"LUNAR: Tales From Crystal Tokyo"
LUNAR:
Tales From Crystal Tokyo
By
Daryll Pung
Episode
3-14: Rescue Run
Rated:
R
Interplanetary
space in the Kappa Zone, 8 July 2740
The
Nightmare
Sailor Guardian Eos stopped as her hearing picked up the telltale whoosh
of doors opening ahead, followed by the stomp of many feet.
Even worse was another whoosh of a door in the opposite direction,
followed by more footsteps.
She was cut off from both directions.
“Shit,” whispered the normally easygoing Guardian.
Sailor Eos knew one thing.
This was not good.
She snarled, propped Princess Serena against the corridor wall behind
her, and positioned herself in front of the Princess, ready to take any shots
aimed at her. She leveled the rifle
ahead to the closer proximity footsteps; she sighted the rifle to fire.
A large group of troops in similar uniforms to her other victims rounded
the corner, and a great many weapons were leveled at Sailor Eos.
She grimly prepared herself to absorb all she could.
She was briefly conscious of silence from the other direction.
A virtual wall of energy bolts erupted from the mass of guns pointed at
Sailor Eos. She grimaced as she
pulled the trigger, spraying and praying; she opened her mind and body,
preparing to absorb and reflect, uncomfortably aware of how much damage she was
about to take, even if the majority of it was absorbed and reflected.
There was simply too much energy coming at her for her to escape severe
injury.
Except not a single bolt hit her; every damned one suddenly stopped
roughly a foot in front of her, splattering as if hitting some sort of force
field.
There was a sudden flash, and a massive ball of fire suddenly erupted in
the midst of the mass of enemy troops.
A bluish blur dived in front of her-
-Right
into Sailor Eos’ fire path!
Her
stream of fire blasted right into it; Sailor Eos gasped as she let off the
trigger, even as a nimbus of crackling blue energy surrounded it.
Sailor Eos couldn’t believe it; she recognized the shape.
“Sailor Astr-“
“ASTRAL PRISM!”
A bluish beam, surrounded by a current of flame from the aftereffects of
the fiery blast that had rocked the hallway a moment earlier, suddenly blasted
forth from Sailor Astraea; the attack rocketed forth and obliterated the vast
majority of the foes remaining after the fireball, in a rapid one-two punch that
wiped out over eighty percent of the opposing force.
A golden sphere screamed past, causing further devastation; as an attack
that Sailor Eos found amazingly recognizable; it looked identical to Sailor
Vulcan’s Shockwave Strike. After
that attack’s effects faded, only two were left standing.
For half a second, anyway.
A rose suddenly buried itself into the forehead of one of the
shell-shocked foes; the other crumpled under a barrage of blaster fire; Brad
London strolled up to the collapsing figures and kept pumping blaster energy
into them.
“Enough, London!” snarled a gasping Sailor Cygni, striding forward,
extending her hand and causing him to stagger, the gun automatically pointing
down as increasing gravity rippled around him.
She found it hard to keep the field stable after absorbing so much
punishment with her Gravity Shield.
King Endymion knelt by his daughter, and glanced up at Sailor Eos as
Sorcerer Derrelli and Sailor Vulcan strode up, and assumed protective positions.
“I’m good,” gasped Brad London.
“I’m okay, now, Sailor Cygni. Just…
lost it. These pricks wrecked my
livelihood, my ship. I… lost it.
I’m sorry.”
Sailor Cygni nodded. “Stay
with us, London. Focus.
We still have to find Her Highness; Sailor Eos did the hard work for us
with the Princess.” She let the
gravity field drop; London couldn’t resist kicking one of the smoking corpses,
wilting slightly as Sailor Cygni narrowed her eyes and glared at him; he held
his hands up in supplication, gun pointing away.
“She’s drugged, sir,” Sailor Eos commented to Endymion.
“She’s otherwise okay, and I already gave her the counter-drug.
I have some for Her Highness, too; I also know where she is.”
“So do we,” nodded Sailor Astraea, pulling herself upright, breathing
deeply. “Between sensor sweeps
and King Endymion, we know exactly where she is, and that’s also how we
quickly found you.”
Endymion scooped up his daughter. “Let’s
proceed to my wife-“
A beep interrupted them all. “Unicorn
to rescue team; command pathways of the computers disabled.
