"LUNAR: Tales From Crystal Tokyo"
LUNAR:
Tales From Crystal Tokyo
By
Daryll Pung
Episode
3-16: From the Dark, a Glimmer of Light
Rated:
R
In
FTL transit, 11 July 2740
The
SLS Unicorn
The
bridge was in a much-improved frame of mind, following the successful recovery
mission two days prior. This was
evident in every aspect; from the more upbeat tones of reports, orders, and
replies; to the occasional jokes, and lack of tension in all the crew’s
posture. It was a big change from
just a few days ago, and Sailor Ryujin shook her head as she glanced around.
The powered individuals were in their expected positions… Wizard Duke
was naturally at helm, with Wizard Orien eyeing his displays at tactical.
Surprisingly, though Sailor Astraea was indeed in engineering, Sorcerer
Derrelli was leaning against the back bulkhead, next to Sailor Cygni at the
science station, and they were deep in conversation about something.
The
blonde surfer girl leaned back in the first officer’s chair, and looked at
Captain Sheila Thompson. “Wonder
what they’re on about?” she commented, pointing her thumb over her shoulder
at the two.
Sheila
smiled slightly. “Not sure.”
She shrugged. “If it’s
important, we’ll hear about it.”
Doors
hissed open at the back of the bridge, and Sailor Ryujin looked up to see Sailor
Eos step out, followed by a much healthier looking Princess Serena.
“Admiral
on the bridge,” reported Unicorn, before anyone else could say a word.
Reeni
smiled. “As you were,” she said.
She looked around, and took two steps in, and then the doors hissed open
behind her again.
Out
stepped Neo-Queen Serenity the First and King Endymion.
Before Unicorn could even speak, Serenity raised a hand.
“At ease, everyone.”
Sheila
stood. “It’s good to see you up and about, ma’am.”
RSN protocol dictated that when aboard a starship, the normal forms of
address for the Royals went out the window… they were, instead, treated as
their ranks of Admiral, Fleet Admiral, and General of the Order of Sorcerers
respectively. This is a good
thing, Sheila reflected, since all three are now on my bridge.
“It
is good to be up and about, Captain Thompson,” Serenity replied with a faint
smile. “Thank you.” She
swept the bridge with her glance. “To
all of you. But now, I must know;
what is the situation in the Sol system? What
is the latest news with that offending ship… that, as you have all begun to
call them, supercruiser? My dear Endymion
has brought me current with the data as of when you departed to rescue
myself and Small Lady; I would now learn the full details discovered since.”
There
was a brief silence, and then Sailor Cygni spoke up.
“It’s… not good, ma’am. The
death tally has climbed over a hundred and fifty thousand, both military and
civilian; injuries totaled even higher, and total damage estimates are now worse
than two billion credits… and climbing. Pluto
Station Five, Neptune Station Three, Saturn Station Four, Jupiter Stations Two
and Three, and Mars Stations Five, Six, and Seven were completely destroyed.
Starbase One suffered heavy damage, as did numerous of the other smaller
stations. In addition to the
confirmed eighty-seven active starships destroyed fifteen more that were under
construction were also obliterated; most of those new constructs were
battleships. Every sensor platform
in the system is a total loss, as well as over fifty percent of the defensive
platforms. If that wasn’t enough,
the Destiny is out of action for the
next year; the damage there was more extensive than initially feared.
There is no way of rushing that. And
of the casualties… two hundred twenty-seven were Senshi or Sorcerers.”
At
the end of this report, the bridge was stunned, and Serenity finally sighed.
“The money is no large concern,” she said quietly.
“We have sufficient treasury to cover that sort of impact, and our
economy remains strong. The
rest…” She blinked, tears
glistening in her eyes. “Is there
no good news?”
Sailor
Cygni shared a glance with Derrelli. “Actually,
there is; which we were just discussing. With
so much damage, so many ships out of commission, and only so much that can be
done on the recovery front at the moment, there were a lot of idle hands… and
in a stroke of brilliance on Sailor Mars’ part, every single one, even those
who were injured yet capable of light work, was placed at Sailor Mercury’s
disposal to tear into the two captured supercruisers.
