"LUNAR: Tales From Crystal Tokyo"
LUNAR:
Tales From Crystal Tokyo
By
Daryll Pung
Episode
3-11: Tragic Aftermath
Rated:
R
Edge
of the Sol system, 22 June 2740
The
SLS Unicorn
A white flash resolved itself into a starship as it left RIFT and
reentered normal space and time. The
shape was that of a cruiser belonging to the Golden Millennium.
It slowed to a crawl, allowing its sensors to gather information, all of
which was uniformly alarming to those on the bridge of that ship.
“By the Crystal,” murmured Sailor Cygni, staring at the information
scrolling down screens four and five. The
center three screens displayed various views of the carnage.
“Ma’am,” called the light-haired woman stationed at the science
console. “By all indications,
Pluto Station Five is gone, as well as at least eighty starships- mostly smaller
ones- and virtually every planetary defense along a path towards Earth and Luna.
The sensor platforms seem to be fried, too; every ancillary station has heavy damage.”
Captain Sheila Thompson closed her eyes, and massaged her temples. “Casualty estimate?”
Science remained silent. Finally,
she replied. “Unknown;
insufficient data to calculate. Rough
guess is on the order of ninety thousand or more.”
“Bastards,” breathed Sailor Ryujin.
She glanced over at Sorcerer Derrelli, who had been assisting in
maintaining the Unicorn’s RIFT drive during their flank speed run back
to Sol; with every engineer on the ship involved in the effort, they had managed
to push the ship’s engines to a hundred and thirty-eight percent and hold it
for the duration of the trip, an impressive feat all in itself.
He was staring grimly at the screens, eyes darting around, taking it all
in; his fists were clenched, and pure rage contorted his features. Behind him, Wizards Orien and Duke weren’t taking it a
whole lot better.
Sailor Ryujin didn’t blame them one bit, at the moment wanting to tear
off the heads of some enemies with her bare hands.
A beep announced an incoming message.
The handsome dark-skinned tech manning communications suddenly spun
around. “Ma’am!
It’s from RSN HQ! The
Queen and Princess have been kidnapped!”
“What-!” gasped Sheila.
“Oh, fucketh me,” muttered Sailor Cygni.
“Can this get much worse?”
Sheila whipped around towards helm.
“Get us in-system, fast!” she snapped.
The reddish glow from the cruiser’s fusion impellers abruptly tripled
in intensity as the ship tore through space towards Luna.
Crystal
Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, Sol system, 22 June 2740
Situation
Room
The normally reserved situation room, like most of the rest of the
system, was a scene of frantic recovery activity, and though the damage here was
minor, it was present all the same. Sheila
entered the room, followed by the two Senshi and three Sorcerers she’d brought
with her on the Unicorn. She
glanced around as a voice called out “Captain Thompson!
Over here!”
She followed the voice to see Sailor Neptune waving her forward; she set
off, immediately followed by the quintet of smolderingly angry powered
individuals behind her. She knew
the feeling: rage, hopelessness,
and resolve, all mixed together.
“Ma’am?” she said as she stopped near Sailor Neptune, saluting.
Sailor Neptune nodded, and motioned towards the six nearby seats.
As they were seated, they noted Sailor Astraea sitting next to King Endymion, with Sailor Mercury in close attendance.
“I’m sure you’re wondering what happened,” Sailor Neptune began,
“but time is of the essence, so I’m going to make this quick.
Most other starships but yours are engaged in recovery, rescue, and
repair work; the scout ships have done detailed searches of surrounding space to
no avail. Now, we did manage to
capture that attacking supercruiser, making two we now have, but at a cost. We still have no idea of exact casualties.
As soon as she’s done here, Sailor Mercury will begin a detailed
examination of everything we’ve got, leading teams all over that ship,
interrogating the captured aliens, et cetera.”
Sailor Neptune allowed herself a weary half-smile.
“She’ll have all the volunteers she needs, I expect.
Anyway, you’ll be meeting up with the Orion, currently at
coordinates even now being transmitted to the Unicorn.
