Sailor Moon Chronicles

A fanfic by Captiosus

-Episode 3 Part 1-

"Good morning Sir! Do you need anything?"

The captain snorted and said, "Yeah, for you to go away." Laughter echoed around the bridge of the Starship Phoenix, and as the captain sat down in his seat, a rumble shook the ship. He called out, "Engineering, we ready to get this wreck off the ground and back into space?" The reply from engineering couldn't have been better.

"Yes sir. All reactors are back online with current peak at 66 of the max output. We are already making the preparations to lift off."

Captain Richard Perez gave a grunt and drained his half gallon water bottle. Ever since the explosion he had to consume at least several gallons of water a day in order to keep cool. The ship was acting the same way at first but after almost 3 months hard work, the ship was flying again. He opened a comlink channel to the city just outside and said, "Attention. Can I have your attention please? In three hours the Phoenix is going to be back in orbit. However, before I can launch the ship, I need to clear my engines of any debris that is still inside the exhaust ports or there will be an explosion. So I am requesting that the city be evacuated in order to prevent loss of life should something go wrong. I have received permission to do this from the Queen, who is currently in a space station set up to watch the show. If you want, my dropships will transport up to 5000 people to the station to watch the launch. Thank you for your time, that is all."

"Ok I want a final status check by the time I issue the order to launch. I will be outside in my fighter so try not to go too fast apon liftoff ok?"

"Yes sir. Ok Navigation, what's the status on the navigation systems……?"

Richard limped his way towards the bridge exit, still sore from the fight three months earlier. As he walked don the corridor, he wasn't paying attention and tripped, knocking someone else down as well. After a few seconds on pain, he opened his eyes and found that he couldn't see. He pushed himself up and realized that he has just gotten a face full of Mars' breasts. He gulped and said, "Oh shit." The wall of flame blew him back onto the bridge and out through the open access hatch. Mars roared, "You PERVERT!! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!?" The men on the bridge watched him fly out the hatch, and without even saying anything, went back to work.

After several seconds of flight, the captain crashed down into the fighter bay, nearly getting impaled on a sharp piece of metal in the process. He got up with what little dignity he had left, and said to the technician nearby, "Get my fighter ready. Full load of fuel and some Sidewinders, as well as 3000 rounds of ammo for the miniguns. And if the bridge asks for me, tell them I'm not here. Got it?"

The technician grinned and said, "What, you do something that would piss one of the Scouts off?" Richard turned flame red and said, "Get my plane loaded will you? I have to monitor the liftoff sequence. And mind your own business." Before either of them could do move more than 5 feet, the comlink from the bridge signaled and an all too familiar roar blasted through it. Richard turned pale, and then bolted for his loaded fighter. He silenced the comlink but it restarted almost immediately.

"HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME?! YOU ARE A PERVERT AND WHEN I GET DOWN THERE I WILL BURN--" Richard gave a sigh of relief and said, "Thanks Mack. That really helped." The AI coughed and said, "You better hurry. She is on her way as well as Phobos and Deimos, and boy are all three pissed. And Amy is on her way as well but she said she needed to watch the ship as it takes off from a good vantage point. At the rate its going, you will have less than ten seconds to haul ass out of here once Amy is in the back seat."

Barely ten seconds after Mack had finished his monologue, Amy came tearing into the launch bay. Judging by the amount of small burns on her boots and clothing (she wasn't in her sailor suit) she looked like she had just gotten into a brawl with Mars and her two daughters. Richard called, "Get in!! If you aren't in here in three seconds I'm leaving without you." She threw herself in the back seat and just as the canopy closed, Mars entered the room.

"Aw shit. LAUNCH US NOW!!" With a roar all seven engines roared to full throttle, blowing Mars and her kids off their feet and pinning them to the wall. The catapult screeched with rust, and then with a whine, flung the LightningStrike Fighter out of the bay and into the air. Richard and Amy were pinned to the seat from the g-forces but after a moment they lessened to normal. The fighter's booster engine sputtered and then powered down, lessening the g forces even further. Richard laughed and then noticed that once again he was in a fairly awkward situation. Somehow during the launch, Mercury had managed to get in the pilots seat while Richard was already there, and the result was that she sat on his lap. She turned red and without ceremony climbed into the back seat.

Richard, who was sweating profusely, said, "That never leaves this cockpit, okay? I already have Mars going after me because I tripped and fell on top of her." Mercury giggled and said, "Well, to be honest, I actually liked it." Richards face began to blaze with the embarrassment. He coughed and said, "Umm can you fly one of these? I need to do something. BYE!!" and then he yanked the eject handle, flinging himself out of the bottom of the cockpit. At the same time, he burst into flame again and flew away from the fighter, leaving Amy in the air all alone. Richard came to a hover about three miles away and said into his comlink, "Phoenix, you are go for launch. Repeat, you are go for launch. But before you take off, get me a Dimensional line to the fleet. I think its time they showed up to help protect the planets."

There was a pause for several seconds, before a dull crack and a whine from the comlink indicated that he had the line to the fleet. He coughed and said into the comlink, "This is Captain Richard Perez of the Galaxy class Cruiser Phoenix. The solar system is threatened. Return to the Solar System to help the Phoenix defend Earth and the other planets from harm."

As soon as he cut the line there was a bright flash of white fire tinted with blue from below, and a moment later, the earsplitting roar of the ship's mighty engines was heard.

