Sailor Moon Chronicles

A fanfic by Captiosus

-Episode 4 Part 1-

After the battle, most of the scouts were still reeling from the ending explosion and the loss of the moon. One of the things that stunned them the most though was the fact that Earth was in a war zone now. The sheer damage to the city from what was left of the NegaFleet that decided to show up on their doorstep and were blown apart for their trouble and the growing number of Solar Fleet ships being parked on the ground on the outskirts of the city said this much.

Shortly after the explosion, the captain of one of these ship, Richard, decided to "drop in". He apparently surfed the shockwave back to Earth and entered the atmosphere at a fast enough rate to create a blue re-entry corona, but the second nuclear blast in three months that he fired off nearly killed him, and it took all of his power just to survive the flames of re-entry and the hypersonic impact on his right arm, which had every bone replaced with titanium and the muscles replaced with carbon nanofiber. The resulting impact obliterated the arm but saved the captain from a crushing impact with the ground. But nothing saved him from the mob of people that called him a hero and took him to the Crystal Nucleus to receive an award from the Queen and the other scouts, which upon seeing him on the crowd's shoulders acting like nothing had happened, they attacked him and chased him to the edge of the trench dug by the crash of the Starship Phoenix.

After the he got his nap (lasting three days), he was forced to explain to the scouts what he was thinking......

"To be honest, I was not doing any of it. It was like I was watching from afar, causing chaos with every move. But the power! It scared me from the way this 'entity' that was controlling me wielded this power. My own abilities paled in comparison, and the upshot of it all was that I liked that power. Its almost like some new disease, forcing me to crave this power and use it. I dont want to use it or like it, but I do."

They were sitting in one of the briefing rooms on the ground floor of the palace, and things were extremely busy. In the room itself, all of the scouts, some of which were in normal clothes, were all listening to Richard's story. He was leaning back in his seat, putting it on two legs. Instead of his normal armor and associated equipment, he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt that read, "Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies. -V"

Pluto, who was being quiet through the entire thing, began to think very fast. If he could have some basic control over all of the scouts powers and exceptional control over the scouts powers, then this being this 'Solaris', could have a power far greater than any of them. She spent the vast majority of her life guarding the door of time, and as a result she saw quite a few strange and powerful things. but she never saw anything like this. And she knew the only way to actually kill him now,should the need arise, and since he was still immortal, was to go back in time and kill him before he got his powers. And that alone would be tough.

While she thought about this, a couple of technicians came in with the captain's replacement arm on a steel trolley, along with tools and the flesh and blood to make the replacement realistic. After a few minutes, the arm was attached and he was busy testing it out to make sure it worked.

Pluto watched as Richard shot a sarcastic comment towards Io and promptly started a two on one fistfight. Jupiter tried to restrain her sons but they wouldn't have any of it and began to slug every inch of the captain they could reach from across the table they were sitting at. He managed to block several blows, and was about to deliver a painful response when Pluto's staff gave him a sharp whack upside his head, knocking him out.

He woke up within seconds, wondering why his head was hurting and he was lying on the floor. Most of the scouts had switched back to their normal selves but Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto were still in their Scout forms. Thus none of them were equipped to deliver their punishment for the captain's recent fight with Jupiter's kids. But Rei, who still knew hand to hand combat and was very good at it, did the favor for them all by delivering a painful series of blows to Richard. He started to swear with every successful blow and he was getting increasingly sore from all of the blows and his monster explosion three days previous. Finally he grabbed her foot as it was about to hit one of his ribs with his only arm and gave a sharp twist. Rei hit the ground face first which gave the battered captain the opportunity to run out the door and into his rebuilt LightningStrike fighter.

When he was gone, Mina gave a sigh and said, "You are too rough on him, Rei. Sure he blew up the moon. Sure, he had his little 'accident' with you. But I dont see the reason why you should attack him on a regular basis."

Rei glared at the slightly charred area where the captain's engines had scorched the ground on liftoff. "I just dont like him. He's rude, arrogant, thinks he's all powerful, and he thinks he can control fire better than me!"

Amy gave a quick laugh. "If I didn't know better, you could be his wife. You fight with him enough to make that entirely possible."

