Cyber Moon: Genesis.
Episode 2: Rebels.
By Razor Knight
Last update: September 14, 2005
She felt like shit, that was the first thing Lumina realized as consciousness returned. What'd happened? The events of the last few minutes before she fainted were blurry, last thing she remembered was a sword, and running... And a voice, a friendly voice.
From what her senses were telling her, she was now in a bed, and she could sense someone else in the room. "You're awake, at last." Lumina frowned. She hadn't realized she'd moved. Deciding faking unconsciousness wasn't an option, she opened her eyes. After her sight recovered from the overload of lighting, she could take a good look at where she was. A room with white walls and ceiling... An infirmary? Was she still at the mine?
Looking at the only other occupant of the room, she saw it was a human woman around her age. Blue hair, blue eyes, wearing a full blue body suit of some strange fabric. She remembered her. She remembered all that'd happened, now. Not that most of it made any sense to her.
"I remember seeing you, when I walked out of the mine," she said. "So, you brought me back in?" Her voice was a bit weak, not surprising after all the blood she'd left behind in the mine's many corridors.
The woman smiled. "Back in? You mean the mine? Not at all. We're right now in an underground base, in my home-world, Mercury."
'Underground base? Mercury?' Lumina frowned. "I have two questions."
"I'm sure you'll have a lot more later on. Anyways, tell me," the woman said. Her tone was friendly, yet she seemed to be studying the blonde.
"First is... Who are you?"
"My name is Cognisance, and I'm a Magician, like you."
"Second is... How long have I been out?"
"For almost two days. We were lucky Aejin was near, or you wouldn't have survived for more than five minutes."
'Magician? Aejin?' She realized the woman, Cognisance, was right. Her answers had spawned even more questions in her mind.
Another woman walked into the room as the white sliding doors that Lumina hadn't noticed before opened. "I see..." the newcomer said in a monotone voice.
"Hello Aejin. As you see, our 'patient' is feeling fine."
"Sort of," the blonde mused. "By the way, my name's Lumina."
"Lumina, huh... Fitting name for a Magician of light," Aejin commented.
Lumina took a second to look at her. Wearing a purple suit much like Cognisance's one, she had long, black hair and black eyes. Her skin, however, was one tone away from corpse-like. Her voice and face were unreadable, almost as if this woman had no feelings at all.
"Magician of light?" she asked, finally fed up with not knowing what they were talking about.
Cognisance nodded. "Magic... That's a word I created to define our power. There's no records of such a thing in the Masters' databases, or in our legends."
"You mean, like what I did inside the mine..."
"And what was it exactly?" The pale-skinned woman asked, her tone as neutral as usual.
"I remember finding a strange sword, and something stirred in my mind. Next I knew I'd blasted a guard out with a ray of light."
"That guard was the one that wounded you?"
"No... I tried to escape the mine, and a group of guards blocked my way. I used my... Magic, as you call it, to kill them. But one of the guards had time to shoot and that was what pierced my arm."
"Almost like Brisa's escape from the Uranus' weapon factory," Cognisance commented.
"So, who exactly are you, and what's with the suits?" The blonde asked.
"We are... We'll, someone can explain it better than me, and that someone's Serenity."
"Serenity?" The name was familiar. "I think I heard about her... She supposedly escaped a gold mine in the Moon, killing all guards and freeing all the slaves there."
"Amazing, we're famous," Aejin commented without a hint of excitement in her voice.
"Anyways, I thought that was just a rumor, something invented by someone else, but... Is she real?"
"She's real, Lumina. And she's waiting to meet you," Cognisance said.
The Khtei frowned as he browsed through the reports. This was simply unbelievable. Several months ago, one of their Moon mines had seemingly suffered an attack. What had caused it, they couldn't tell. The security records of the mine had been erased, and no guard was left alive.
However, there was a clue on what had happened. There were no hoomahn corpses. Whatever had done it, had a clear goal, one the Khtei despised. Freeing the hoomahns? He couldn't think of anyone that would want that, other than the hoomahns themselves. And hoomahns held no power at all, so it had to be something else... Something alien.
However in this last breakout... One of Venus' copper mines had been attacked, but there was one guard that escaped the onslaught. While the Khtei did not agree with the guard's cowardly act of escaping the carnage, for once cowardice had an use. The soldier had written a detailed description of what he'd heard through the communication channels, and what he'd seen. Khtei was sure whatever had slaughtered the mine guards should be something powerful... But nothing could defeat their technology. In the end, they'd destroy this threat like they'd destroyed many before in the other worlds they'd drained.
"It happened in less than one hour. First thing I heard were reports of a hoomahn worker being chased by guards... And also, that this female hoomahn had eliminated at least twenty guards."
A slave, killing twenty guards? The Khtei smirked. It was simply impossible. He kept on reading, however, to try and figure out what had really happened.
"I remained in my post, and soon was called to chase her as well. However... We ended up facing something different. Three women, dressed in strange, plain outfits, holding metal-bladed swords. We were foolish enough to think we could defeat them. The mine's Tharlor was there, and warned them to put their weapons down and return to their work places."