The ships superstructure protested for a few seconds, and then with a shriek of metal on crystal, the ship's bow began to lift off of the ground. But the far heavier stern of the ship was still firmly stuck in the 400 foot deep water filled trench that the ship had carved three months earlier. The booster engines, located about two-thirds of the way to the stern of the ship, then lit at full throttle, carving two molten trenches on either side of the vessel. With another loud roar, the auxiliary engines located on two separate reactor pods, swiveled down to point directly at the ground. For several seconds, nothing happened. Then the bright red exhaust, in the form of dancing plasma, came roaring out at nearly ten thousand miles an hour. The scaffolding that had been erected around the ship to help with the repairs collapsed from the sheer heat of the engine's exhaust and quickly melted. With a groan and a shower of sparks from the nose of the ship grinding against the Crystal Spire, the Phoenix became airborne.

By this time, Mercury had pulled up to Richard's side and had put the fighter into hover mode. Richard noticed this and after a moment's hesitation, sat on the starboard wing. Mercury opened the canopy, and sat down beside him. She glanced at him and noticed he has a glazed look about his eyes and decided it was better for her to keep her silence. After a moment he said, "It was over 5000 years ago when I last gave the order to launch the ship. It was a wonder how something so big could fly and yet, it flew. It went up with a parade and the other ships firing off their guns and all sorts of celebration for the 'greatest achievement of mankind'." He sighed. "If I knew the true intended purpose of the ship, I would have never given the order to launch it. After all those years, I still ask the same question over and over again. Why? Why make something that is supposed to kill entire planets? Why make it so big to carry an entire army for three years without resupply? Why? And yet, the answer still evades me. Then again, the Andromeda War probably had something to do with it."

Mercury raised her eyebrows and asked, "What was the Andromeda War? I've never heard of it."

Richard paused before saying, "The Andromeda War was a catastrophic war between this galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy. For some inexplicable reason, they attacked. The losses during the first ten years of the war include but aren't limited to at least two thousand star systems utterly destroyed, no remains except for dust and gas. Billions dead and countless more star systems ravaged. That was the original reason the Phoenix as well as the fifty thousand strong Solar Armada was built. The first three years of the war after the finalization of the fleet saw most of it destroyed by the Andromeda fleets and most of the captured crews killed in horrible ways. Thats when it was decided to modify the Phoenix to hold the superweapon known as the Eclipse Cannon."

"But after the first shot of the Eclipse Cannon, they gave up. No one knows why they just gave up on a three century campaign because of a test firing of a powerful weapon. We had tested powerful weapons before. The Nova incident was the….. Well I should say the worst, but the blast wave saved billions of lives, but resulted in the destruction of trillions. Trillions for billions? Just what the hell were they thinking? Now after all this time, there is one question that will haunt me until the day I die. Just how many lives were lost in the Andromeda War? And how many were because of those words?"

Mercury looked away, and as she did she realized the reason why Richard was so quiet at times and yet so vocal at others, why her never slept and why he always did hypersonic passes over the city was because he was haunted by the one question that haunted everyone: "What if?"

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud groan from below, closely followed by a screech of metal. The comlink signaled and Mars' voice called through it, "You better not be doing anything funny up there with Mercury. Besides the ship is about two miles up and rising slowly. Oh and another thing, when you get back onboard, I WILL kick your ass." Richard babbled incoherently for several seconds, then sighed and said, "Well, that's the price I pay for the pride of fire. And it WAS an accident…"

"Well never mind that now. I need to guide the ship up into space and make sure it can achieve orbital velocity. Excuse me." And he fell off the wing into the clouds below.

Mercury had a dreamy look on her face when Jupiter opened a holographic channel to the fighter. It took Jupiter three seconds to recognize Mercury. And when she did, Jupiter started laughing.

"You don't actually like him do you?" asked Jupiter with a childish look on her face.

Mercury turned bright red and said, "N-N-N-No I don't like him at all. Its just that I think he is a good person who is trying to do something to help us. I never had that interest anyways."

Jupiter laughed. "You didn't know how to lie well, and your bright red face proved it. Admit it, you…. GANYMEDE!! YOU ASKED FOR IT THIS TIME!!"

Jupiter's face vanished from the display and was immediately replaced by Ganymede's. He said, "You owe me one." And then bolted as the hail of lightning hit where he stood. Another holo screen opened and Mercury received a shock when the image cleared to reveal Richard. She panicked and put the fighter into a nosedive. As the vehicle dived she tried to pull out of it but the fighter wouldn't respond. She screamed and just when she was about to give up a bolt of flame collided with the nose of the fighter, slowing the vehicle down. About three feet above the ground the bolt of flame stopped, as well as the fighter. Mercury glanced up and saw that her savior was Richard. He grinned and said, "Next time, hit the auto level button. It helps." A quick spin and a throw later the fighter was back at twenty thousand feet, now accompanied by the fireball that was the captain. He sat back down on the wing and said, "Well the ship is going supersonic in 5 minutes so sit down…" A blast of wind sent the fighter spinning, and once again, Richard was in an awkward position. He had grabbed Mercury's leg as she fell, exposing her underwear. She screamed and Richard was soaked from the jet of water that came tearing his way. Unfortunately, he also lost his grip and began a 4 mile free fall… which was promptly halted by one of the cruisers wings as it rose through the clouds. A holo screen appeared, this one carrying the face of Mack. The AI said, "Tut tut captain. Mars isn't going to be happy." At this Richard glanced at the edge of the wing not twenty feet away and said, "Damn. I would have preferred the fall to dealing with Mars again."