I don’t think Sailor Mercury herself has slept much in the time since,
considering the developments; and as we understand it, she’s temporarily
halted every other research project for the moment, moving all of her
development teams to the supercruisers. There
is a laundry list of new advancements in the final stages… do you want them
all, ma’am?”
Serenity
glanced around, ending with meeting Reeni’s gaze.
“Why not. You can explain
if I have questions, correct?”
“Of
course, ma’am… at least to the extent of the information I’ve received
thus far.” Sailor Cygni took a
breath, and pressed her panel, activating on screen two a schematic of a
torpedo. “We’ve so far scored a
wealth of information from those captured ships… including advances in
micronization, metallurgy, particle beam focusing, and in a very exciting new
development, controlled matter phasing. This has resulted in several weaponry advances.
Firstly, final refinements are complete to the Dragon torpedoes;
they’re now equipped with miniature shielding to prevent easy destruction of
them as they emerge from launchers. It
should take around three shots from our point
defense to destroy one… and may I remind you that we have the most efficient
point defense systems around? Even
moreso, now… but I’ll get to that in a moment.
The Dragon torp’s yield, in part due to Derrelli’s idea of focusing
through gestalt, has been tripled, as well; thank goodness for the new
artificially crafted gestalt.”
Several
whistles greeted that statement.
“Next,
similar advances have been applied to the old mainstays of our torpedo weaponry.
Both Phoenix and Ghost torpedoes are also now equipped with those
shields, to the same effect. Also,
with the shielding in place, it’s theorized that all those torpedoes can
easily sail through the DK subspace field intact, countering that advance; all
that remains is to actually shoot at a DK ship with that subspace field active
and find out. In addition, the
yields of Phoenix and Ghost torpedoes have also been doubled… because the core
equipment is now much smaller, so more can be packed in them,” Sailor Cygni
said, screen two changing with her panel presses to follow her explanation.
“Nice,”
whispered Orien.
Sailor Cygni’s lips quirked as she pressed her science panel again. “Nice is yet to come, Orien,” she commented.
“Behold, the new Banshee torpedo.
It is an antimatter-matter torpedo, with a yield approximately two-thirds
that of the new Phoenix torpedo, making it still more potent than the
current batch of Phoenix torpedoes.”
“Pardon me, Sailor Cygni, but that doesn’t sound so spectacular,”
interrupted Reeni.
“Ah, but just one of these
is capable of destroying most of our enemies,” grinned Sailor Cygni.
“The yield is far less… because of the phasing equipment.
When firing one of these bad boys, you specifically program a target
point… and I’m not just talking on a target’s hull, though you certainly
could do that, too. But you could
lock it on, say, the enemy engine core, and fire.
Once it leaves the launch bay, its shields will be up, like the rest of
the new torpedoes… and then it will phase out of this universe.”
“It will what?” gasped Sailor Ryujin.
“It will phase out, by one stage of existence, as I understand the
theory… kind of like comparing sine and cosine waves.
If a sine wave is our normal reality… then when the Banshee torpedo
races to its target, it is in a state of cosine in comparison, just a stage out
of phase, just enough where it can even travel through solid objects
intact. This includes all energy
fields, like shields, the Zerm Matrix, and even point defense… no technology
that any of the races we currently know of possesses can stop this torpedo.
Not even the invading supercruisers… though it would probably take
quite a few to do them in, considering their bulk.
At any rate, once the torpedo reaches its designated target, it phases
back in… and detonates.”
“Whoa,” murmured Duke. “So
let me get this straight… an antimatter torp suddenly appears in an enemy’s
engine core and explodes. Instant
destruction of the enemy’s core… and likely, the enemy itself.”
“Exactly,” nodded Sailor Cygni.
“Only problem is going to be numbers.
That will be one of our rarer torpedoes; the tech is so new and
components so foreign that production is going to be slow… for some time to
come. The torpedo is not quite
ready yet… but not for lack of trying. Sailor
Mercury’s attempting to get it proved for fleet use ASAP.”
“That’s… quite a weapon,” murmured Serenity, eyes wide.
Sailor Cygni shrugged. “Best
estimates at this time show maybe a dozen per ship’s armory for next decade or
so; as I’ve said, production will be an issue.
So, we’ll have to use them sparingly as possible.”
