"LUNAR: Tales From Crystal Tokyo"
LUNAR:
Tales From Crystal Tokyo
By
Daryll Pung
Episode
3-17: Command Decisions
Rated:
R
Crystal
Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, 13 July 2740
Primary
Briefing Room
The plush surroundings of the chamber used for briefings for the Royals,
Planetaries and other signatories were extremely crowded at the moment.
Neo-Queen Serenity the First, King Endymion, and Princess Serena stood
near the front of the room, in earnest conversation with three diplomats; also
present was every Planetary and Knight, the captains of the rescue ships plus
all the powered individuals who’d been involved, and all three moon cat
advisors. Sorcerer Dramlyn was
present, as was Sailor Magneta, in her role as field commander of Omega Force.
It took a moment for Sorcerer Derrelli to recognize the three diplomats.
He shook his head slightly, amused; there was no sign of Juanita Flores,
but T’mal, Harrison Shuley, and Moira Benson all looked rather determined, and
excited about something.
Serenity put a hand up, stilling the conversation; she glanced around the
room, and nodded. The six
approached their seats. “Everyone,
please be seated. We have much to
discuss.” As everyone lowered
themselves into the comfortable chairs, she continued.
“It is time to come up with a comprehensive strategy for dealing with
our ‘supercruiser’ adversaries. First,
let us focus on the issue of the enemy ships themselves. Have there been any further developments regarding them that
we need to know about?”
A rather tired looking Sailor Mercury shook her head negatively. “Not regarding the ships, Serenity; and nothing extremely
surprising regarding the attackers themselves, either.
We’ve extracted terabytes upon terabytes of useful data; the
advancements we’ve already uncovered I’m positive are only scratching the
surface, but I’ve put a hold on further research at the moment, since true
analysis will take years… maybe decades, and our attention needs to be focused
elsewhere, such as applying what we’ve already learned.
Nothing new is right on the brink of a breakthrough, so I feel quite safe
doing so.” She paused.
“There is nothing about the enemy ships that leaps out and screams
weakness, but they do have a vulnerability we can attempt to exploit.
The biggest issue facing us is their sheer mass.
It takes an incredible amount of punishment to put one of those ships
out, much less a fleet. With the upgrades, and fully salvoed fire of the upgraded
death rays, this will be somewhat easier; but the fact remains targeting engines
will be the most effective, and it will still take a long time and expose our
ships to a lot of jeopardy to defeat their fleet.
We can thank whatever power you wish that they do not utilize shields, or
the situation would be much more untenable.
Individually, the invaders themselves are physically intimidating, tough,
and very durable, with multiple organ back-ups; the easiest way to kill them is
still with a direct shot to the head.”
“You have no suggestions for making this easier?” Reeni asked, her
expression despondent.
Sailor Mercury cocked her head. “One
or two… but it means giving some of our new tech secrets to our new, er,
allies of convenience.”
“Do go on,” Serenity prompted.
Sailor Mercury looked uncomfortable.
“Well, we had discussed this amongst ourselves while the
search-and-rescue was underway,” she began.
“The biggest problem is that while it could help us now… it could
hurt us in the long run if our allies
decide to go their separate ways once this is over.”
T’mal spoke up. “Begging
your pardon, Lady Mercury, Your Highness; but a significant exchange of your
discoveries, of technology in good faith, may help improve relations further
still; it may show all three nations that perhaps we should be trusted even
after this situation is resolved.”
“That could go both ways, though,” Sailor Magneta spoke up.
“It could also be taken, especially by the Dark Kingdom, as a sign of
gullibility; that we perhaps trust too easily, or are too generous.
In short, that we are fools.”
“Or are desperate,” added Sailor Jupiter with a nod.
“And thus ready for exploitation.”
“A rather grim view to take, ma’am,” put in Harry Shuley.
Sailor Magneta snorted. “When
you’ve seen as much of the bad side of the Dark Kingdom as the Omega Force
has, you tend to think grim about them.”
“And I’m sure the same goes for them, Sailor Magneta,” retorted
Moira Benson. “Look, we can all
sit here all day and dredge up all the awful things that our nations have done
to each other in the past. Goodness
knows that’s one heck of a long list. Point
is, this isn’t about that. We
have to trust right now… or, to quote an old saying, ‘united we stand,
divided we fall’. And believe us,
they know that too!”
