"LUNAR: Tales From Crystal Tokyo"
LUNAR:
Tales From Crystal Tokyo
By
Daryll Pung
Episode
3-03: Shroud Of War
Rated:
R
Behind
an asteroid near the Shroud, Dreyious Prime, 28 May 2740
For a greatly extended period of time, the Dreyious system has been a
neutral system trapped between empires. A
single habitable planet, surrounded by massive asteroid fields, it naturally
became a haven for smugglers, mercenaries, pirates, and other such undesirables.
After a period of disturbance on the planet, caused by such riff-raff,
the planetary government barred any further types of those activities on the
planet itself and launched an aggressive and vicious campaign to end them.
It said and did nothing about the perimeter of the system, in the midst
of asteroid belts that were barely touched.
So, the Shroud was born: a spaceborne
base that had bars, cargo facilities, black and slave markets, and
all sorts of entertainment venues. It
is buried deep within the thickest section of the asteroid field, and is
partially built into a quartet of hollowed out asteroids.
Continued bribes have made a nice profit for the Dreyians, so they've
turned a blind eye to the Shroud's continued existence.
Until now.
The Golden Millennium, no longer tolerating the ship known as Nightmare,
which often based at the Shroud, has made an offer the Dreyians couldn't refuse;
the profitability of being a GM member world and allowing GM access to the
massive resources present in the system, not to mention GM protection in the
form of a promised starbase, far outweighs all the bribes from the Shroud.
Hence, although it took far longer to bring about than the GM initially
wanted, their problems were about to be at least partially solved...
The
SLS Pleiades II
The cloaked scout ship Pleiades II, hiding just behind an asteroid
in close sensor range of the Shroud, was one of two exceptions in the fleet at
the moment; it was an exception because over the past six months, every scout
ship that could cloak was reassigned non-powered captains, with powered ones
going to the ships that couldn't; this naturally did not include the Omega Force
ship, SLS Draco II. The
other exception was also a participant in this mission:
the SLS Orion, captained by Sailor Vulcan.
This policy change belied the fact that the cloaking devices were proving
their usefulness across the board; Neo-Queen Serenity the First was actually
reconsidering the widespread use of them on all ships for that reason.
Sailor Orion stood from the captain's chair, and slowly paced around the
bridge. Sailor America, lounging in
the chair, next to the captain's, with her legs crossed grinned slightly.
"Bored?" she asked teasingly.
Sailor Orion rolled her eyes. "How
can you tell?" she asked blandly, crossing her arms behind her back, and
glancing at monitors as she strolled by them.
"Ma'am! Receiving a
voice communication from the Orion!" comm called out across the
bridge.
Sailor Orion half-turned, stopping to eye the comm station.
"And?"
"Sailor Vulcan on the SLS Orion reports they are in position, and
the SLS Sanctity's assault group, led by the Triton twins, is also ready
to go," comm reported.
Sailor America yawned. "So,
they're all waiting on us, huh?" she said dryly.
Sailor Orion turned towards the science station.
"Latest scan results?"
"The Nightmare is still there, ma'am."
Sailor Orion raised an eyebrow. "Send
affirmation to both; target is present and moored."
"Sent, ma'am," reported comm.
"And once this place is dealt with, that pretty much concludes our
role," Sailor America commented.
"Yeah, then we do an in-depth scan of this asteroid field, tallying
the resources," Sailor Orion snorted, and grinned.
"The life of a scout ship..."
The
SLS Orion
"The Nightmare is still there, ma'am," reported Sailor
Vulcan's new comm officer. Proud
yet nervous, the young Isbanni female waited patiently for Sailor Vulcan's
reply.
The Senshi of Logic stood, thoughtfully eyeing the screen.
"Move us into comm range for short range communications," she
ordered, with nary a trace of emotion. "Prepare
to send this message: Attention all
occupants of the Shroud. You have
ten minutes to clear the area and never return; this system is now a GM trust
territory, pending full membership. Anything
or anyone remaining after ten minutes is subject to confiscation or arrest... or
worse."