No need to worry about internal sensors or self-destruct, now; and the Nightmare
is dead in space! However, the Orion
shows the majority of life forms remaining on that ship in two areas: moving towards your position, and clustered around the
Queen’s position. We also show a
strong negative energy signature near Her Highness, probably Heran.
We’re continuing jamming; it should mess up their handheld sensors as
well.”
“Copy, Sheila,” Derrelli spoke up.
“The Princess and Sailor Eos have been safely recovered; we’ll thin
out the numbers and then proceed to Her Majesty.
Rescue team out.” Derrelli
glanced around. “Let’s see… I
think London should come front and center, with me.
Odds are they’ll separate, try to catch us in a pincer attack, maybe
try to force us to surrender, bargaining chips like, before they attempt to kill
us; they’ve got to know what sort of situation they’re in, and they do not
have the resources of the DK at their disposal.
If they have hostages, they can try to bargain their way out of this.”
“Agreed,” London nodded. “Assuming
they’re still receiving instructions from Heran, though, they probably won’t
give it that much of a try; the guy’s ruthless.”
“You know him best,” snorted Derrelli.
“But that’s why I’m thinking we put major firepower in the back,
too; Sailors Cygni and Vulcan. Also,
one Guardian in front and one Guardian behind, close in, of the King and
Princess; figure a spacing between the three groups of five meters or so to give
us breathing and fighting room. As
far as I’m concerned, front and rear parties are expendable, if need be.”
He paused, and bent to scoop up the enemy’s energy weapons, coming up
with two. “And what the hell;
let’s save our firepower for now, and use theirs against them.”
London shared a glance with the two Senshi.
All three nodded.
“Logical,” commented Sailor Vulcan.
“We should proceed thusly.”
London changed power cells, and stowed his rifle, picking up two off the
floor that weren’t damaged beyond a scorch mark or two.
“Let’s do this.”
Sailor Cygni grimly smiled. “Move
out; we’ll tail when ready.”
Derrelli readied his confiscated weapons, and he and London set off,
followed shortly by Sailor Eos, King Endymion with Reeni, and Sailor Astraea,
all of whom had followed suit. Moments
after that, Sailor Cygni and Sailor Vulcan set off, taking turns occasionally
walking backwards, keeping their senses primed for anything attempting to jump
them, brandishing the weapons of the Nightmare’s crew.
The
SLS Unicorn
Standing at the tactical console, Sailor Ryujin looked up with a slight
scowl as she monitored the progress of the rescue team.
She was mildly impressed that the Princess had already been freed by that
Guardian; but then she supposed only a truly dedicated individual would be
chosen for that role… or that the role would choose that sort of person, as
the case may be.
She just wished she were over there.
Granted, she had every reason to be proud of her role so far, though her
heart was still racing because so much was still at risk; her marksmanship had
been fucking perfect and the Nightmare hadn’t known what had hit
it.
She sighed, and shook her head, catching the Wizard Duke’s gaze meeting
hers from his position at helm. He
nodded slowly. “I know how you
feel, Sailor Ryujin,” he commented, returning his gaze to his console.
“I’d like to be over there, too; and I’m sure Orien would also.
But we all have our roles to play; ours is to make sure that ship
doesn’t go anywhere or do anything whilst the rescue party is aboard.”
Captain Sheila Thompson glanced at the two from her chair.
“And so far you’ve all done exceedingly well.” She glanced back at the multiple screens displaying data.
“But let’s stay focused, please; this isn’t over until Their
Highnesses are safely back aboard.”
“And then the fat lady can sing her ass off,” smirked Sailor Ryujin,
lowering her gaze back to her console, where targeting brackets remained
overlaid on the location of the Nightmare’s main engine core; her eyes
shifted to where the charge meter for the Unicorn’s death ray blinked a
full, lethal, hungry green. “’Cuz I’m primed to deliver the coup de grace.”
Duke grinned from helm, examining his display; his position indicators
were constant, but a blinking command in the corner indicated a reciprocal
course and max speed ready to go; the word ‘Enter?’ was blinking rapidly. “And I’m ready to get us out of Dodge.”
“Good,” Sheila said softly, a hint of a smile curving her lips. “Latest word from the Orion?”
“Hailing,” comm replied. “Screen
four.”