“Do they?” asked a skeptical Venus Knight.
“Yes,” replied Mars Knight. He
glanced at the diplomats, and around the table.
“That treaty would not have been signed so quickly otherwise. Furthermore… furthermore, we had already received offers of
assistance regarding the attack on the Sol system, and for helping to find those
who were kidnapped.”
“No way,” breathed Dramlyn.
“We even,” continued T’mal, after a nod from Mars Knight,
“received very detailed files on those individuals who ran the pirate ship Nightmare,
from the Dark Kingdom… albeit just as you,” he paused to indicate those
involved, “were engaging them, rendering that point moot.
The fact does remain, however, that information and offers of assistance
were tendered to us in good faith… and it would behoove us to reciprocate the
gesture.”
Serenity looked thoughtful as she held up her hand to stop the debate.
“Amy, what sort of advances are we talking about?”
Sailor Mercury blinked. “Similar
to some of the advances to our technology, actually; ways to refine and collate
particles in lasers and tunneling beams to make them more potent; though not to
the degree of our new blasters. Plus,
with the work on the Pulsar Cannon, I found ways to potentially do something
similar to Droylian disruptors, making them more effective as well.
The upshot there is the Zerm laser weaponry could presumably
significantly harm the enemy; especially their battleship combination
multi-laser attack. Disruptor fire
could theoretically actually take enemy weapons emplacements offline by
short-circuiting them… rather permanently, not just temporarily.
And it should double the effectiveness of tunneling beams as a whole.
I believe a similar principle could be applied to the Matrix, as well,
and it should be possible to actually focus
the effect, say in a conical field, or maybe even a broad-spectrum beam or wave,
instead of just a sphere expanding in all directions. I’ve already found ways to use the micronization advances
to double the Starburst missile effectiveness, too; in theory, anyway.”
She hesitated.
“There’s more,” Luna spoke up.
It was a statement, not a question.
“Yeah,” Sailor Mercury replied softly.
“We can help the DK refine their EFA to match our own TPA efficiency, I
mean, they did acquire that technology
from us, so we know it best; and… well, I discovered a way to apply one of the
principles they use on the enemy lightning energy weapons to possibly increase
the firepower of the Negatorpedo; to the point where perhaps just one could blow
away an enemy supercruiser.”
“Whoa!” gasped Derrelli, as the room burst into alarmed, murmured
conversation.
“Pardon me, ma’am, but not only is that incredible, I’m not sure
that’s advisable,” frowned Sailor Ryujin.
“Giving that particular tidbit away, I mean.”
“Depends,” broke in Wizard Orien.
“Lady Mercury, do the Negatorps retain their vulnerability to point
defense?”
Conversation stilled, with all eyes once again on the blue-haired
Planetary. She nodded.
“In fact, it would be worse. If
a Negatorpedo is detonating in the area, and others run into that detonation,
then they should explode as well.”
Orien grinned. “Then I say
give the DK this secret; the supercruisers don’t use point defense. It would then be our jobs to provide firing opportunities for
the DK ships involved… assuming there’s more than one.” He paused. “And
it will be the perfect litmus test; we have a way to buy goodwill; and if they
try and turn on us, we already know the vulnerabilities of what we’re giving
them. Hey, we’re upgrading; might
as well throw a few bones out there to our ‘friends’.
Maybe I’m just biased, but we worked together well enough in the
Polaris system, and I think that can continue.”
Sailor Cygni spoke up. “How
does it work?”
Sailor Mercury shrugged. “A
type of energy cloning, actually; as the previous energy release is fading away,
certain particles introduced into the matrix duplicate and release the effects
all over again. It isn’t really
possible at this time to apply that to any of our
weapons, or the Zerm, or the Droylians’... but it is possible to apply that to
the unique aspects of the Negatorpedo, and due to the interactions therein, the
cloning effects would continue literally until there is no more solid mass for
the energy of the torpedo to ‘feed’ upon, or until interrupted by a directed
energy designed to destroy the effect.”
“Such as a directed point-defense shot from one of our ships, for
example,” Sailor Cygni said.