Sailor Vulcan turned. "Send
that as a repeating message, with time counting down in thirty-second intervals,
on all frequencies, and signal the Sanctity to get ready on my mark;
deploy a beacon for continuous transmission."
"Aye, aye, ma'am!" comm replied, before busily working at her
console, and programming the necessary message.
She glanced up as she tapped the panel with finality.
"Beacon away and message sent, ma'am!"
The
Shroud
A blurp of static abruptly silenced the bar; it suddenly burst into a
female voice, speaking in Galactic Common, and the message was ominous.
Heran frowned, sitting bolt upright, his drink suddenly forgotten. Dreyious Prime a GM territory?
Sanctuary blown away by the invaders?
The list of hidey-holes was shrinking dramatically.
Together with Aaryx and Neris, the officers of the Nightmare bolted out
of their seats. Some fools were
drawing weapons and loudly proclaiming their defiance; but the majority of
Shroud occupants were bolting for their ships.
No one here was under the illusion about how they'd fare against a GM
fleet; and a RSN battle group was what simply had to be behind such a message. Even the Nightmare, with all its goodies, couldn't
handle such a task force.
"Run, you cowards!" screamed the first officer of a Grokshin
pirate ship. Heran paused long
enough to raise his Miraxic disrupter and save the GM the task of killing him;
the blue beam drilled out, nailing him dead center; and even as he screamed and
slowly dissolved the trio continued on their way, barely breaking stride.
The docking bays were scenes of frantic activity as the trio raced by;
the voice counted down through five minutes.
As they rounded a corner, they could see the pair of guards that stood by
the access tube to where the Nightmare was moored; Heran nodded, and the
trio entered the tube first, the guards sealing and locking it before they, too,
followed. As the hatch leading to
the Nightmare closed behind the guards, the access tube began to retract
as oxygen was vented; the Nightmare began to move away.
Three minutes and counting.
The
Nightmare
"Report," ordered Heran as he stalked on to the bridge.
"RSN battle group, led by a battleship, approaching, boss!"
snapped the officer monitoring the science station.
"Coming around the asteroids!"
"Get us the hell out of here," ordered Heran.
The Nightmare, looking like a feral, horrific bird of prey, swung
about, and its sublight engines flared as the ship accelerated among one of the
many escape paths through the asteroids.
The
SLS Orion
"Track and follow them," ordered Sailor Vulcan.
"Close to ten kilometers. Inform
the Pleiades that they now have command; we're fulfilling our portion of
the mission parameters."
"Sent, ma'am," reported the comm officer.
Sailor Vulcan moved to her captain's chair, and slowly, properly,
emotionlessly, sat down. But in her
eyes was a faint smile. The prey
was in her sights.
Shame, for the moment, that she couldn't shoot.
The
SLS Pleiades II
"Count remaining?" asked Sailor Orion.
"Two minutes," reported comm.
"Right," Sailor Orion said with a faint smile.
Her eyes focused on screen two, which showed mercenaries fleeing as fast
as they could.
"Like rats deserting a sinking ship," chortled Sailor America.
"Yeah," nodded Sailor Orion.
"I'm sure they'll all find some new system from which to ply their
trades; plenty of neutral systems about."
"Shame we aren't opening fire yet," smirked Sailor America as a
mercenary zipped past the Pleiades at a scant fifteen kilometers away.
"Soon enough," nodded Sailor Orion.
She turned to science. "Status?"
"Most of the fleeing ships are now out of range of the Shroud; the
remaining seem to be establishing some sort of defense grid; the Shroud's
weapons and shielding are coming online," science reported.
"Standard polaron torpedoes and neutron beams," reported
tactical. "None of the
defenders, nor the station, is much of a threat."