She pressed her panel. “But
I’m not done yet. Next, we move
into the beam weapon department.” A
schematic of a blaster array appeared; she manipulated it to zoom in on the
individual assemblies, and highlighted several new components. “Why continue to use just one portion of an atom, when we
know a combination of matter and antimatter is far more effective?
The blasters are being upgraded as well, using what we’ve learned from
that lightning weapon to more tightly focus and control the beam… and change
the components. Against shielding,
it will deliver equal jacketed streams of matter and antimatter, for a level of
impact per shot near ninety percent of current Phoenix torpedo loads… without
the drawbacks of torpedoes, namely materials required, intercept capability, et
cetera; and with a faster reload and more precise targeting.
With an automatic computer routine, the stream changes to pure antimatter
against enemy hulls… making the damage roughly seventy five percent of the new
Phoenix torpedo yields, with the same benefits.
The enhanced blasters will fire at the same rate as currently… the
recharge time is just slightly increased; no way around that, since the
antimatter must be collected, properly contained, and channeled safely.
We will, however, retain the original blaster format capability, because
there’s no way the enhanced blasters can be used to just disable; they’re
too powerful for that. And the proton stream effect might still be more efficient
point defense… even if it is less powerful.
Again, simple computer routines can regulate all these firing modes.
The best part is, by sacrificing the components of Phoenix torpedoes…
all ships can upgrade their blasters in the field; Sailor Mercury is finalizing
those upgrades now. The field
upgrades will be slightly less effective than an actual systems refit, but
they’ll do for now. I believe it’s one torpedo per ten meter segment of blaster
array; but we’ll see what the final amount is.”
“Very cool,” nodded Shelia.
“Ah, but there’s still more,” Sailor Cygni said, pressing her
panel; the display changed to show a proton cannon assembly.
“Similar upgrades can be performed to the proton cannons… to each
individual emitter element; due to the difference in power, however, I believe
it’s one Phoenix torp per emitter element.
The end result is a very impressive quintupling of the yield of
each proton cannon.”
“Quintupling? As in, by a
factor of five?” gasped Sailor Ryujin.
“That’s right,” nodded Sailor Cygni.
“Kinda boggles the imagination, when you think about it… but each
cannon has so many emitter elements densely packed in the cannon that the end
result is a very massively focused, very powerful beam of matter and antimatter. Could easily blow a largish asteroid out of existence, no
problem. And yeah, it will take
quite a few torpedoes to perform all these upgrades… but the majority of our
ships are currently all close in, performing defensive duties, near various
supply depots at the moment, so the supplies necessary are close at hand, even
for transports and scout ships. Plus,
the same upgrades can be applied to fighters.”
She paused, letting all that sink in.
“And, surprisingly, there’s still more.
Presenting the new Pulsar Cannon.”
She tapped her panel, and the schematic changed, showing the new weapon
assembly. “Taking some of the new
beam confinement advancements into account, Sailor Mercury decided to apply it
to a couple of otherwise generic and relatively one-sided technologies…
Droylian disruptors, and fusion beams. This
little toy combines and overlays the energies of both, focusing them several
times over into pulses- I believe five per fire- that are equally devastating to
shields and hulls… striking with the force of a fusion beam to both.”
Orien winced. “Ouch.”
Endymion raised an eyebrow. “That’s
pretty good. As I recall, fusion
beams can even tear our hulls to pieces pretty easily.”
Sailor Cygni nodded. “Yes,
they can; they’re just highly ineffective against shielding.
And Droylian disruptors are more potent against shielding… but not so
powerful in attacking hulls. Which
is why when they manage to drop your shields, they tend to focus their disruptor
fire on your weaponry, so that their missiles can get through intact and tear
you up. And this weapon takes away
the weaknesses of both.”
“Why would we need another energy weapon?
Especially one that, from the looks of it, cannot be built into arrays,
and has a limited firing arc?” Reeni asked quietly.
“The obvious answer, ma’am, is we still have a rapidly recharging
energy weapon to fire at an enemy while retaining point defense,” commented
Orien, who wore a grin. “This is
all very sweet stuff.”
Reeni blinked, and cocked her head, examining the display.
“I see what you mean. That
could be useful.”
“Well, I do have one question… all these new technologies; do they
have the same power drain? Are our
ships going to be able to handle them?” Serenity queried.