“Correct,” Sailor Mercury said.
“Ironically, due to the unique properties of the Negatorpedo, the
process would then reverse, consuming the whole torpedo, no matter how far the
effect has spread; and such energy annihilation expends ions outwards for quite
a radius, meaning that other Negatorpedoes that pass into that radius…”
“Also get taken out,” mused Artemis.
“So, the DK would actually have to spread these things out to even have
a chance at hitting our ships with them… making it even easier for us to pick
them off.”
“All things being equal,” frowned Sailor Mercury, “we’ll be
giving them ample opportunity for a clever captain to use them on us, with
enhanced tunneling beams- which would approach the power level of our old-style
blasters, and may I remind everyone of how fast they can fire their tunneling
beams- and the refined EFA.”
“All the same,” Sailor Cygni added, “would not a tunneling beam or
EFA effect also disrupt the Negatorpedo?”
Sailor Mercury blinked, and flicked her wrist, producing her handheld. After
a few furious seconds of inputting and computing, she blinked.
“Damn.
Yes, they would. That would
appear to be a rather massive weakness in the use of the Negatorpedo; any
energy field they pass through can cause premature destruction of the torpedo.
This also means they can’t have a subspace field active, either.
Why didn’t I see that earlier?”
“Well, you did have other things on your mind… like upgrading our technology,” grinned Mercury Knight.
“In short, we can control the damage they can do to us, if they decide
to dissolve the treaty and return to their previous diplomatic status with
us,” Serenity concluded. “And
the same goes with the other technological releases?”
“Yes, Serenity,” Sailor Mercury nodded.
“Very well. I feel that it
would be in our best interests to proceed with giving them the information,
starting with the preliminary data you have come up with, Amy.
So, Specialist T’mal, please establish contact with all three nations
immediately upon conclusion of this meeting and have the same envoys as previous
prepare for another summit. You may
clue them in as to the gift they will each be receiving, so that their best
minds are standing by to incorporate that data and begin updating their
fleets.” Serenity paused, and
looked around. “I believe, with
that data in hand, they will be all too happy in joining us in creating a
massive task force to engage the enemy. We
shall soon find out regardless.”
She let her gaze settle on Sailor Neptune briefly.
“I have a rather daunting task to place on your shoulders, Michelle.
You may recruit whatever help you need in implementing it.”
“Anything, Serenity,” the Planetary of the Oceans replied
determinedly.
“Come up with a plan; make it two
plans in case our allies decide not to cooperate with us, for taking the fight
past the galactic edge. We will no
longer wait for them to attack us; that is how you lose.
It is time to take the initiative and attack them,”
Serenity stated in ringing tones, a challenge in her voice.
Sailor Neptune’s eyes widened, and she nodded.
“As part of that plan, Captain Thompson will retain command of the SLS Unicorn. She has done
an admirable job with her ship and crew, and I see no reason to subvert that by
sticking a Senshi in charge… especially since we now have a bit of a
shortage,” Serenity continued. She
nodded at Captain Sheila Thompson, who was faintly flushed with the praise, and
had bowed her head. “There are
now quite a few operational ships that are captain-less, are there not?”
This was directed at Sailor Neptune.
“Fifteen, yes, Serenity… nine cruisers and six battleships,”
responded the teal-haired Planetary solemnly.
“I was holding off promoting captains from lesser ships until I
discussed the matter with you.”
“And the battleships are?” Reeni wanted to know.
Sailor Neptune glanced down at her microcomp.
“The SLS Oberon, the SLS Tournesol, the SLS Yorktown,
the SLS Tirpitz, the SLS Hood,
and the SLS Durandal all lost their command pairs in the battle, as well as a
large portion of their crews. That’s
been mostly remedied by this point, but they still need captains, at least.”
“As of this moment… I will take command of the Oberon;
and Small Lady will take command of the Tournesol,”
Serenity said calmly. “We will
lead the attack; naturally, my dear Endymion will accompany me, and Sailor Eos
with Small Lady. As for the other
three… I am sorry, Lita, but for the moment Omega Force is temporarily
reassigned to the fleet; Sailor Magneta, you will take command of the…
Michelle, which one is missing the most bridge crew?”