"No, the problem will be to capture the Shroud fairly intact,"
Sailor Orion mused. "Historically,
it's a heck of a lot easier to destroy then to take over."
"Count is down to thirty seconds," comm reported.
"On my mark, send voice message to the Sanctity battle group:
light 'em up and go to war," Sailor Orion said.
"Message ready; ten seconds..."
The
Shroud
Precisely one second after the count terminated, the GM battle group
burst from around the nearby asteroids like a flood bursting from a breached
dam. Arcing in all directions,
there was nevertheless a pattern to how the ships moved as they launched the
attack. Fighters streamed from the
assault force, and the various groups closed rapidly.
Blue energy beams began to lance out from the Shroud and several of the
ships; some white, orange, and purple beam fire was mixed in as well. Orangish torpedoes shot from their launchers as the pirates
and mercenaries hired to protect the Shroud let fly the opening salvo.
Yellow blaster fire flashed out, intersecting the incoming torpedoes and
destroying them harmlessly. Bluish
arcs flashed as the energy beams hit the GM starships; and yet the GM didn't
fire. Reddish exhaust lengthened
behind them as they increased speed, closing rapidly; only when the ships were
within point blank range did the RSN ships unleash their firepower.
Beam after beam of blaster fire pounded the Shroud defenders; one ship
had four Phoenix torpedoes punch through its shielding and into its hull; even
as chunks of its hull flew off, its core ruptured, resulting as a massive blast,
sending tubular pieces of debris in all directions.
Five more ships fell under heavy bombardment as they drifted into the
midst of the GM attack. The largest
trio of defenders swung as one towards a GM destroyer; just as they launched
their salvo, brilliant, massive, powerful orange beams slammed into them from
above via a trio of GM cruisers. All
three beams punched right through their targets, streaking out of the bottoms of
the ships. The three ships began
spiraling out of control; two into asteroids, and one into another of the
defenders. The two striking
asteroids exploded; the collision resulted in the larger ship cracking into two
large hunks and the smaller ship crumpling under the force of the blow.
It went dark as it lost power; three red torpedoes streaked in from below
and detonated the hulk. The two
halves were quickly destroyed by blaster fire from the targeted destroyer, which
had emerged largely unscathed.
The fighters raced by the now pummeled defenders, headed right for the
Shroud. As they neared, dodging the
Shroud's energy weapons, they separated into wings and assumed attack
formations. A white torpedo
streaked from each fighter; the resultant shield disruption allowed the fighters
to dive inside the shield arcs and began applying precision blaster fire to the
shield emitters, weapons arrays, and torpedo ports.
Small explosions blossomed from various impacts; arrays bled plasma as
the blaster fire shredded the firing elements; traces of electrical backlash
could be seen in the shield grids. The
torpedo bays were quickly relegated into blossoming infernos.
As the last spaceborne weapons fell silent and the Shroud's shielding was
taken permanently offline, four cruisers and the battleship SLS Sanctity
approached, and the fighters raced back towards the closing quintet. Shuttles began racing out of the five ships, and the fighters
took up protective positions to escort them in. At the same time, destroyers tipped over and angled in,
lining up on the external docking ports. They
drew even, holding their positions as the fighter-escorted shuttles began
arriving in the massive bays of the Shroud.
Energy weapon fire streaked towards the shuttles, as the shuttles
settled; shield impacts flared as the back hatches of the shuttles hissed open,
and Sorcerers streamed out. Blaster
fire began to mix with the variety of the defender's weaponry as the teams got
settled. As the Shroud's defenders
were quickly eliminated, the Sorcerers emerged from the protection of the
shuttle's shields as the shuttles deactivated them.
Behind the cover of a group of Sorcerers, a smaller group of computer
experts, some RSN, some LISA, raced to the terminals in the bay, where they
promptly began a programmed assault on the Shroud's computers to seize control.