“Not all of them… but then, the pulsar cannons are a refit weapon
only. And for my next trick…” Sailor Cygni grinned as she
touched the panel again; the display changed to show a GM engine core.
“Our engine cores. You may recall Derrelli himself came up with some recent
upgrades that increased the efficiency of our engines.
Well, studying the supercruiser’s cores, damaged though they were, has
led to a two-stage method of tripling the power output of our engine
cores, while increasing efficiency from the current ninety-five percent standard
to ninety-nine point three percent. This
will, unfortunately, not provide too much of an increase in speed factors…
since that’s largely limited by field coils, ship design, and the like; but it
will still provide some. More
importantly, that gives a lot of extra power throughout refitted ships for
additional weaponry, spare power to boost IDF and SIF, shields, etc… as well
as a couple of other things I haven’t gotten to yet.”
Derrelli
spoke up. “The stages include
more tightly condensing the element stream for a more precise, targeted
reaction… and an assembly to actually use the neutron flow as more than just a
stream to carry the reactants, but as a focus of the reaction, to burn neutrons
and anti-neutrons as well… not that there’s that much difference between the
two, from a contemporary standpoint. But
as it turns out, it is possible to harness the neutrinos that are usually a
byproduct of an antimatter-matter reaction or explosion… and they actually do
provide quite a bit of energy. This
has an added effect of practically eliminating all exhaust from our FTL cores,
making it more difficult for the enemy to track one of our ships if they’ve
jumped. The environmental bonus is
also nice, coupled with the increased efficiency; we can now jump while in a
planet’s atmosphere with no ill effects to either the jumping ship or the
planet. Similar refinements can be
applied on a lesser scale to our fusion engines and thrusters as well,
increasing their output as well as acceleration and maneuverability.”
“Excellent,”
commented Serenity, nodding approvingly. “You
said there was more, Sailor Cygni?”
“Yes,
ma’am,” Sailor Cygni said, tapping her panel; a schematic of a shield grid
popped up. “Sailor Mercury also found a way to apply that energy
confinement to shielding… and with a few tweaks in a refit, our shield
effectiveness would double.”
“Double?”
smiled Sailor Ryujin. “Hell yeah!
Each layer?”
“Each
layer, each arc,” confirmed Sailor Cygni.
“She then went and explored applying those properties to our other
important fields… and found ways to improve our IDF and SIF fields, mostly by
more tightly refining the distribution of the field energies.
This provides not only a bit more survivability for our ships, but
enables another increase in acceleration and maneuverability. It also makes adding the additional weapons easier, and takes
the worry out of the increased speed the ship does get. Tests have shown no additional stress on the frames of the
testbeds, but that’s something that we will have to keep an eye on.”
She
pulled up another schematic. “And
I know, ma’am, that the cloaking device is kind of a sticky topic, but…”
Serenity
shook her head. “We will come up
with tight guidelines regulating their use, but after recent events, they have
certainly proven their usefulness. We
will equip all ships with them… and a method whereby we can track our own
ships reliably, and no one else can.”
Sailor
Cygni grinned, waving towards the breakdown now on screen two.
“Already done, using a combination of subspace communications and that
new phasing technology… and that also enables long-range communications whilst
cloaked. That phase tech can also
be applied to cloaking devices to de-phase the whole ship from the universe.
That particular aspect, though, is still being very carefully and
rigidly tested, because the risks are great, unlike the conventional cloak; the
functionality of which we would keep. From
what I’ve seen here, the suggested method of operation would be standard
cloak, unless the risk of detection is
too great, whereupon activating a phase cloak would work.”
She paused. “Of course,
phase cloaking would also remove the starship in question from the hazards of
the normal universe; so theoretically, a phase-cloaked ship could move through
an ion storm, an asteroid field, or even a star, without suffering any ill
effects. Theoretically. However, should the device malfunction at any time…”
“Disaster,”
commented Derrelli.
“Right,”
nodded Sailor Cygni. “So, that is
going to require extensive work, especially on making the device as reliable as
our SIF, IDF, and environmental systems.”
She paused. “On a related
note, sensor systems have been tweaked, as well; with increased capabilities
that could allow our ships to even detect other cloaked starships, using tachyon
detection systems, based on the information I discovered from the biologic
encounter we had.”
“I
see,” Serenity nodded. “Impressive. Sailor Mercury and her people have certainly been busy.”