As she said this a fairly large drop of sweat in embarrassment went down everyone's neck. Luna, who had just padded in, heard this and said, "What? Rei is eying the captain?"

Rei hit the floor with a thud. "Its not like that! I was just saying just how much I hate the man." Luna shook her head and said, "That boy Chad was a good choice, but it didn't last long. The reason being you are too hotheaded. If you DO have eyes on him, chances are he's not looking back."

With that, she padded back out with a flick of her tail. Rei looked like Luna had just smacked her in the face. Mina glanced over at Jupiter and saw and all too familiar misty look on her face. All the others noticed it too and roared in unison, "DONT SAY IT!!!!!" She looked over at the others and chuckled. She turned back to the open door to the outside, where a soft rain was now falling and said, "He looks just like my old boyfriend." A collection of impacts sounded from behind her.

"WE TOLD YOU NOT TO SAY IT!!!!!"

xxxxxxx

The captain's rebuilt fighter didn't like him at all. The mid-size craft kept on bucking up and down wildly with each twitch of the control column and couldn't maintain a level attitude for shit. He gave it a ever so slight twitch to the left to counter the tilt and was rewarded with four barrel rolls within a thousand feet of horizontal travel. He pulled the throttles all the way back to 10 percent and engaged the air brakes, and his controls lost their extreme reactivity. He dropped the wheels and lowered the flaps to 30 percent for the approach to Crystal Tokyo International Airport. Richard gave a sigh before calling the tower to request a slot in the landing pattern. His request was denied for the slot he requested, stating that his craft was too unstable to use one of the civilian runways. He was diverted to one of the military runways three miles south. As he went on the final approach, he received a priority transmission from Commander Zimsky from the corvette Bat out of Hell.

"Captain, the bulk of the fleet will be dropping out with some friends on their tails. Also, the Starcrasher was destroyed, and there were no survivors. This means you are now the Fleet Admiral."

Richard let loose enough swearwords to turn the air in the cockpit a distinct red color. He noticed this and thought, "And there is where the term, 'swearing the air red' comes from." He paused before saying back into the comm, "I dont want or need to be an Admiral. I'm fine with my current position. But my second in command is quite suited to the position and he is excellent with ship to ship tactics. I'll promote him to fleet admiral and the have him demote me back to Captain, but ill be needing a new T.O. to replace him."

"These are from the previous Fleet Admiral himself. He said you are the best suited from all of the commanding officers in the fleet."

"Whatever. Im about to land my fighter at a base a couple miles east of the city, so unless you want me to wreck my plane, leave me alone."

His fighter began to shake as the turbulence from an old C-5 Galaxy cargo jet that was delivering supplies to the fleet's larger ships took off. He watched the huge vehicle take off and wondered if he could get his hands on several of those and convert them for space use. His thoughts were interrupted by the wheels of his fighter hitting the runway, and the screech of the hull sliding on the ground as the landing gear collapsed from the impact. He unleashed another series of swearwords as the fighter went spinning down the runway, trailing sparks from the Tarydium hull and the already tortured engines. With a loud screech, the fighter slid to a stop in the dirt beyond the runway. He sighed again, then popped the canopy and began to gather the needed materials to haul his fighter back to the base hangar. He had barely gotten out of his fighter before a trio of Jeeps pulled up and the men inside them jumped out, leveling rifles at him. Richard raised his eyebrows and asked, "Mind telling me what the guns are for? I do hold the rank of Fleet Admiral."

The men immediately saluted, some dropping their weapons to do so. Richard rolled his eyes and said, "At ease. Now what were the guns for?"

Of the men, a Colonel, said, "If you will look up sir, you will see the reason why." Richard glanced up and saw no fewer than thirty thousand ships fighting to the death in orbit. A moment later, the Solar Fleet scattered, revealing the shattered hulls of a few hundred NegaShips. Richard raised his eyebrows and said, "Out of the frying pan and into the fire... Knuckle up and prepare for a ground assault from the enemy. Things just got nastier than what I originally anticipated."