Sailor Neptune blinked, not the only one who was slightly stunned. “The Tirpitz.”
“Then Sailor Magneta and Omega Force will take over command of the Tirpitz, and Omega Force can fill in the roles of the bridge crew
there. What about the others,
Michelle?”
“Well, Hood and Durandal both really just need a captain, as both have wizards
aboard that can serve as first officers, though Hood needs a chief engineer. Yorktown
needs a command pair, head tactical officer, and head science officer. The Oberon is set,
since King Endymion can serve as first officer, though the Tournesol requires a first officer,” answered Sailor Neptune.
Serenity nodded. “Sorcerer
Dramlyn, you will serve as first officer aboard Tournesol.”
She thought for a second, and smiled.
“Sorcerer Derrelli, you will take command of the Yorktown.”
“Y-your Highness?” blinked a stunned Derrelli.
Serenity smiled. “I think
you will do well. Sailor Cygni, you
will serve as his second in command.”
“Your Highness… please, I’d rather be the science officer,” the
dark-haired beauty spoke up. “I…
I’m not quite ready to be back in a command role.”
Serenity’s expression softened in sympathy.
“I understand. Science
officer it is, then. In that
case… we will go with Wizard Duke as first officer, and Wizard Orien at
tactical, to fill in the missing posts on the Yorktown.”
Derrelli smiled. “Sounds
good to me, Your Highness.”
Sailor Cygni, Duke, and Orien all shared a glance, and a nod, with Duke
wearing an ear-splitting grin.
“Very good,” Serenity continued.
“Then we will place Sailor Ryujin as captain of the Hood,
with Sailor Astraea aboard as chief engineer… since we have no one at the
moment requiring her services as a Guardian. And Sailor Vulcan is hereby reassigned from the Orion
to captain of the Durandal, since we
require battleships now more than scout ships… especially since as in a few
short months, every ship in the fleet will be capable of cloaking.”
“And the cruisers, Serenity?” Sailor Neptune asked, busy making
notes.
“They are just missing the command pairs?” Serenity countered.
“Yes, the rest of their crews have been filled in,” Sailor Neptune
confirmed.
“Well, I count nine cruisers… and nine pairs of Planetary Senshi and
Knights,” Serenity said with a smile. “I
will leave it amongst yourselves who gets to command and who is first officer,
as well as which ship is whose, but all nine of those cruisers will form the
primary escort of the aforementioned six battleships… which will form the
spearhead of the Royal Star Navy as we attack.
All other details will be yours to establish, Michelle.
I will leave you to it. Stay
at ease, everyone; you have much to do.”
The room had gone silent during Serenity’s final pronouncements, but as
Serenity, Endymion, and Luna departed, it exploded into conversation.
The conversations abated as Sailor Neptune spoke.
“All right. I want to keep
the Planetary pairs here to assist with coming up with the required plans… and
so that we can engage in the sure-to-follow good natured debate over who gets
what. Specialist T’mal, I believe
you and your team have work to do; we shall not detain you any longer, but
please keep us informed as dialogue and events unfold.”
Sailor
Mercury spoke up. “Contact Skunk
Works, and have Alaramyth give you the preliminary data to pass on; she’ll
know what I mean. I’ll authorize
it right now.” The blue haired
Planetary produced her Mercury Computer, and set to work.
“Thank you, Lady Neptune, Lady Mercury,” the Vulcan said, as the
three diplomats stood. “We will
certainly do so.”
“Good luck,” added Moira.
“To us all,” nodded Sailor Neptune.
The three diplomats departed the room, the doors hissing shut behind
them.
Sailor Neptune glanced around the table.
“As for the rest of you… time is of the essence, and much work has to
be done on the fleet in general, and certainly on your ships in particular.
I’ve already put the new orders through; they’ll be posted in
minutes. Go now and take stock of
your ships; get a handle on what needs to be accomplished.”
She paused; a slight smile quirked her lips.
It wasn’t often a Planetary got to order around a Royal, but for the
moment Reeni was under her command. “Dismissed.”
Chairs were pushed back all over the room as it once again exploded into
noise.
Nimitz
Dockyard, In high Lunar orbit, Sol system, 13 July 2740
As the turbolift descended through the tubular structure leading to the
dock where the Yorktown was moored,
Derrelli shivered. He was excited,
if a bit nervous; anticipation was edged with a hint of anxiety.
