Cyber Moon: Genesis.
Episode 4: Liberation Blues.
By Razor Knight
Last update: June 29, 2007
The scientist couldn't hide his fear as the Khrall walked through the door and into his laboratory. The leader was wearing the usual: A black suit that was halfways between a battle armor and a formal attire. The black cape trailing behind him, and helm covering all of his head but the face, made his presence downright intimidating.
"Is the project ready?" the Khrall simply said, not caring for formalities.
"I'm adjusting some of the AI's parameters, but they're a hundred percent operational."
"And you're confident they'll be enough to stop these... Rebels?"
"They are the same as a hundred soldiers, as far as combat abilities and resistance goes. Their AI is the best we ever had, and their armors are strenghtened to witshtand whatever power those rebels have."
"I'm not so sure about that. But it's better to send a machine to fight, than our own troops."
"As always, you're right, Khrall. We're not sure if they will be able to take on those rebel superhumans, because we didn't have any to run our tests on."
The Khrall nodded. "I'm well aware of that handicap."
Suddenly, alarms went off, and the scientist gasped. The Khrall simply took a small communication artifact from his armor's side and turned it on. "What's the emergency?"
"The rebels are attacking, sir," an officer answered through the communicator.
"Didn't our scanners see them coming?"
"I can't understand it, sir. One moment there was nothing, the next they were all shooting at our main gate."
The Khrall turned to the scientist. "I think it's time to give your creations a field test. Send them to eliminate the rebels."
The scientist nodded and watched as his leader walked out the door. Those rebels were really stupid if they thought attacking their mother ship was an option.
"Venus Shining Star!" Lumina stoped long enough to see her target fall back, then turned in time to see another soldier charging at her. In a swift, calculated move, the soldier's head went rolling down the corridor.
Two months ago, she had never touched a sword before. After all the training, she was quite skilled with her weapon. The Masters trained their common soldiers for ranged combat only, confident in the power of their plasma guns. That was their first mistake. The second was, they didn't think the magic the rebels had was any rival for their technology.
"Mars Lava Inferno!"
Lumina heard the screams of soldiers as the corridor turned into a river of molten rock for a few seconds. The techniques used by each of the 'mages' in the rebel force were as varied as they could get. And all of them were deadly.
"Damn these Senshi. Retreat!" One of the soldiers shouted, and the squad fighting their group ran away.
"We beat them, for now," Cognisance said.
"He called us... Senshi?" Lumina asked in shock.
"From their point of view, we're assasins," Serenity said calmly. "But if we have to kill every single Master to get our freedom, so be it."
A few months ago, Lumina would've been against that statement. However, after Cognisance showed him what the Masters were really doing, she could only agree. After all, the Masters were a virus, a cancer that spread out through the universe.
From what Lumina had read, they had once lived in a massive planet in the outskirts of the galaxy. The star their planet orbited died, and they moved out in three massive spaceships. Soon, they begun their plans.
They looked for solar systems with planets rich in minerals and resources, and drained the planets before moving to the next system. If there were any civilizations or primitive intelligent lifeforms there, they were used as slaves then left to an agonizing death in their depleted planets.
So yes, Lumina agreed. It was about time someone paid the Masters back for the millions of lives they'd destroyed on their never-ending journey.
Her reverie was interrupted as she heard a shout from a side corridor. "Send in the Khr'Sed!"
Several seconds passed as the rebels stopped and waited. The sound of metal against metal echoed from the side corridor, almost like footsteps. Then, they saw them. Ten tall, compact lizard-like robots, obviously made to the image of the Masters, armed with cannon arms and plasma blades. Green crystals for eyes, no visible mouth, and their bodies seemed to be built to withstand heavy damage. That was something some of the Senshi were eager to test.
"Nemesis Dark Shot!"
"Jupiter Spark Blast!"
Lilith didn't shout out an attack name. She, like the others, didn't need to speak out her attack at all, but the others prefered to do so, as it gave the Masters something to fear besides the attack itself. However. Lilith's powers were... Different.
A beam of darkness, an electric ball and an invisible wave that seemed to cause air itself to ripple rushed towards the robots. The darkness and electricity hit two of the robots, but the damage wasn't as heavy as expected. Lilith's power was, to put it simple, luck. She could have the worst luck befall her foes, or help her allies to get out of a dire situation. In this case, most of the robots' blades were shut down, and one of them had its plasma canon explode. As for the two robots hit by the other two, one had its frontal plate caved in by Nemesis and Jupiter's combined power, but the other didn't even stagger back.
The damaged robot fell to the ground, sparks coming out of it's broken armor, but stood up and started shooting at the group, along with the other Khr'Sed. The Senshi dove out of the way, but some of their soldiers were hit.
"Damn, they're tougher than we thought," Claude muttered.
"Fire at will!" Serenity ordered. The rebels all fired their plasma weapons at the robots, but the Khr'Sed just stood there undamaged.
"Not even a scratch?" Arthus muttered.
"Arthus, leave these to us," Serenity ordered the man leading the rebel soldiers. He nodded and gave the orders, and the rebels backed away as the Senshi got ready to fight the robots. "Now girls... I guess this will be our first real challenge here."
Aejin frowned. "My power is useless against them. They're not living beings."
"We may need your power for something else," Serenity commented.
Aejin nodded and the others started charging for an attack. The Khr'Sed opened fire, but the Saturn Senshi was ready for it.