His words were unneeded. A moment later, the NegaFleet was on the run, with the Solar Fleet right on its tail. A moment later, the enemy fleet jumped to Z-Space. The fleet began to settle into orbit and the smaller vessels began to enter the atmosphere for landing and fleet resupply. One of the lower rank men said, "I guess its not needed. Your fleet is quite efficient." The Colonel was about to whack the Private with the butt of his weapon, but Richard blocked it with his sword's scabbard. The Colonel was surprised, and Richard said, "Its nothing to punish him over, and besides, he might make a good T.O." The captain turned to the Private and asked, "Whats your name kid?"

"Private Anderson, Sir."

"Well, Anderson, you are looking to be the kind of person who knows his way around a good fight. Are you good at grasping the big picture and all of the details of a fight at the same time?" asked the captain.

"Yes sir. I noticed that your fleet had many fighters guarding the larger vessels while the larger vessels did the major damage. I also noticed that the enemy ships are trying to exploit a common weakness in your ships, namely, the unshielded engines."

Richard looked impressed. He thought a moment before saying, "You have sharp eyes, Private. I'll see if I can squeeze an extra person into the officer training schools on one of the cruisers."

He walked back to his fighter and opened up a com line to Mercury's computer. After several seconds, her face appeared on his screen. Her face turned so red so fast he thought she was about to faint. A moment later, she cut the com line. Richard couldn't help but laugh. The group of men out side his fighter got back into their jeeps and drove off, leaving the captain on the blast pad of the runway. He sighed, before flipping the arming switches to re-light his turbines and get back to the palace. The upper engines lit without too much trouble, but the lower engines threatened to explode several times before they restarted, spewing parts and sparks out the back end. The anti-gravity generators came online, sucking up every drop of power in his fighter before lifting it off the ground. The fighter spun to face the city, and then all four engines roared, the lower ones spewing more parts and flames out of the outer exhaust baffles, before it sluggishly accelerated to the needed speed for horizontal flight. Richard cut the lower engines just as the lower starboard engine exploded in a shower of charred parts. He gave a sigh and said, "This damn thing really hates me."

xxxxxxx

Amy almost dropped her computer the moment she saw Richard's face in it. She slammed it shut and tried to act like nothing had happened, but everyone in the room knew exactly who it was because her face was a brilliant red color. Rei walked up behind her and said, "I'm not the one who has a crush on him." This time she really did drop it, and it shattered into nearly a dozen parts, the screen cracking in three places. Lita came around the corner shepherding a dozen servants, all bearing a massive tray containing one or more things that were the result of Lita's excellent cooking. She said as Rei delivered her little jab at Amy, "What? Amy has a crush on someone?" Amy chose this moment to bolt from the room, but as she got to the door, the captain walked through, and she ran right into him, knocking him over and falling on top of him. Richard groaned and then said, "Amy? You mind getting off of me?"

Lita cackled, which was quite unusual for her, and then said, "Well, I thought it was about time for Amy to start hitting on someone. She has yet to pick up a boyfriend for more than two weeks."

By this time, though, Amy had bolted from the room, leaving several of the others fighting not to burst out laughing. Richard glanced through the door which Amy had disappeared through and coughed, apparently deciding to keep what thought that was about to come blasting off of his mind locked away. His thoughts were interrupted by the smell of the food on the table, and his nose was sniffing like crazy. Serena couldn't help but burst out laughing, and soon everyone in the room followed suit, mainly because it was funny the way his nose was sucking in as much of the smell of food as remotely possible. He found a seat near the vast majority of the meat and began pulling as much towards him as he could. Lita called for the servants to begin hauling out more food, for the captain had just finished the turkey and ham and was busy working on two full racks of ribs.

But there was two people at the table who didn't find this funny at all. Setsuna and Hotaru were both glaring at the captain with as much contempt as was possible, and when paused to regain his breath, he noticed their glares. He attempted to swallow the mass of food in his mouth and after three tries, pulled it off. He coughed to clear his throat and asked, "What crawled up your asses and died?"

The change of mood at the table was instant. Everyone's glare was on the captain. And he didn't figure out why until he noticed just how much of the food at the table he had consumed. He rolled his eyes and said, "The last time I've eaten anything was almost a week ago. I dont eat because I use very little of the energy I get from food, but lack of it for too long will wreak it's havoc. Its why I just ate everything at the table. If I hadn't, my energies which are still recharging, would have sucked all of the energy I use to sustain my life processes away. YOU try two nearly back to back explosions on the scale of a star blowing up and see how long you last."