Within a minute, most of the Shroud's functions had been sealed and
rerouted; as the computer experts fought to gain full control of the station,
the docking ports, now under their control, began to extend, and docking was
prepped with the waiting destroyers, all of which prepared to unload their
complements of Sorcerers.
It was a tense moment, however; the Shroud's defenders retained enough
command function to activate the Shroud's self-destruct sequence, and were in
the process of doing so. The GM
found themselves in a race against time, and the destroyers were told to hold
off as the Sorcerers in the bay established a hasty defense perimeter... except
for one squad, which was making their way through maintenance shafts to where
the defenders were activating the destruct sequence.
Five long minutes passed, with little headway made.
The defenders were successfully holding the GM experts from gaining any
further ground, and had just activated the last ditch, most lethal computer
command; fifteen minutes remained before the Shroud blew itself out of
existence.
Suddenly, hatch covers blew open, and yellow blaster fire lanced out as
the squad reached its goal; the defenders barely had time to back away from the
consoles and seize weapons before slumping over, asleep via spell. The Sorcerers moved quickly through the chamber, kicking
weapons away, securing prisoners, and relaying readings and codes back to the
techs in the landing bay.
It took another six minutes to deactivate the destruct sequence; a sigh
of relief spread amongst the attackers. The
squad that had seized the control room was forced to evacuate after the last
command functions were rerouted; the Shroud's defenders counterattacked with a
fury, freeing their compatriots. Walls
of ice and force were hastily erected by the retreating Sorcerers to cover their
backs.
The troops in the bay also came under heavy counterattack, even as
complete control of the station was established.
One of the shuttles had been relocated next to the consoles, where its
shielding and bulk protected the computer techs.
Several Sorcerers had fallen by this time, magic and blaster fire barely
held off the now grimly determined Shroud forces.
But reinforcements were enroute. Ten
destroyers finished docking, their Sorcerer complements racing up the tunnels,
coupled with a few Senshi. They
linked up and established a perimeter; a flanking force was sent to complete the
perimeter with the bay forces. Three
other forces were dispatched with portable shield generators; they raced through
a combination of main corridors and maintenance tunnels as fast as they could,
destined for the three power cores, to prevent their destruction.
Meanwhile, the cycle continued; the other GM starships were both
launching additional shuttles with Sorcerers and docking to continue to bring GM
forces into the Shroud to overwhelm the remaining Shroud forces.
Thirty minutes after the destruct sequence was deactivated, all major
areas of the Shroud were secured. The
few areas not under GM control were either flooded with an anesthetic gas or
vented to space, depending on if they were occupied or not.
Two hours after the assault began, it was over; the Shroud was officially
a GM base. All survivors had been
rounded up and arrested; ships had gone through the debris in the surrounding
space and rescued all they could find, arresting them after clearing them
medically.
Several civilian ships now received coded transmissions from the Sanctity; they moved in system, splitting in two forces, both escorted by a trio
of light cruisers. The first group
of three light cruisers, two civilian construction vessels from CrystallDesigns,
and one Metadynamics outfitter, proceeded to the inner system to begin
construction on a new starbase, from which the GM could redouble diplomatic
efforts in the area and hopefully cut down on DK influence, as well as defend
its precarious hold on the area. The
remaining light cruiser trio escorted two salvage ships, one construction ship,
and one outfitter to the Shroud, to salvage ship remains and reconstruct the
Shroud into a proper GM facility.
The main focus of the whole mission, however, was with the cloaked
starship Orion, heading off towards a patch of unoccupied space at high
FTL velocities after its prey.
Crystal
Palace in Crystal Tokyo, Planet Luna, 28 May 2740
Subspace
Communications Central Control
"Ma'am!" called out one of the senior technicians to Sailor
Venus, who turned from where she was conversing with Neo-Queen Serenity the
First. Both women's eyes were drawn to the incoming message, which
was a communiqué from the SLS Pleiades II.