“Yes,
they have, ma’am… and there’s one more upgrade, a finalization of
something first in development from when a certain ship called ShadowDancer
initially dropped by. Examination
of the metals used in that supercruiser has led to a new way of easily
manufacturing duralloy; a hybrid metal even stronger than duranium, which is
part of our hull matrix, combined with crystal.
Now, we still will find it far easier to make our ships hulls out of
their current materials; especially with the way a plate of duralloy reacts to
weapon impacts, disintegrating in thin, miniscule sheets as the energy-
particulate or kinetic- is expended over the whole surface area of the plate.
However, such sheets are easily recovered after the conclusion of a
fight, and with new developments, can be recycled back into raw materials and
rebonded to the plate, although that is a time-consuming repair,” Sailor Cygni
said.
“What
are you getting at?” asked Duke.
“Duralloy
armor,” grinned Derrelli. “We
can apply a layer of armor plating to all of our ships.
If applied in plates, we can conform to the existing curves of the hull;
and because the metal is so tough, a layer half a meter thick will double the
toughness of our hulls. You could
consider the armor an additional layer of shielding once the shields fall, and
such a thin layer would not noticeably affect the performance of any ship; nor
would it really interfere in any of the systems, be it sensors, weapons, or
shielding, since it is installed in plates and can be molded around said
systems.”
Sailor
Cygni nodded affirmative. “It
should prevent general damage, at least until it drops below about twenty-five
percent in that plate; shock damage could then potentially occur to whatever’s
underneath. Precisely targeted hits
on engines, weapons, and the like would still take them out, since the armor
cannot be placed over them… but the ship as a whole is more durable, even with
shields down, and permanent damage would only be inflicted to what is under the
armor after the armor is completely blasted away.”
“And
unlike shields, which tend to collapse as a whole once a couple of arcs go down,
armor does not,” Derrelli added. “Each
area of the ship would have to be particularly targeted and pounded.”
Serenity’s
eyes lit up. “I like it,” she
murmured. She paused.
“Now for the big question… how long to apply all this, especially
with recovery operations underway in the Sol system, and the state of siege we
seem to find ourselves under?”
Sailor
Cygni frowned. “The complete
refits will take the better part of three years to complete.
However, even with the repair and recovery efforts, the field refits to
existing proton cannons and blaster systems, as well as applying the duralloy
armor and monitoring systems, equipping cloaking devices and the comm system
enhancements for them, can all be completed within three months on every ship in
the fleet. I think every ship’s
engineering, science, and tactical departments would be properly motivated to
get that accomplished. Torpedo
supplies can also be fully changed out by that point, with the exception of the
Banshee torpedo… though some may be deployed for use, experimental or not,
against the supercruisers as necessary. That’s
assuming the bastards give us that long.”
Sailor Cygni then blushed. “Apologies,
ma’am.”
“I
am sorry, Sailor Cygni, did you say something?” smiled Serenity.
“Trust me, I grew up around Lita and Raye.
I have heard far worse.” She
looked thoughtful. “We must
endeavor to give ourselves that time. What
is our ETA to the Sol system?”
Duke
gave his panel a quick glance, although he already knew the answer.
“Two more days, ma’am. I’m
afraid our engines just can’t take any more abuse; they’ve been beat pretty
good already.”
Derrelli
frowned. “Yeah.
Maintaining them at eighty percent right now is dangerous; microfractures
have been detected in numerous locations on the grids themselves and the
conduits… and we sure don’t want that on the reactor, because then we’d
have no choice but to shut it down or risk blowing us all to kingdom come.
That one hundred thirty eight percent from Polaris to Sol, followed by a
hundred twenty percent from Sol to the Kappa Zone… well, impressive though
that flank speed run was, it was bad on the engines, worse than feared, and only
recently did we discover just how bad.”
Serenity
nodded, as the doors to the lift hissed open, and Brad London stepped out,
before drawing up short.
“Your
Highnesses,” he managed, blinking.
“Ah,
Mister London,” smiled Serenity. “As
I understand it, your help was invaluable on this rescue mission.”
“Well,
Your Highness, I just did what I could,” Brad said, still a bit stunned at the
company he found himself in. “And
I was quite pleased to help.”