It appears as though a mercenary starship called Nightmare snuck
away from the supercrusier, and after that ship downed all of our sensors, lay
in wait for any passengers heading for the Destiny.
They managed to kidnap Their Highnesses during the fighting.
Sailor Cygni, Sailor Ryujin, Sorcerer Derrelli, Wizard Duke, and Wizard
Orien, stay on the Unicorn and help with this mission, if you would.
Captain, you’ll be taking on Sailor Astraea and His Highness and will
work with the Orion to do one thing:
track down the Nightmare and find the Queen and the Princess.”
“Aye, ma’am,” Sheila nodded, pondering.
“But-“
“Excuse me, ma’am,” Derrelli broke in.
“Wouldn’t the Destiny be a better choice for something like
this? Not to mention the Unicorn’s
engines probably need an overhaul after the speed run we just made…”
Sailor Neptune gave a hollow laugh.
“The Destiny’s out of action for awhile, I’m afraid;
probably for the next eight months. She
took the brunt of the attacks from this supercruiser, and was probably the
reason we disabled and captured it, the ship and Sailor Saturn, who led it into
the fight. As it is…” she
trailed off briefly, swallowing, and then resumed, “Sailor Saturn herself is
out of action for the next three days, at least.”
Duke let out a low whistle. “Ouch,”
he muttered.
Sailor Neptune shook her sea-green maned head.
“No time. Every second
wasted here is that much further the Nightmare can get.
Finding it is going to be extremely difficult.”
“Perhaps I can help with that,” came a voice behind them.
They turned to see a somber Brad London regarding them, recently arrived
from Sabaat.
Twenty minutes later, the Starship Unicorn raced past Mars and
leapt into RIFT transit in a white spiral of energy and a flash.
In
FTL Transit, 23 June 2740
The
SLS Orion
The scout ship Orion crept along at its lowest RIFT setting, not
bothering to cloak, its sensors pouring energy into the surrounding reaches of
space, hunting, grasping for a clue. News
of the events had definitely spread through the entire ship, indeed, probably
throughout the breadth of the Golden Millennium by now.
This could probably partially explain the tense, purposeful, and yet
stunned silence that lay thick and heavy over the bridge.
Only the background sounds of machinery and circuits humming could be
heard; the occasional beep or buzz from a console sounding unnaturally loud.
The Orion was engaged in yet another desperate search, but this
one far more desperate than even when it had hunted for the downed battleship Bahumat.
This time they were engaged in a hunt for probably the two most important
people in the galaxy. And it was partially this ship’s fault they were missing.
The fact the no one blamed the captain and crew of the Orion did
not assuage their own feelings of guilt and failure; it merely intensified them.
The situation had thus pushed the captain herself perilously close to
lashing out; as it was, Sailor Vulcan’s customary neutral and expressionless
mien was gone, replaced only by a look of smoldering anger tinged with misery.
She appeared, for the moment, most un-Vulcanlike; more human than any
present had seen her before.
She abruptly broke the silence. “Report
from the Draco II?” As she
said that name, she had to wrestle with her emotions, reminded of a previous
failure.
“Nothing from Omega Force, ma’am,” Ensign Shuria Hyrnan, the
Isbanni comm officer, replied professionally as possible, her voice coming near
to cracking at the end. “They’ve
entered another search vector.”
“Ma’am,” broke in tactical. “We’ve
another starship approaching; getting a transponder signal…
it’s the Unicorn, ma’am.”
“Are they in communications range yet?” demanded Sailor Vulcan.
“Shortly, Sailor Vulcan,” replied Shuria.
“Lieutenant O’Connor, plot an intercept course,” Sailor Vulcan
ordered. “Hail them when in
range.”
The
SLS Unicorn
As Shelia ended communications with the Orion and gave orders to
the helm for the first phase of the search, Derrelli glanced from an engineering
console over at Brad London, leaning in a corner with his arms crossed, a
perfect poker face expertly hiding his feelings.