The Tharlor... Or 'Overseer' in hoomahn language. There was one in each mine, and they were well trained and prepared for emergency situations. But those three slaves... Were they responsible for the slaughter?
"Next thing I knew, one of the slaves, a red-haired one, shot a fire blast from her... From her bare hand. The Tharlor was engulfed by the flames and, in a matter of seconds, turned into a pile of ashes. The second woman, a grey-haired one, shot water from her hand, crushing several of my squad into the cave's wall... I saw the third woman's hands crackling with lightning, and panicked. A lightning blast hit a soldier standing next to me... And it knocked me out as well..."
"They must have thought I was dead, because when I woke up, I saw all of the squad, their bodies lying around me. I checked on them... All of them, they were dead. The only thing I thought about was running away, it seemed like the most logical thing to do. And I don't regret it. I don't know who or what those hoomahns were, but the ones we faced... They were cold, swift and lethal. They were Senshi."
The Khtei chuckled. Senshi? That was, indeed, the word to describe what they'd done. In hoomahn language, Senshi would be translated as 'assasin,' and mercilessly killing over a hundred of his race in less than one hour surely made them Senshi scum in his mind.
He turned to the soldier waiting for his orders and frowned. "Tell the Khrall that I'll have my report ready on the Venusian mine affair in a couple hours... And make sure the soldier that wrote this report is punished for leaving his post."
Frowning, he looked back at the reports as his subordinate left the room. So the mystery had been partially solved. The hoomahns had found a new, strange toy and were test-running it using his race as practice targets... And freeing a couple thousand slaves as well. But who'd given them the ability to shoot electricity, water or fire without a visible weapon? He would find out, and would personally make sure whatever it was, was destroyed.
Lumina looked around the corridor they were walking through, in awe. Sure, she knew the Masters had lights that made the interior of a cave look like daylight, but she never thought she'd see one of them... Let alone a corridor filled with them, inside a human building. She was amazed at the suit they'd given her... An orange version of Cognisance and Aejin's ones, she felt like it enhanced her power, and it also fit her body perfectly.
"What was this place exactly?" she asked breaking the silence.
"An abandoned base, built by the Masters when they first arrived the system," Aejin explained.
"Won't they know we're here?"
"Unlikely. We discovered Magic interferes with their scanning devices and recording systems. That's why we've been raiding factories and mines for several months now, and they have no idea who or what we are," Cognisance said.
"... What about the mine? I mean... I only killed a few guards."
"Don't worry about that. There were no guards left after we were done with that place. And all the miners have been recruited for our rebellion," Aejin said as she looked forwards to a large metal door. "Now, prepare to meet our leader."
Lumina gasped as the metal doors opened. Walking into the large room, she could see it looked the same as the corridor, white and brightly lit. However, here she could see at least a hundred humans working in several scanners and consoles. They all wore white uniforms, and none of them turned to look at them.
In the center of the room, she could see three women. To the left, a tall, red-haired, red eyed woman. The suit she was wearing was a red suit like the others... Looking at the workers in the background, she guessed these suits were reserved for magicians only.
The second woman was slightly shorter than the first. Which meant she still towered over Lumina, not a hard thing to do all things considered, as Venusians were never known for their outstanding height. This one had green hair, tied in a ponytail, and her green eyes stared defiantly at Lumina.
The third woman, the one in the center... Tall, thin, and blonde. Her hair was tied in twin pigtails that almost nicked the ground, and she wore a white suit, which contrasted with her hair and blue eyes, making her image almost impossible to miss. Lumina thought, for a second, that she saw a white aura around this woman. But as swiftly as it had appeared, the aura was gone.
"So... Is this the Venusian?" she asked, her voice soft and calm.
"Yes," Cognisance said, "she's the last one."
"Last one?" Lumina asked.
"What is your name?" the woman asked.
"Lumina."
"Pleased to meet you, Lumina. I'm Serenity, the first Magician, and the leader of this... No better way to say it, this rebellion."
"So the team is complete now," the redhead said.
"I... Have a lot of questions," Lumina commented.
"I know that. Let's go to the training area, and you'll meet the others. After that, you'll be told everything you need to know about our powers and our goals."
For some reason, Lumina felt like whatever she was getting into, it would change her life forever. 'Not that changing is a bad thing. I'd never thought about it, but being a slave for life isn't something I'd be if I had any saying in the matter.'
And thinking back on what she'd done at the mine, she had a chance to make a bigger, more permanent change. Maybe this whole rebellion idea wasn't a bad idea after all...
A/N: The idea of having "Senshi" mean "assassin" in alien language actually came to me while considering how the 'Masters' would feel about someone that mercilessly slaughters hundreds and hundreds of their kin.
Also, keep in mind this simple detail some readers have missed: These are not the Senshi you know, these are their ancestors, the very first Senshi. I thought it was pretty obvious, but clearing it out now may help the case.
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is a creation of Naoko Takeuchi, and I thank her for creating such wonderful universe.