in his hand; and glanced out at the door.
It was glowing; he was under no illusions as to what was going to happen
next. He moved quickly.
Crystal
Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 4 December 2737
Torym caught up with the Senshi, finally; all of them in the area. This was quite a number.
The princess was in her combat form as Sailor Moon; her pink pigtails
whipped around as she surveyed the assembled Senshi. Sailors Uranus, Neptune, and Mercury were the other three
Planetaries present; along with their Knights.
An angry looking Sorcerer Dramlyn was the sole Sorcerer besides Torym;
Sailors Sirius, Vulcan, Cygni, Betelgeuse, and Eos filled in the ranks of the
Senshi.
"Form up!" called Sailor Moon.
"We're going to teleport to Starbase One, inside the shuttlebay;
that's his last known location. Let's
do it!" She saw Torym and
indicated he should get in the middle; he complied.
"SAILOR TELEPORT!"
Starbase
One, in orbit of Luna, Sol system, 4 December 2737
Gamma had just assumed the form of an unconscious crewman, complete
with a burn mark from a close-range stun blast, on the ground near the tractor
controls when the multi-colored burst of light that signaled a teleport filled
the area.
It faded, and the Senshi- there were a lot of them!- immediately assumed
combat demeanors and surveyed the area.
"Over there!" called Sailor Eos, spotting the prone form.
She approached, and suddenly stopped as Vulcan grabbed her arm.
"Hey! He's hurt!"
"Is he?" asked Sailor Vulcan calmly.
"We are unsure of our quarry's abilities; we thought he was a
trusted member of our Sorcerers. It
is entirely possible he is an Infiltrator; logically, he could then assume any
form."
"Not a normal one," commented Sailor Cygni, with Orbiting Heart
in her right hand. "The
scanning measures from the Nebula War are still in place.
He'd be picked up instantly."
"Indeed," Sailor Vulcan agreed.
"Which is why we must allow Sailor Mercury the time to conclude her
scans."
Uh oh... Gamma thought. He had forgotten about Sailor Mercury! It was entirely likely her unique computer could distinguish
him! Time for action. He cautiously opened one eye, and saw no one was watching
him; he rolled suddenly, and leapt.
He tackled Sailor Mercury hard, sending her computer flying as they
rolled behind a shuttle. As the
Senshi reacted, he regained his feet; dragging Sailor Mercury up by her throat
and using her as a body shield. He
noted the intense, smoldering anger in Mercury Knight's eyes, and then realized
that Sailor Mercury was bleeding from the impact.
Too bad for her. Unfortunately,
he had picked a bad spot; this particular shuttle was out in the middle of the
bay, by itself. He backed up to the
shuttle.
"Nobody move," he growled, producing his blaster pistol and
placing it to her throat.
"Let her go if you know what's good for you," snarled Mercury
Knight. "Traitorous
scum!"
Gamma grinned. "Oh,
come now. Like the GM isn't ripe
for the picking. The fleet still
hasn't fully recovered, and the borders- specifically the Alpha Zone- are weak. Oh, I know the battleship Bahumat is on its way... but
the information I just sent oughta make it easy to blow our way into the GM.
And now that I have concluded my mission, all I wish is to be able to
leave. I'll kill Sailor Mercury if
I can't."
Sailor Moon stepped up. "Fine.
You may leave."
Gamma narrowed his eyes. The
Senshi, Torym, and Dramlyn were all arrayed around him, ready to attack, and
Sailor Moon was standing in front of him, arms crossed.
"I am serious," he sneered.
"Don't take me lightly!"
"I am serious also," Sailor Moon said coolly.
"You may go."
"WHAT!" gasped Torym.
Gamma blinked in surprise.
It was his first and last mistake.
There was a blur, and a yellow rose nailed the blaster to the side of the
shuttle as a frosted blue one nailed him in the right eye.
He howled, reflexively slackening his hold on Sailor Mercury; she took
immediate advantage of it by elbowing him in the guts with a simultaneous stomp
to the shin. As his grip loosened
completely, the furious Sailor Mercury spun around and launched a spinning
jump-kick into his face, sending him flying.
He hit the floor hard, still reeling from the blows.