The
SLS Orion
“We’re primed to leave the second the shuttle departs the Nightmare
with Their Highnesses aboard, and scout the way to the rendezvous point to make
sure it’s clear,” answered Wizard Orien in response to the Unicorn’s
query. He had now left his post at
tactical where he had delivered his dose of precision firepower during the
starship battle and was manning the bridge in current overall command of the
scout ship. He would have gladly
given it to the Orion’s first officer, but that individual had died
during the attack by the biologics, and this was part of the plan, since the
rest of the primary chain of command for the little ship was needed right where
they were.
On screen four, Sheila nodded. “According
to plan. Good.
Unicorn out.”
The screen blinked off, and Orien leaned back, trying to relax. He would have loved to be over there with his sniper rifle,
taking off heads. Pyro’ll get
it done, he thought with a half smile.
“The enemy force has split into several elements; they look to attack
the rescue team from three directions at a hallway junction!” science suddenly
spoke up.
Orien sat bolt upright, and turned to the young Isbanni at comm, Ensign
Shuria Hyrnan. “Tell them,
quickly!”
She gave a brief nod and ducked her head, working rapidly.
The
Nightmare
“Well, shit,” muttered Derrelli, stopped and glancing at the map on
his spellcomp as the team got the message.
“We’re approaching that junction now!”
“Nothing we can do about it but fight,” Sailor Cygni said as she and
Sailor Vulcan closed in behind the two Royals and two Guardians.
“I know,” Derrelli replied coolly.
He stowed his spellcomp. “It’s
just that this sort of situation is going to cause all of us to use more than
we’d otherwise before we’re able to reach Her Highness and Heran; that fight
is going to be that much harder.”
Sailor Eos snarled in frustration as she gazed at Reeni.
“How long does it take for that counter-drug to take effect?” she
muttered.
Sailor Astraea laid a comforting hand on her arm.
“By all accounts, she was under for a while; so it’ll be a bit
yet,” she responded softly.
Endymion eyed Sailor Eos. “Protect
her at the junction, Eos,” he said. “Sailor
Astraea and I will fight.” He met
the gaze of the blonde Guardian, who nodded.
“Let’s do this,” growled London.
“Back me up; c’mon,” Derrelli indicated ahead, he crouched and
moved forward rapidly, pressing against the wall as he neared the corner. He peeked around; moving shadows caught his vision.
He glanced back and gave a grim nod to Endymion and Sailor Astraea,
jerking his head to indicate they did indeed have company down that corridor.
He then leapt ahead, as Endymion and Sailor Astraea rounded that corner
and prepared themselves, both hefting their scrounged weaponry and aiming from a
crouch. Behind them, Sailor Eos
pulled several panels off the walls, and propped them up to provide cover for
Reeni; she readied her own claimed rifle and knelt between the panels, ready to
fire.
Sailor Cygni and Sailor Vulcan stopped and turned, dropping to a crouch,
leveling their scrounged weapons back the way they’d come.
Ahead, Derrelli and London stopped; London happened to glance back and
noted what Sailor Eos had done. He
quickly followed suit to provide himself some cover. After all, unlike the rest of this group, he had no special
powers, and had to take every precaution.
They didn’t have long to wait.
The crewmembers of the Nightmare raced up the three corridors in
concert; hoping to catch the rescue team unawares.
They had no clue the rescue team had turned the tables and turned their
three-way attack into an ambush.
They found out very quickly.
The firing started with London. As
he spotted a shadow coming around the corner from his vantage point behind his
cover panels, he lined up a shot and took it; he had the satisfaction of seeing
the target’s head vaporize, followed by the rest of him.
As the rest of that force came around the corner, already blindly firing,
Derrelli opened up full auto, spraying with both rifles, providing London with
additional distraction and cover from which to mark targets and take them down
with precision hits. Despite the
volume of blind firepower sent towards the two defenders, no hits were taken,
although quite a few holes appeared in London’s protective panels.
Neither cared overmuch about preserving power packs; so they just cut
loose on maximum settings. Derrelli’s
weapons died first; he flung them aside and raised his hand, familiar spell
formulae automatically completing themselves in his mind; a dart of flame lanced
out down the corridor and detonated even as London’s second rifle ran out of
power.