Both exchanged glances and grinned widely at the report.
"...with the Sorcerers taking some moderate losses; fighting inside
the Shroud was fierce. They did,
however, focus on fighting us instead of attempting to destroy everything, so,
with the exception of the damage to weaponry and shielding, we captured the
Shroud roughly ninety percent intact."
The two women strolled over to the screen.
"That's great news, Sailor Orion," Sailor Venus said with a
smile. "So you rate the
mission a success?"
"Affirmative, Sailor Venus," Sailor Orion replied.
"And repairs are already underway."
"Last message from the SLS Orion?" Serenity asked.
"Was that they were proceeding as per mission parameters, Your
Majesty," answered Sailor Orion.
"Excellent," Serenity said with a smile.
"Then let us not hold you back from concluding your system scans;
good work to the task force involved; I am quite pleased with the results.
Carry on, Sailor Orion."
"Aye, Your Highness," Sailor Orion said, bowing her head. "Pleiades out."
"Well, at least something is going right," Sailor Venus
murmured as the two headed back to her office.
"It is okay, Mina," Serenity said soothingly.
"Amy's already hard at work on possible solutions."
Skunk
Works, in orbit of Luna, Sol system, 30 May 2740
"Okay," Sailor Mercury said as she examined all the mixed scans
taken by the RSN ships involved with the intruder.
"I think we have enough to build a few prototypes using existing
torpedo shells, and we can test them. First
things first; let's get to work in the labs and reconstruct the warhead.
We'll have to do some tweaking to figure out how to properly harness the
necessary reaction and control it to get the effects we desire."
Heads nodded around the table. Sorcerer
Derrelli leaned back, a thoughtful expression on his face as he examined the
readings of the enemy's weaponry.
"Wait a minute," he murmured, eyeing the equations Sailor
Mercury had already deduced and done a few preliminary tests on.
There were quite a few similarities to some of the high-level fire spells
he was currently working on.
Sailor Mercury glanced at him. "What
is it?"
"Have you compared these equations to anything?" Derrelli
asked.
Sailor Mercury shook her head negatory.
"Haven't really had time, if you get my meaning.
Why?"
"They look like the equation base of one of the spells I just
learned- Final Flame," Derrelli said.
"Have we looked into the properties of Auric radiation when it comes
into contact with gestalt? I've got
a funny feeling minute quantities of gestalt will massively increase the
output."
Sailor Mercury grinned. "When
it comes to explosions, Derrelli, you really are devilishly clever.
Go run some tests to check that possibility out; try some of the new
synthesized gestalt."
Derrelli stood, and gave a mock salute.
"Aye, aye, ma'am!"
Border
Post 25, DK/GM border, 30 May 2740
"Sir!" called the Amaran at the Sector Five sensor console. Her insignia on her green uniform denoted an ensign.
She was recently assigned, and had already picked up a reputation for
false alarms.
At least she is attentive, the duty officer, a tall, muscular human of
Latin descent thought. He stood, and
stretched, before strolling over to her.
"Yeah?" he asked. She
was certainly excited.
"I think I have a DK starship approaching, sir," she gushed.
She highlighted the relevant readings.
"It's coming in fast."
He frowned. This sure as
hell didn't look like a false alarm. "Try
to identify," he ordered, before straightening up and turning around. "Sector red alert!
Dark Kingdom starship approaching at high velocity!
Raise our defenses!"
A chorus of affirmatives greeted his ears as his crew set to work;
messages blasted through subspace, putting everything nearby on alert.
The border post didn't have much in the way of weapons, though.
"Classification is a Dark Kingdom Stalker-class Scout Ship,
sir!" called the Amaran.
A tense minute passed as the enemy vessel drew near.
"Sir? It's
slowing-" began the Amaran, to be interrupted by the comm officer.
"Uh, Commander? We're
being hailed. They want to
talk."
STAY
TUNED!