As he staggered to his feet, a barrage of icy blue blaster beams coupled
with normal ones, from Torym and Mercury Knight, slammed into him; he was
knocked into the wall. He glanced
up as the weapons fire tapered off, trying to see out of his one remaining eye;
a sea green rose filled his sight, and the pain doubled as the world went dark.
He was blind.
"Incinerating Ray!" shouted Dramlyn, hand outstretched as a
powerful orange glow filled it.
"Neptune... DEEP SUBMERGE!"
A blast of the fury of the oceans raced toward him.
"Uranus... WORLD SHAKING!"
The power of the winds slammed into the floor, accelerating as it
approached.
"Mercury Aqua... RHAPSODY!"
Harp music was suddenly overtaken by the sounds of freezing cold water.
"Sirius Gravity... DEVASTATION!"
Blue energy billowed in his direction.
"Vulcan Shockwave... STRIKE!"
A glowing, golden orb of sonic energy blazed at him.
"Eos Morning... GLORY!" A
glowing, purple sphere flew towards him.
"Betelgeuse Star... ENVELOP!"
The air around him grew red as the energy of her attack built up.
The attacks smashed into Gamma, knocking him about violently. The shock of being burned, bashed, blasted, frozen, drowned,
and all-around pummeled abruptly reduced him to his base form.
He became a tall, gangly, hairless, gray-skinned being, with pointed
canines and pure white, pupil-less eyes.
His arms were extremely long, dangling on the floor; his fingers and toes
bore sharp, dangerous claws and extra joints.
The blood leaking from both eyes was black.
"What in the name of Serenity are you?" breathed Sailor Moon as
she approached him.
He
crouched, sniffing, listening; preparing to leap, guided by his other senses.
"Sailor Moon!" called Torym as Sailor Cygni leapt forward, arm
extended. Sailor Moon felt
momentarily woozy as she was caught on the edge of the gravity shift; and the
being was floating harmless and helpless in midair.
"Sailor Mercury?" asked Sailor Moon.
Sailor Mercury wiped the blood off her forehead; the cut was already
closed. She picked up her computer,
and approached the dangling nightmare. The
bay was silent for the moment; then the doors finally gave away, and a score of
guards raced in, halting at seeing the situation under control.
Silence reigned except for the sounds of the Mercury computer hard at
work.
Finally, she spoke. "It
seems to be an enhanced version of an Infiltrator.
He is far more sophisticated, not to mention durable.
I believe you'll have to finish him off." She paused for a moment.
"Hold on just a little longer, though... let me get a detailed set
of readings so we can program the detection grids with this signature, too.
That is, if Sailor Cygni can hold him?"
"No prob, Sailor Mercury," Sailor Cygni replied calmly.
A few minutes later, Sailor Mercury closed the computer with a loud snap,
and nodded to Sailor Moon.
The tiara on Sailor Moon's forehead disappeared, leaving a glowing
crescent moon.
The area became white, and Ereunak/Gamma was no more.
An
area of space in the Alpha Zone, 11 December 2737
The
SLS Bahumat
Derrelli stood in his quarters, staring out of the windows.
Things were quiet; they had arrived on station yesterday, allowing the
wounded Panther to leave. It would be a long trip back to a drydock for
her; her engines, while operable, were at minimum efficiency.
He sipped his soda; he was off duty while the Bahumat was
beginning the patrol of this sector. Part
of him wanted to be on the bridge, but intellectually he knew it would be just
as boring up there. He took in the
view; there were more stars here. Most
of them didn't have planets, but they were in a slightly denser section of the
Milky Way.
He turned away from the windows, and then blinked as he looked back.
What was that?
It had looked like a streaking star, as if they were traveling
faster-than-light, except it went in a straight line, and it had been a reddish
color instead of white, and they were traveling sublight.
Or were his eyes deceiving him?
No... no, they weren't. There
it was again. He took a longer
look, and realized the space around them was taking on a reddish hue.
Hmmmm... he thought. Interesting.
He spun on his heel, and exited his quarters, the door hissing shut
behind him.
Thirty seconds later, the bridge doors hissed open, and he stepped out.
Sailor Geminga's eyes registered her surprise at seeing him.