“Yes,
I understand that those responsible for our kidnappings were also responsible
for destroying your ship, crew, and livelihood.”
She paused. “Well, the
crown cannot appear to be ungrateful. Therefore,
we will grant you the construction of a new ship… with limited access to our
technology, and you would, of course, be responsible for finding your own
crew.”
Brad
couldn’t move, or even speak. He
was quite stunned, his mouth hanging open.
Finally, he managed to come to his senses.
“Y-your Highness?”
Serenity
smiled. “It may have to wait a short while, you understand, at
least until the immediate threat of these supercruisers is dealt with.
And I would be… upset if you enticed some of our people away from us
for your crew.”
“Of
course, Your Highness. I, I don’t
know what to say,” Brad replied.
“’Thanks’
works well,” snorted Derrelli dryly, as grins appeared around the bridge.
“It
does indeed,” agreed Brad emphatically. “It
does indeed. Thank you very much,
Your Highness.”
Serenity’s
smile simply broadened.
Entering
the Sol system, 13 July 2740
The
SLS Unicorn
As the RSN cruiser and her scout ship escort, the SLS Orion,
moved into the system, the mood on the bridge, as opposed to a couple of days
earlier, was solemn. The three
Royals were once again present; and viewing the aftermath of the carnage sent
the impact home far more than simple reports could have… even as bad as they
had been. Granted, they usually
toured disaster areas of significance- weather-related disasters on planet
surfaces were usually toured only by the Planetary Councils, but astronomical or
conflict related disasters always drew the attention of at least one of the
Royals- and that let people know that they cared.
But this was different. The
casualties were bad, it was true; the damages significant.
The real sticking point was the fact that this devastation had been
wrought in a matter of minutes.
Even when the DK had managed to break through and bombard Earth during
the Second Lunar-Nega War, that battle had taken days of fighting… and
actually had less GM casualties, especially on the civilian front, because there
had been enough warning to get civilians to safety, be it out of system or in
various hardened facilities.
The debris fields were being heavily attacked now, by construction ships
of various companies; what materials that remained were going to be atomically
recycled. And since the recovery of
the Royals, all other searching starships had been called home, so the garrison
in the Sol system alone was very impressive, with warships of various classes
energetically patrolling the system as far as the eyes could see… or sensors,
for that matter.
“Talk about closing the barn door after the horse is gone,” muttered
Derrelli, mostly to himself; Sailor Cygni nodded agreement as she overheard.
As they proceeded in, various salvage ships could be seen working on the
sensor platforms and the practically destroyed defensive platforms.
Scout ships were positioned at regular intervals, their sensors pounding
space with active search energy, not caring one whit about who knew it.
After all, more supercruisers were still out there…
“Duke, take us to geo-synchronous orbit of Luna,” ordered Sheila
presently, interrupting everyone’s grim thoughts.
“I believe the shipyard’s a little too busy for us.”
“Aye, ma’am,” Duke responded automatically; the cruiser’s course
altered imperceptibly, followed seconds later by the Orion.
After the two ships crossed over the belt, and while they were arcing
down towards Luna, Serenity turned to Sailor Cygni.
“How bad is the damage to Starbase One?”
Sailor Cygni paused a moment, and sighed.
“Screen three, ma’am,” she said as she pressed her panel,
channeling the live sensor feed to that screen.
It blinked on, to show that over half the starbase was a charred shell,
skeletal membranes bearing the bright blink of repairs already begun. Some chunks of debris still surrounded the starbase; they
were being cleaned up by construction ships as the bridge crew watched.
Serenity regarded this with a glimmer of moisture in her eyes; yet her
expression was defiant, determined. “Thank
you, Sailor Cygni,” she said firmly.
Sailor Cygni returned screen three to its original display of position
reports even as comm spoke up. “We’re
being hailed by RSN HQ.”
“Screen one,” said Sheila.
The screen blinked on to show the central communications node of the
Royal Star Navy… and every Planetary Senshi and Knight save for the Mercurys.
All looked extremely pleased.
Serenity stepped forward. “Our
shuttles will be down momentarily; prepare the main briefing room.
I believe we have much to discuss.”
She paused, and smiled. “I
am very happy to see all of you.”
“Same here, Serenity,” smiled Sailor Mars.
She
paused, and glanced around.