"Saturn Spirit Shield."
A wall of bones rose in front of the group, blocking the barrage of plasma beams. As it vanished, the Khr'Sed could see the Senshi about to attack, but they had no time to counter.
"Moonlight Screen!"
"Mars Fire Cyclone!"
"Mercury Icycle Wave!"
"Jupiter Spark Blast!"
"Venus Morning Star!"
The other Senshi also shot, but the attacks of the five first didn't act as planned. They fused into a thick, massive beam of multi-colored energy which washed over their targets, causing the damaged robot and another one that was standing too close, to explode in a shower of sparks and metal shrapnel.
"What was that?" Serenity asked.
"No idea, but whatever it was, it worked well," Cognisance admitted.
The remaining robots looked like they were about to attack, but instead started retreating. The Senshi frowned and started to chase after them, but a literal wave of soldiers blocked them.
"What now?" Mana, the Lilith Senshi, asked.
"We stick to the plan. We'll fight our way to the Khrall," Serenity said. "Arthus, we need backup!" she shouted back at the leader of the non-magician rebels.
"Can you explain what happened?" The Khrall growled. He was in a really rotten mood after the news arrived about the ship's troops being overrun by the Senshi. Now the remaining Khr'Sed were standing near him, acting as guards.
The Khtei was as worried about the whole situation as his leader. "Zhiglon, our efforts to stop them are in vain. We've been able to kill several of the rebels, but not the magicians. Those... Senshi are seemingly immune to our weapons."
The Khrall frowned. The Khtei was the only member of his race that could refer to him using his real name. So that wasn't the problem, the problem was what he'd just said.
"Are you trying to tell me we can't win, Lhon?"
"Not without a plan."
"I have one. Stay here and destroy them all with our new machine soldiers."
"Zhiglon, you can't stay here. Those Senshi could be here any minute..."
The Khrall cut him off with a glare that seemed to drill through his skull. "Are you telling me to run away like a coward? I'm Zhiglon, the leader of this ship. I won't let them destroy it, even if it costs me my life."
The Khtei stared at him for a few seconds before nodding. "If that's what you want to do, then I'll help you face them."
"I have a little surprise for them, too, and these Khr'Sed will finish them," The Khrall commented looking at a screen on the far side of the room. "I just have to wait until they reach us to use it. "
"That's the main reactor, the main power source of the ship," Cognisance said as the rebels stood a dozen meters away from a large metal door.
"If we set it to overload, we'll have enough time to run away, right?" Lumina asked.
"In theory," the blue-haired Mercurian said.
"Not like we could test it before coming here," Aejin added, with the same emotionless voice Lumina was used to hear from her.
Cognisance frowned. "But something's wrong... There's no guards in here."
"Maybe we already killed them all?" Claude pondered.
"No. This smells like a trap," Aejin commented.
Cognisance frowned, and a bluish visor appeared over her eyes. Besides training, the Mercury Senshi had spent quite some time developing and researching, and one of her inventions was that visor, which was as advanced as the Masters' best computers.
It took her only a few seconds to scan the wall they were facing, but it was a lethal delay. "Get down! There's cannons built into that wall!"
The wall hummed as at least twenty plasma cannons popped out of it, and fired at the group. The Senshi were fast enough to dodge them, but many of the soldiers didn't have the same luck. Serenity looked back and saw something she wasn't quite ready to see. "Arthus!"
The elder had been shot through by one of the cannons, and the wound on his chest was beyond healing. "Seems like I won't see the end of this battle," he said weakly, his breathing dragged and sparse.
Serenity looked at Aejin, who'd already moved to check on him. The Saturn Senshi shook her head. "Arthus, I swear I'll destroy this ship, no matter what it takes."
"I never doubted that," the elder said, then stopped breathing.
Serenity stood up, ignoring the cannons firing randomly down the corridor. She reached out her hands, and a fist-sized crystal appeared floating in front of them. She grabbed it, and those watching the scene saw some beams being stopped by an invisible barrier. "I... Understand," Serenity said and held the crystal with one hand, as she pointed her sword with the other. "Moon Redemption Wave!"
Lumina gasped. True, her element was light, while Serenity's element was supposedly neutral. As in, pure magic. But the ammount of magic she'd just used was enough to create a blinding, white wave of energy that punched through the weapon-packed wall as easily as a plasma drill would dig through a glass, and hit three of the remaining eight Khr'Sed, vaporizing them.
"Well, well... I see you hoomahns are too stubborn," the Khrall said as he looked at the magicians, his eyes showing no emotion at all.
"The other robots are here," Claude noticed.
"And that's not all," the Khtei said. "All soldiers, report to the main reactor room."
In a matter of seconds, the only visible escape route was crowded by alien soldiers, and they kept on coming from the far side of the corridor. "We're surrounded!" one of the human soldiers said.
"This is your last chance," the Khrall said. "Surrender now, and your lives will be spared."
Lumina frowned. Surrendering seemed like the wiser choice right now. But she knew the Khrall wasn't telling the truth. If they fought, they could end up dead, but if they gave up, they would be dead for sure.
But... Why was Serenity so silent?
A/N: The robots' name would sound like "Cursed" in human language.
Updated to correct one minor mistake with Sailor Lilith's powers.
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is a creation of Naoko Takeuchi, and I thank her for creating such wonderful universe.