At the same time, the center force ran headlong into four rifles spitting
out automatic pulses of kill-setting energy from the crouching Guardian of Truth
and a very angry- though he was disguising it well- father and husband. The corridor quickly became a charnel house, the attack on
that position blunted even before it started; the attackers barely fired a
handful of shots. The two defenders found their rifles abruptly out of juice;
by this time a mere two targets remained. Both
turned to flee. One died from a red
rose that suddenly sprouted from the back of his head, buried up to the petals;
he pitched forward on his face. The
other screamed in pain as she began to disintegrate from a torso hit, courtesy
of Sailor Eos, sniping from her protected position.
The rear position assault was the bloodiest, simply because neither
Senshi at that position was in any way inclined towards mercy.
If the assault on the first position was brutal and fiery, and the second
assault turned into a charnel house, the third was nothing short of a massacre.
Neither Senshi used much of her powers, save for Sailor Cygni.
As the attackers, the largest of the three forces, rounded the bend that
led to the two, the Gravity Senshi activated her power to increase gravity
massively around the attackers, bringing them to a full and complete stop,
forcing them to their knees, and forcing them to drop their weapons.
Sailor Cygni was still full of rage over all recent events:
from the loss of the Bahumat, to the attack on the Sol system and
the carnage there, to the kidnappings; she shared a significant look with an
equally enraged Sailor Vulcan, who for once made no effort to control her
emotions... or perhaps simply chose this moment to let them out.
They shared a calm nod. Both
stood, adjusted their weapon settings, and started moving rapidly amongst the
helpless crew, Sailor Cygni warping the gravity field around Sailor Vulcan with
merely an afterthought, not worrying about herself since she was immune to the
effects of her own powers; both began pointing the barrels to their would be
attackers heads’ and pulling the triggers.
An explosion echoed behind them from Derrelli’s fireball.
All weapons fire but the sound of theirs fell silent.
Sailor Cygni found herself facing the last surviving attacker in this
force. He was quite the brute, one
of the original DK recruits for the original Dread’s crew, as evidenced
by the black down-turned crescent on his forehead.
He looked up, snarling; his snarl died as his eyes looked into the eyes
of the Senshi of Gravity. Her eyes
were cold, expressionless, and empty.
Fear shot through him; a bottomless dread.
He saw Death.
Sailor Vulcan stood calmly by, throwing the two rifles she’d been using
to the ground amidst the corpses as Sailor Cygni placed the barrel of her last
rifle between his eyes.
“Last shot’s for you,” she said coldly, her voice devoid of
emotion. “Fucker.” She
squeezed the trigger, and released her gravity power completely as he pitched
backward, his head a splattered mess on the wall.
She dropped the rifle. Both
Senshi turned silently to make their way back to the junction, picking their
path amongst the bodies. Surprisingly,
despite the carnage, very little gore had gotten on the two, mostly on their
footwear.
“Oh, my,” whispered a white-faced Sailor Astraea as she looked back
down the hallway. Sure, the fight
with Endymion had been brutal, but their targets had been hit with kill
settings; and Derrelli and London had vaporized most of their targets.
“Rifles were on explosive effects,” Sailor Cygni shrugged as she gave
her excuse. “To be honest, I
didn’t much care.” She glanced
at Sailor Vulcan. “You?”
“We are wasting time,” Sailor Vulcan replied matter-of-factly, her
emotions once again under control. “And
another battle awaits to reach Her Highness.”
Derrelli raised an eyebrow. “You
okay, babe?”
Sailor Cygni regarded Derrelli steadily.
“No. I’m not trying to
justify anything, but I doubt I will be until long after those damned
supercruisers are gone.”
London snorted. “Weren’t
you the one telling me to focus?”
Sailor Cygni paused as Endymion wordlessly picked up Reeni.
“I am focused, London. When
all is said and done, Senshi are warriors; we kill when we have to, whether we
like it or not, and they’re all dead, aren’t they?
One shot each, the pinnacle of killing efficiency.
Besides, as the old saying goes, do as I say, not as I do.”
She motioned for Derrelli and London to lead off.
Derrelli nodded, and started off down the corridor, past the scorch
marks; he paused to briefly consult the map on his spellcomp.
London snorted softly next to him. “Remind
me never to get on her bad side, huh?”