"Couldn't sleep?" she asked bluntly.
"Actually, I was wondering if you knew about streaking red
particles?" Derrelli said. "I
saw a couple of high-speed red streaks..."
Sailor Geminga snorted. "Yeah,
we've entered a particle cloud. No
worries; our shields are already up."
Her attitude was carefully neutral.
"I didn't know particle clouds moved so fast," frowned
Derrelli. He narrowed his eyes at
the center screen; Sailor Geminga turned to look at it.
It did seem to be chaotic, and not calm like they usually were... this
could be bad...
She moved over to science. "What
is the possibility we're in the pre-wake of an ion storm?"
"Slim, Captain," came the reply.
"It would have to be a massive storm to have a pre-wake this big,
and-"
"Captain! Shields are down to 99%! Particle flow building up rapidly!" tactical called out.
Science blinked. "Oh
shit… Captain, I'm afraid you're right! We
have an ion storm approaching rapidly! Impact
in ten seconds... and it's at least... Force 12!
No way we can get out of the way!"
"Force TWELVE? Mother
of Serenity!" Sailor Geminga
leapt the railing. "Red Alert! Brace for impact! Turn
into the storm! On screen!"
Derrelli grabbed the railing as the red alert sirens went off, with Neo's
voice in the foreground.
"Red Alert, Red Alert. All
hands to battlestations. Repeat,
all hands to battlestations!"
Derrelli stared at the screen, mouth going dry in shock.
The Bahumat seemed to slide forward into a gravity well as the
massive, red-orange wall of streaking particles appeared out of nowhere.
There was almost an audible roar, and he knew that was next to impossible
across the vacuum of space, which meant the sheer force of what was about to hit
them...
The impact was sudden, vicious, and very damaging.
A loud crunch echoed throughout the Bahumat, accompanied by a loud
roar. They were smashed sideways by
the storm's impact, and he was hard-pressed to hang on as the lights went out,
with showers of sparks and flame raging across the bridge. He couldn't hear a damn thing, at first; he was deafened and
stunned. The Bahumat was
being tossed around by the power of the storm as if it were a toy.
Soon, as the mighty battleship struggled to regain control, he could
barely make out Sailor Geminga shouting orders.
"Reroute auxiliary power to inertial dampers and structural
integrity! Let's get the hell out
of this storm!" she yelled.
"We can't!" called Wizard Duke at the helm.
"The storm's faster than us; we're being dragged with it!"
"Shields level one at 9% and falling!" hollered tactical.
Derrelli shook his head. The
ride was finally smoothing somewhat, although it was still bumpy and they
occasionally took a severe jolt. He
knew that if they didn't get out soon, they would die in here.
He also knew it would be impossible to use the RIFT drive; so much
particle activity would prevent the fields from forming.
He let go of the rail and raced to the lift; he was three-quarters of the
way there when another severe jolt rocked them.
He flew almost right into the doors; fortunately, they hissed open at his
approach and he hit the wall inside the lift instead.
He shook it off, and glanced up. He
caught a glimpse of a sheet of flame shooting across the bridge as the doors
hissed shut.
"Engineering!" he shouted.
The lift began moving, but he still felt the occasional impact.
He was around halfway there when the lights in the turbolift went out,
and he suddenly felt himself in a free-fall.
"Derrelli to Engineering! Immediate
rerouting of power to lift two! I'm
in a free-fall here!" he yelled out. Nothing.
Shit, the whole section of the ship must be down!
He reached up to the roof, and pressed the release panel that would open
the top access hatch. Nothing.
He was running out of time. He
had maybe ten seconds before the lift hit the bottom of the tube.
He grit his teeth. I'll
fix it later, he thought as a twirl of flame shot from his finger.
He seared the hinges, and then gave a mighty punch.
The top of the hatch flew off, slamming against the side in a shower of
sparks. The lift was falling
awfully fast, and the rate of speed was increasing.
He yanked himself up, sighted on the maintenance access ladder, and
leapt. Behind him, the lift hit the
bottom with a loud screech and a hollow crunch.
He landed hard, and he bit back the pain from the impact- he was sure he
had a busted nose- and ignored the blood as he started climbing up the ladder.