“So,” Derrelli spoke up conversationally.
“We’ll be entering a meaner patch of space, will we?”
Heads turned as Brad spoke up. “Yep.
Might get a bit rough.”
“Really,” grinned Duke slightly from the helm.
“Wonder what that would be like?”
His smile faded slightly as he realized Derrelli wasn’t grinning, but
retained a deadly serious look. “You
okay, Pyro?”
“We may be spending an extended period of time outside of our space,”
Derrelli continued. He turned to
Sheila, and King Endymion. “Permission
to begin construction of a cloaking device, Sir, Ma’am?”
Sheila glanced at Endymion. “Sir?”
Endymion nodded. “Do it,
Derrelli. We’ll worry about what
my dear Serenity has to say about this after we find her.”
“Sure you remember how, Derrelli?” Sailor Cygni asked from the
science console, where she was eyeing the results of various scans, in her
element once more.
He grinned. “I’ll even
install the green lights like we had on Bahumat…” his smile faltered.
“Yeah,” whispered Duke.
“Just save it up, everybody,” Orien spoke up from tactical.
“Save it all up for the big payback.
‘Cuz it’ll come, sooner or later; use it then.”
“Payback,” nodded Sailor Ryujin, leaning against the other tactical
console. “I can’t wait.”
“With interest,” Derrelli added, his lips quirked in a half snarl,
half smile. It wasn’t a pleasant
expression. He abruptly turned,
motioning to another engineer on the bridge, and both ducked into the lift,
which hissed shut behind them.
“Beginning search pattern alpha-one,” Duke said, turning back to
helm.
The Unicorn arced to starboard from the maneuvering Orion,
which was turning to port, as both ships began their cooperative hunt for the Nightmare.
Edge
of the Sol system, 29 June 2740
The
SS Venture
“I can’t believe we’ve been trapped aboard this tug for over a
week,” grumbled Moira Benson, running a hand through her red hair, dropping
her microcomputer to the table in front of her.
She skewered the diplomat-in-charge with her violet stare.
“You really must learn logic and patience,” chided Chief Diplomat
T’mal. “Your passions will be
your undoing.”
“She has a point,” snorted Harry Shuley, stretching with a yawn. “I mean, have we even gotten any congratulations for our
part in negotiating this historic treaty? Any
messages at all since the notice that all RSN starships were recalled?”
“Nothing,” sniffed Juanita Flores grumpily.
“We’re completely out of the loop, and all we can do is look out the
windows at either the starlines or that hulk being towed.”
T’mal steadily regarded them, especially the darkly brooding Juanita,
still quite angry over the ‘Senshi Incident’, as she called it.
He spared a glance out of the window, noting that there were starlines no
more. “I do not believe that will
be an issue any longer,” he commented. “We
have departed from RIFT transit.”
“We’re home then,” cheered Moira.
A beep on the comm console interrupted them, as Harry was about to say
something. T’mal crossed over to
the console and pressed the blinking indicator.
“T’mal.”
“You and your companions should report to the bridge, please,” came
the female voice of the captain of the civilian tug Venture.
“I- I think you need to see this.”
The four shared a look and left the room with surprising alacrity.
As the doors hissed open to allow the four diplomats onto the cramped
bridge of the Venture, the captain, a short, stocky black woman, turned. She motioned them forward wordlessly.
“What…?” began Moira, to trail off in shock.
RSN starships were thick in the system, patrolling, tractoring and
clearing the many debris fields, and some blinks in some hulks indicated salvage
efforts were ongoing. And they
hadn’t even cleared Pluto yet.
“Where’s Pluto Station Five?” asked Harry.
“I’ve a brother there…”
Wordlessly, the captain pointed at two destroyers, a salvager, and a
light cruiser, and the activity surrounding them in the immense sea of debris
they were stationed over.
“No-“ gasped Harry in a strangled cry.
“It’s gone,” whispered the captain.