Just a hint, though; he’d been in a command role before, in charge of a
large number of Sorcerers, and led them well in combat, and was confident he
could handle this challenge. And it
wasn’t as if he had no command experience aboard an RSN starship; he’d
commanded several excellent engineering departments.
Still, it was a significant change.
This time, almost two thousand lives were riding on his shoulders… and
ultimate authority on every decision was his.
Hence the jitters.
He glanced about the turbolift car.
They were headed to a quadrant of the dockyard he’d never been to; the
docks were divided into a dozen different areas, even though every berth was
rarely ever occupied at once like the current circumstance, and he’d only been
through about five of them. The
Nimitz dockyard was furthest from Starbase One, on the far side of the Skunk
Works; it was the one usually used for commissioning and decommissioning of
starships, or in this case handling overflow.
Sailor Cygni noticed his excitement.
She smiled. “Looking
forward to this?”
Derrelli nodded. “I rather
believe I am. I’m pretty
confident I can handle it; I’ve done well in command roles in the past, though
it’s a given I’ve had nothing on this scale.”
Duke snorted, with a grin on his face.
“C’mon, man, you’ve got an excellent safety net… the three of
us!”
GIA materialized. “Make
that four! And we’re always up to
help you kick some ass!”
“Hell, yeah,” added Orien. “You
can count on that, Pyro!”
“Definitely,” murmured Sailor Cygni, edging close.
She leaned against him, and lowered her head to his shoulder.
“I should warn you, though… it is a lot
of pressure, and ultimately, very isolated.
We’ll support you as best we can, but the burden is truly carried by
you. There’s only one at the top,
and it is extremely lonely to be a starship captain at times.
I just hope you do better than I did.”
“You did just fine, love,” Derrelli replied, with a slight frown.
Sailor Cygni gave a short, bitter laugh.
“I doubt history would agree. And
when you see what’s in the berth next to the Yorktown,
I don’t think you’d say that again.”
Derrelli stiffened, even as the lift stopped, and the doors hissed open.
They stepped out onto the viewing platform above the group of berths
containing the Yorktown and several
other ships. True to Sailor
Cygni’s words, as they approached the crystalline window, their eyes were
drawn not just to the battleship that resided in the center berth, but also the
berth beside it.
Sailor Cygni turned away first, tears glistening in her eyes, even as the
others let out their breath.
“The Bahumat,” murmured
Derrelli.
“What’s left of her,” added Orien grimly.
There was, indeed, very little remaining of the once-proud battlewagon.
Several sections of her forward hull, charred and pockmarked, contained
what remained of the environmental systems and still designated which ship it
was; but aside from that, the ship was now little more than warped skeletal
membranes and exposed conduits, much of which was being cannibalized and
recycled even as they watched.
It was a rather depressing
sight.
They shifted their attention to the whole battleship gleaming boldly in
the center, its name proclaimed across its bow.
There was scant evidence remaining of the encounter with the supercruiser,
but Derrelli’s trained eye could make out where the hull had been patched, and
a few faint scorch marks could still be seen.
There was activity here, too; but a more positive sort, as sections of
hull were missing around a few of the blaster arrays and the bright blink of
gamma welding showed upgrade work already in progress.
A faint smile crept across Derrelli’s face.
This was his ship, now; his responsibility.
It was now his job to get her ready for war, to make sure the upgrades
were done in a timely manner, and to make sure the crew was as prepared as they
could be. There was an institution
to live up to; as well… the Yorktown
had a deep tradition of valor in combat behind its name.
It would be a challenge to meet it.
A challenge he was sure he was capable of achieving.
“So, why are we all standing around here staring at the Yorktown
like idiots?” Derrelli said finally. “Let’s
go see what there is to see.”
“Right behind you, Captain,”
replied Duke sarcastically, with GIA giggling in response.
“Watch who you’re calling an idiot, honey,” responded Sailor Cygni,
her tone playful.
“After you, sir,” added Orien, shaking his head.
After a moment, he smirked. “At
least now they truly know who to go after if something gets charred.”
Derrelli just grinned as he led them down the access tunnel.