He reached the hatch that had been ten meters above his head, and glanced
at the number. Thirty-one. Main
Engineering was accessible near the middle of deck thirty-one. He popped the hatch and scrambled into the access tube.
Several times during the long journey, he was thrown against the walls of
the tunnel. It began to happen more
frequently; he could only surmise the Bahumat was being strained to its
limits. He was nearly to the exit
hatch when another vicious jolt rocked the ship; twenty meters behind him, a
plasma conduit blew in a small explosion and a rain of sparks, letting a
billowing cloud of superheated plasma race toward him.
He set a record getting through the hatch and slamming it shut.
He whirled to see the engineering team staring at him.
"Later! No time!
We have to get out of this ion storm!
Ideas?" Derrelli asked.
"RIFT's out; no way to generate a field.
Sublight engines are damaged; thrusters are out.
Power's out through half the ship; shields are failing, along with the
inertial dampers, structural integrity, and life support!" reported Karen.
"What's left?" There
was a note of panic in her voice.
"What about the RIFT field coils?" asked Derrelli.
"Just fine; they're relatively sheltered and currently
offline," replied W'mial. "Why?"
Derrelli thought for a moment. "Vent
all drive plasma from both sublight and RIFT engines into the RIFT field coils!
Every ounce of power we can spare; reroute it, and do it now!
Do we have comms?"
As Karen pointed fingers and the team set to work, W'mial nodded. "Yeah, but limited.
The emergency backups only."
"That'll do," Derrelli nodded.
"Engineering to bridge."
"Bridge, and I hope you have an idea, Commander Jefferson!" The reply was scratchy, but definitely Sailor Geminga.
"I do," Karen said loudly as she worked.
"Listen to Derrelli!"
"He's there? Good
timing, what took you so long? Never
mind, no time. What have you
got?" Sailor Geminga asked.
"Simple. On my mark, do
a sustained high-energy turn to the weakest section of the storm; we'll give it
every ounce of engine power we've got left," Derrelli said hurriedly.
"I know we'll be overloading already strained systems, but we don't
have a choice! Siphon power from
the life support systems for it; right now, those are the least of our worries,
and we need every ounce of power we can get!"
"I hope you know what you're doing, Derrelli.
Very well; on your mark. We're
getting set now," Sailor Geminga said.
"Status?" Derrelli snapped.
"Shields down; spare power from shields being routed to engines.
Hull integrity-"
W'mial was suddenly interrupted as the deck lurched; they were definitely
feeling it more. Sparks shot from
several consoles.
"Hull integrity down to 80%, engines passing 100%!"
"80% already? This
better work, or we're screwed," Derrelli muttered.
"Engines at 125%; cross-feed is destroying field coil
integrity," W'mial added.
"I know," said Derrelli. "But
they gotta have just enough for one good push..."
"130%!"
"Bridge, on my mark..." Derrelli said.
It amazed him that he sounded so calm, considering his heart was racing,
and the entire ship was on the verge of annihilation.
"140%!"
The glow in the core was now extremely intense; there was massive
particle movement, and he knew the reactor was on the verge of a breach.
The deliberate overload was in no way healthy for these systems.
"150%!"
"Bridge, NOW!" shouted Derrelli, grabbing on to the console for
dear life.
The bulkheads screeched in protest, as did the engines, with plumes of
plasma suddenly bursting from several seams near the central reactor. On the bridge, Duke held the turn, forcing the tortured ship
to comply, knowing it was their one chance at survival.
The Bahumat turned suddenly, catching the full brunt of the ion
storm on its port beam. The engines
suddenly flashed with the thunderous release of overstored energy; the resulting
reactions with the ion storm actually dispersed it somewhat, allowing the Bahumat
to lunge forward, a clear trail of energy behind it.
In Main Engineering, the lights abruptly went out, and sirens went off as
the primary core began to rupture; Neo activated built-in emergency protocols
and dropped the shielding around the core as it was jettisoned.
Seconds later, it exploded, and the shockwave, while further damaging the
Bahumat, propelled it out of the fringes of the storm.
A few seconds after that, the storm was past them, as the scorched,
beaten-up ship drifted aimlessly...
STAY
TUNED!