“We were just interrogated by the SLS Coyote, and they brought
us up to date. The reason
nothing’s come for you is that things have been a little hectic here, and no
one is around to congratulate you. I’m
told scenes like this go all the way into the heart of the system, and the death
toll is tallied around a hundred thousand now.
No word yet on damage estimates. Apparently
the SLS Destiny led the ships against the invading supercrusier and
managed to capture it, but not without injury to Sailor Saturn or severe damage
to the ship itself. But the worst
is…” she paused.
“What?” demanded Juanita in a hoarse whisper.
“The Queen and the Princess were kidnapped,” replied the captain. “And His Highness is off searching for them.”
“By the Crystal,” muttered a stunned Moira, comforting Harry, who was
bent almost double in grief.
The captain sighed. “We’ll
be in-system in about an hour and a half.”
She turned away.
In
FTL transit, 29 June 2740
The
Nightmare
Pain. Temple-pounding, head
throbbing pain. She moaned in
agony.
Get a grip on yourself.
She slowly, steadily, worked her eyes open.
They burned; everything was out of focus.
She blinked her eyes cautiously, ignoring the unpleasant sensations as
she inexorably cleared her vision.
Gray. A blur of gray.
She closed her eyes and repeated the process, trying to ignore the
constant reminder of her agony. Finally,
some measure of detail was discernible.
She was in a small, dark cubicle. Dark
gray, steel, and black seemed to be the primary colors, gloomy and threatening
at the same time; dim lighting came from several panels on the ceiling.
The chamber was spartan; one of the walls was actually a shimmering force
field. She was lying on a hard
slab, presumably a bed, though it sure didn’t feel like one.
There was an open head, and a single sink.
The room was otherwise empty.
She grimaced as she rolled over on her side, and groaned again. She slowly expanded her awareness through the rest of her
body, feeling the throbbing subside slightly as she regained her senses further.
Slowly, she sat up, her vision spinning slightly as she did so; when that
subsided, she noticed a small mirror over the sink.
And she was thirsty.
She slowly stood up, regaining her equilibrium; again, her head spun
slightly; she waited for that to pass. After
she was satisfied she was as stable as she could be, she took a tentative step.
She was unsteady, but apparently none the worse for wear.
She was steadier by the time
she reached the sink. She bent
down, activated the water flow, and drank deeply before scooping some in her
hands and wetting her face, which helped to no end.
She drank slowly and steadily until her thirst was slacked, and then
stood up and appraised herself in the mirror.
There were no external signs of injury; she was still in her fuku.
That must have been some gas, thought Sailor Eos wearily.
She took another look around; she had to be in a brig or jail of some
sort. The field that sealed her
cell was translucent; she could see light through it, but little to no detail.
Oh, man, she sighed, leaning against the sink.
The water intake had certainly helped; she was partially dehydrated.
The weight of her situation was now setting in.
She had no idea where she was, who’d gassed her, and worse yet, where
the Princess and the Queen were. Somehow
she doubted they were on a separate ship, though.
They’re here, she thought.
I just have to find them. She
took a determined step towards the field that locked her in, preparing to use
her abilities, when it dropped. Three
individuals stared back at her. Two
wore the same sinister black and dark gray uniform, and carried what looked like
DK tunneling rifles; the third was clad merely in an alluring red dress and
wielded a GM blaster pistol, with another strapped at her waist.
“Hello,” the woman said silkily.
“And how are we feeling, Sailor…?”
She waved with her pistol, indicating that Sailor Eos should be seated.
Damn, thought the auburn-haired Guardian; she slowly complied.
She remained silent for the moment; she could take them, but… best to
try and learn something first.
“We’re not sure who you are,” the woman continued.
“We have no knowledge of you. I’m
here to rectify that situation. Now,
we have your Princess and Queen in two different locations on this ship; if you
cause trouble, they’ll both pay the price, got that?”
Sailor Eos merely nodded.
“If you cooperate, things will go a lot smoother for all three of
you,” she added.