Derrelli grinned wryly. “Man,
that applies to pretty much any Senshi. Never
get on the bad side of any of them if you can avoid it!”
London smirked. “Sorcerers
too, right?”
Derrelli’s grin faded. “Sorcerers,
too,” he replied in a tone that was deadly serious.
“Thirty more meters, then left; we’ll have to go down two decks from
there.”
The
SLS Orion
Orien leaned back, relaxing; the sensors had showed the rapid and brutal
destruction of the three-way attacking force.
The sheer quickness of it all had caused the Orion’s Vegan
tactical officer to let out an appreciative whistle.
“By the Crystal, that was fast,” he said.
Orien nodded. “Looked like
they used their own weapons against them; at least one rose was thrown by His
Highness based on that energy signature right there.”
He pointed at screen two, at the relevant data.
“Sailor Cygni apparently gravity-bound the attackers coming from
behind; and Pyro naturally finished his part off with a fireball.”
“Sounds like you know those two pretty well,” Lieutenant Sean
O’Connor spoke up from helm.
“I do,” nodded Orien. “And
once you’ve seen any of them in action, you never really forget it.
Watching Pyro work in that supercruiser, and working with him, was quite
an experience.”
“They’re getting close to the Queen,” reported science. “And that negative energy signature.”
The
Nightmare
Derrelli dropped in a crouch, rotating quickly through three hundred and
sixty degrees to make sure there were no threats.
Satisfied, he waved London down. Derrelli
took a final look at his spellcomp; he stowed it, certain of the last bit of
their route. He removed his Pythons
from their holsters and clicked the safeties off, the sound echoing eerily in
the maintenance shaft; London faced the other way, his blaster rifle primed and
ready. Sailor Astraea dropped down
next, and tapped London on his shoulder; she took his position as he moved ahead
with Derrelli. Endymion was next,
and he glanced around only briefly before looking up and reaching up to take
Reeni from Sailor Eos; with Reeni secure, the other Guardian quickly dropped
down, followed in short order by Sailor Cygni and Sailor Vulcan.
Derrelli paused before a large hatch.
“Okay,” he said when everyone had caught up.
“Through this hatch, and the corridor curves to the left. The door we need is on the right side, ten meters.
It’s likely that they’re set up and waiting for us like we were for
them. We need a bit of strategy for
this.”
There was a brief silence, and then Sailor Cygni spoke up.
“Hyper-attack. And I go
first, shield up. Derrelli, Sailor
Vulcan on either side, unleash area attacks until we close to point-blank range;
then we go melee and allow Sailor Astraea and King Endymion to close in.
Sailor Eos and London as sniper fire support, as well as protecting the
Princess.”
“Fast and furious,” nodded Derrelli, safeing his Pythons and placing
them back in their holsters. “Take
‘em down before they know what just happened.
I like it.”
The team shared a nod in agreement, and Derrelli loosened the hatch as
Sailor Cygni prepped her power.
“Ready?” Derrelli asked
quietly. Sailor Cygni gave a quick
nod of assent. Derrelli threw the
hatch across the hall, and Sailor Cygni was running before it even made contact
with the opposite wall, arms thrown open as she cried out.
“Cygni Gravity… SHIELD!”
She was just taking her second stride when Derrelli and Sailor Vulcan
leapt out after her, both already readying attacks; and as they began their
second stride, Endymion and Sailor Astraea leapt out.
It was right at this moment that the enemy forces, hidden behind a series
of crates, barriers, and canisters, opened fire.
A second later, a golden globe of sonic energy coruscated along Sailor
Vulcan’s fingertips; a small dart of flame burst to life on Derrelli’s
pointed index finger.
“Vulcan Shockwave… STRIKE!”
“Fireball!”
The two attacks shot by on either side of Sailor Cygni even as she winced
from the first weapon impacts on her shield; and in front of her the sonic blast
slammed into the hastily erected barricades, bowling the majority of them over;
several of the Nightmare’s crew were killed from concussion side effect
or being slammed into the wall behind from the force of the strike.
A large portion of the rest died when the dart exploded into a massive
ball of flame. The few containers
remaining were reduced to charred, flaming husks; fire suppression systems came
on automatically, using force fields to neutralize the remaining fires.
The suddenness of the assault left the survivors stunned and deafened.