"Not eating anything in week..." The sarcasm in Setsuna's voice was quite noticeable. "I dont think that exactly compares to you crashing your ship on the city, blowing up the moon, nearly getting Lita's children killed, and parking your ENTIRE FLEET ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY!!! And then you INHALE all of the food at the table and act like you did nothing. Are you INSANE?!?!"

The captain paused, and then got up. As he walked by a still fuming Setsuna and said in a quiet voice, "You dont know what its like to truly be immortal. It gets to your head and re-writes your way of thinking. My presence is no longer required here, if I was to go by the way you are all glaring at me. Very well. By midnight tonight, my fleet will be five thousand light years from here. We will not be coming back."

As he walked out the door, he activated his com to the fleet and said in a slightly pained voice, "Prepare for departure. Our destination is the Serlan System in the Perseus arm." He paused before saying, "Any who wish to remain behind here on Earth may do so. Just dont stay in the city. The Queen and her court are getting a little finicky about anyone who is part of the fleet."

He got into his fighter, and after a moments hesitation, which he used to glance one more time at the tower which had become more than just an elaborate building to him. Sure it was a fairly simple structure design wise, but there was a power there that wasn't of death or destruction, or of the planets themselves. It was a power that surpassed them all, but even after four months of being within it's grasp, he still didn't understand it. "No matter," he thought. "It wont matter to me in eight hours anyways." With a roar, his fighter took off as Lita, Amy, Mina and Michelle came tearing out of the front doors to stop him from leaving.

A moment later, another roar answered the roar of the LighningStrike's engines, one that drowned them out and deafened the entire city. It was the fleet launching. Tens of thousands of ships took off, all except one ship. A small corvette was parked outside the airport, all of the needed materials to maintain it either onboard the vessel or lying on the ground outside the hull. Painted on the side was a crescent moon, eclipsed by the earth and illuminated by a white ring. On the landing ramp, there was a handwritten note. It had one line

"Just in case one of you wanted to pay a visit."

But meanwhile, the fleet was just attaining orbit, although due to the fleet's sheer size, several vessels had to divert to a different orbital path in order to keep the equatorial belt from becoming a demolition derby of oversize vessels. After a tense moment which three destroyers nearly collided, the fleet was in orbit and preparing to leave Earth. A trio of stealth craft pulled ahead of the fleet and transitioned to Z-Space, checking to see if the destination was all clear. Barely thirty minutes after they jumped, they dropped out in the atmosphere, creating a flaming trail of shredded ship parts.

The three vessels had been annihilated into scrap parts. A moment later, a horde of ships dropped out of Z-Space, all sporting severe damage and not in any condition to fight the Solar Fleet. The captain got one good look at the ships and knew the war with the Negaverse just got sour. The ships that had just dropped out weren't part of the Solar Fleet, but part of the mighty Andromeda Armada.

Unlike the ships of the Solar Fleet, which all looked somewhat like avian creatures (dragons, birds, just about anything that flies. The singleship fighters were an exception to this. They looked like the ancient SR-71 Blackbirds, only a little smaller.), the Andromedan ships all looked something like whales and other aquatic life forms. The Solar Fleet's ships all had a black/dark gray with red trim paint job, but the Andromedans used light gray with sky blue trim. Thousands of the ships blasted out of the Z-Space portal, most sporting severe damage and in an extreme case, came flying out in six separate pieces, pulled along in the wake of the mass transition to the alternate realm. Almost as soon as they appeared, the Solar Fleet scattered, allowing the Andromeda Armada to blow between them and arc around the backside of the planet.

Richard watched this in fear, knowing what was about to attack next. And sure enough, a few thousand NegaShips dropped out of Z-Space and was greeted by a searing wall of plasma and the hundreds of MAC shells that followed in their wake. A cloud of Stinger ship to ship missiles finished off the pulverized attack group, blowing their shattered crystalline hulls into the atmosphere or into the ring system formed by debris from the last space battle. All this happened in less than ten seconds. A moment later a Andromedan shuttle pulled up thirty feet of the bridge of the Phoenix. It sent a single text message into the Phoenix.

Our fleet is severely damaged. Please provide assistance.