Sailor Eos frowned. “How
precisely do you think that you’ll be able to control or imprison a pair that
wield the Silver Imperium Crystal?” she asked sarcastically.
The woman laughed. “Simple.
They can’t do anything to us if they’re kept drugged and unconscious,
can they?”
Alarm and rage shot through Sailor Eos; it was a struggle to control
herself.
“Now, what’s your name?” the woman queried.
Sailor Eos crossed her arms and remained silent.
The woman narrowed her eyes, leaning in. “For your information, I wouldn’t try anything; this cell
is equipped with a psionic scrambler that prevents Senshi from using their
abilities. Now, what’s your
name?”
Guess it’s a good thing I’m no normal Senshi, Sailor Eos
thought. Keep talking, lady;
threats of harming the Royals are so much bull, as they’ll not feel it if what
you say is true; your earlier threat was an empty one, wasn’t it. What’s your goal? Why
do this, unless…
Sailor Eos suddenly felt cold. These
characters had kidnapped the three of them, during the attack by the
supercruiser. They were working
together; which meant that eventually this group either wanted to use the Queen
and Princess for themselves, or hand them over; in any case, they wouldn’t
harm them no matter what! Damn…
Well, on the upshot, these fools will never gain access to Reeni or
Her Majesty, thought Sailor Eos. Many
have tried; none have succeeded. If
they hand them over, though…
“I’m losing patience, Senshi. What’s
your name?” snarled the woman.
Sailor Eos glared right at her. “You
haven’t told me yours… or where I am.”
The woman sat back. “Spunky,
aren’t you. Very well.
This is the independent starship Nightmare.
I am the first officer, and my name is Neris.”
“Nightmare? That
means you’re all originally of the Dark Kingdom.” Sailor Eos’ eyes scanned
Neris forehead, noting the black crescent moon.
“Well, aren’t we well informed, Sailor-?”
Sailor Eos sighed. “Eos.”
“Sailor Eos? That actually has a nice ring to it.
And what sort of powers do you possess?” Neris said smoothly.
Sailor Eos crossed her arms. “You
actually expect me to tell you that?”
Neris leaned forward. “You
will if you want food and want your Queen and Princess to remain unpunished. Now, I’m sure you Senshi can go a bit longer than most, but
do you want to find out?”
Sailor Eos glared, then closed her eyes and looked away, remembering her
training: appear to capitulate,
but not too early or too easily. Spec
ops training covered all sorts of situations; and the Sailor Guardian of the
Rabbit was far tougher than she looked.
“The food I could care less about,” she snarled.
“But don’t harm the Royals!” Give
the appearance that they still have a valid hold over me…
“Then what sort of powers do you possess?” Neris asked again.
Sailor Eos gave a sigh, and leaned back, her tone bitter as she opened
her eyes. “I have a single
outright attack; an energy bolt.”
“That’s it?” Neris demanded sharply.
“Oh, come on! Do you
honestly think they’d waste a more powerful Senshi in the role of bodyguard? I can shoot weapons besides, but my main function is to cover
them and take the hits that are targeted at them!” Sailor Eos snapped angrily.
Neris leaned back, her tone wicked.
“It must really burn you up that we have them, doesn’t it?
That you failed to protect them?”
She leaned forward. “Well,
Sailor Bodyguard, best be on your best behavior; their lives are in your
hands.”
Sailor Eos simply glared with palpable anger at the hit; it was true,
she’d failed them. But all three
had been in bad scrapes before, and they’d gotten out all right; and Sailor
Eos was already determined to remedy the situation.
Neris smirked. “I’ll be
back for more questions at a later date,” she purred.
“I’ll let you think about your failure… and what we can do to
them.”
Just as Neris was leaving, Sailor Eos spoke up, her voice tinged with
anger. “How did you do this?
And why?”
Neris just smiled, confirming Sailor Eos’ suspicions as the field was
reactivated.
Sailor Eos looked down at the steel-gray deck.
She had to bide her time; just until the bimbo returned to interrogate
her further.
Then she’d find Their Highnesses… and make the escape.