Energy bolts, selectively striking exposed targets, began coming from
behind the five as they charged in; London and Sailor Eos were very careful
about when and where they fired. Their
sniper cover fire distracted and disheartened the defenders further, however,
giving the initiative fully over to the rescue team.
Sailor
Cygni dropped her shield as she summoned Orbiting Heart, Endymion drew
Excalibur, and Derrelli drew his staff, extending it to its full length.
Close quarters combat ensued, with Sailor Astraea and Sailor Vulcan
fighting hand-to-hand as the other three wielded their weapons.
Sailor
Astraea ducked under an energy bolt fired by a desperate defender; she responded
with a vicious rising snap kick that staggered her foe.
The Guardian of Truth slipped behind her and wrapped both arms around her
neck and head, giving a quick, violent opposing twist.
She then made a quick double-check to make sure that her neck was indeed
broken and she was indeed dead. She
looked up to see another defender rise up and level his weapon; she
instinctively dropped, to all fours, as the energy beam slammed into the wall
behind her; she swept him off his feet with her left foot, twisted around, and
brought her right knee down full force into his sternum with a very audible
cracking sound, blood spurting… and it wasn’t her knee that cracked or her
blood that was spurting. He was
already dead as she regained her feet. Her
eyes widened; two enemies leveled weapons at her.
She ducked; and both enemies suddenly fell, smoking, from sniper fire
courtesy of London and Sailor Eos.
Sailor
Vulcan calmly sidestepped a foe brandishing a rifle like a club, and ducked
under the next swing. She spun, and
placed her hand at the base of his neck. He
twitched and went down from the Vulcan Nerve Pinch.
She stooped and delivered a vicious chop to the throat, collapsing his
larynx. Her sharp hearing caused
her to duck again as Orbiting Heart whooshed by overhead; she looked up to see a
defender smashed into the ceiling, skull shattered, from a blow of Sailor
Cygni’s flail; a rifle clattered out of his hands.
She picked it up and quickly pointed it in Sailor Cygni’s direction;
Sailor Vulcan knew that the angle was bad for London and Sailor Eos even as she
pulled the trigger and killed the target leveling a rifle at Sailor Cygni’s
back. A briefest of nods was
exchanged between the two as they turned back to the fighting.
Derrelli
dived as his opponent fired, rolling and coming to his feet behind him; he
caught sight of Endymion out of the corner of his eye, moving to his right.
Derrelli grinned, and charged in; as his opponent fired again, Derrelli
came in low and brought the tip of his staff up in between his opponent’s
legs. With a gasp, his opponent
doubled over, and Derrelli used the other end of his staff to take him off his
feet and then swung his staff in a wide arc above his head, bringing it down
viciously on his opponent’s spine, severing it at the base of the neck.
He turned to see Excalibur beheading a target as another clutched her
midriff, before collapsing in a puddle of ichor.
Endymion shot a quick glance at Derrelli, eyes widening in alarm; but
Derrelli was already dropping his staff and turning as his Pythons came out of
their holsters, safeties clicking off. Thunder
echoed as two of the last four defenders were slammed back into the wall from
the force of the powerful bullets, their rifles clattering to the ground from
their now lifeless hands.
The
last two dropped as Excalibur separated their heads from their torsos in one
smooth swing.
The
rescue team formed up in front of their goal, the door that led to the Queen.
It was, naturally, reinforced. It
was, however, unlocked. They
exchanged a glance.
“Derrelli
to Orion. How many life
forms with the Queen?” Derrelli
asked as he picked up his staff, Pythons already holstered.
“Just
one,” replied the Isbanni comm officer after a second.
“Heran,”
London said softly. The group
exchanged glances.
“Sailor
Eos should stay out here with the Princess,” Derrelli said softly.
“London, you should remain also. It’d
be suicide for you to face him, if half of what you told us about this guy is
true. We’ve got pushed into a
corner a guy who killed hundreds of thousands of his own people… and he has our Queen
hostage. The five of us have to do
it… and we have to be precise.”
“Yeah,
and he’s waiting for us,” Sailor Cygni said.
“Why else would the door be unlocked?”
Another
moment of silence greeted that statement.
“Let’s not keep him waiting, then,” Endymion said harshly; he stepped up to the door.
It hissed open, revealing darkness within.