Prologue: 3104 AD: The Moon
"Our forces are engaging the Moon Kingdom outer perimeter, milord."
"Bring the ship around to face the front line, lieutenant."
"Aye sir."
The Star Cruiser Black Helm slowly turned
towards two gigantic starfighter forces converging a thousand
miles above the moon. As the opposing fighters
entered missile range, each side let loose a barrage upon
their enemies. Bright flashes of light
appeared through space, as ships exploded all about the moon
defense perimeter. The ships engaged, and
the bright orange plasma blasts from the fighters' cannons
erupted all around.
Lord DarkStar, commanding officer of the
Black Helm, watched the view from the bridge. He paced back
and forth, issuing orders to the bridge
officers. "Captain, bring the fourth wing around to destroy that
cruiser out there. The seventh wing should
be in range of that point defense turrent, see if they can knock
it out. Helm, full power. Bring the Black
Helm within 20 miles of the battle. We still have four wings that
haven't launched yet."
Each officer acknowledged and relayed DarkStar's
commands around the extensive communications
network. An officer on the lower bridge
turned from his post and shouted, "Sir, the Moon Kingdom's
perimeter defense is at 75%."
"Good, the battle is proceeding well," said
DarkStar more or less to himself, as he returned his view to the
large screen in front of the bridge. "Poor
little Queen Serenity, with her pitiful forces. She cannot
withstand my power." He smiled cruelly
and continued his commands.
Outside the battle raged. Hundreds of ships
darted in all directions, firing orange plasma bolts at any
enemy who came within range. Missiles flew
through the vacuum of space, as hundreds of pilots fought,
and died.
An exceptionally talented pilot flew through
space at fantastic speeds in a tiny jet-black starfighter. He
dodged and weaved with precision, firing
plasma bolts with deadly accuracy. DarkStar noticed this fighter
fly past the Black Helm's bridge windows,
dangerously close, and blast a Moon Kingdom fighter to dust.
"Impressive, Xerik," DarkStar said into the comm link. "Most impressive."
The fighter pilot dove back into the fray, firing swarms of missiles at his enemies.
"The outer perimeter has been eliminated, milord." The lieutenant said looking down at a small screen.
"Very nice. Prepare to approach the central perimeter."
"Aye sir." The Black Helm slowly approached
the moon, as Lord DarkStar's black fighters dove closer to
the moon. Several flights of ships launched
from the Moon Kingdom's starbases, and were almost
instantly thrown into the fray. Swarms
of black fighters shot across the starbases, firing into vulnerable
gun turrents and personnel carriers. Out
of the corner of his eye DarkStar witnessed the destruction of
one of the Moon Kingdom's starbases. Apparently
its energy core had been corrupted, and the resulting
fusion explosion annihilated the entire
base and any ships within a mile of it instantly. "Good work,"
DarkStar said into his communicator. "Whoever
blasted that energy core is up for a promotion."
"It was Commander Malik who destroyed the core, milord." A pilot answered through the comm.
DarkStar chuckled. "Scratch that promotion bit. He can't rank much higher than where he is right now."
Another starbase was engulfed in a nuclear
blast, and several Moon Kingdom ships flying too close
evaporated in the blast. "Ha!" DarkStar
clapped his hands once. "You're mine now, Serenity!"
"Sir, we're ready to begin the assault on the inner perimeter."
"Good to hear, lieutenant." DarkStar stopped
momentarily. He looked out over the growing battle scene
before him, miles away.
"Uh, lieutenant, where's the twelfth wing? They should have engaged the inner perimeter by now!"
"Sir, the twelfth wing has just… disappeared,
sir. I'm not picking up any debris or jump paths out there."
"What?!" Shouted DarkStar. He rushed to
the officer's chair and glanced at the readout. It reported that
all twelve ships had suddenly disappeared
without a trace. DarkStar looked back up on the battle raging on
in the windows circling the bridge. He
noticed a strange occurrence, something like a blue flicker of
energy around the entire moon. His eyes
widened behind his sunglasses. "Oh, shit," he muttered.
"All fighters approaching the inner perimeter,
pull up!" He shouted into the comm link. Suddenly hundreds
of bright explosions fired up all around
the moon, in a perfectly concentric circle. DarkStar shouted to the
helmsman. "Full reverse! Back off! Back
off!"
The Black Helm's massive main aft engines
shut down and the tiny fore maneuvering engines came to full
power. The ship shuttered and began to
back away from the moon. The tiny black fighters previously
attacking the moon's defenses suddenly
peeled off, back towards their mothership. Those that lagged
behind were vaporized by an unseen force.
DarkStar was furious. "Damn! Get us out
of here!" He shouted. The Black Helm and its fighter support
quickly backed away from the moon, while
the remaining moon defense forces staggered back to their
bases.
Hours passed. Lord DarkStar sat in his quarters,
staring into a rather tasteless drink. He pressed the
comm button on his datapad. "Captain, did
any Moon Kingdom forces follow us?"
The captain quickly replied, "No sir, there's no enemy forces for two hundred million miles."
DarkStar switched off the comm without replying,
and took a drink from the glass. He was in disbelief in
how arrogant he had been. Why didn't he
see the shield coming?
All around DarkStar's quarters lay old books,
notes, and data tapes. They contained stories of the Sailor
Scouts from the last three thousand years.
They had faced many perils, fought many enemies, and every
time they triumphed. Once or twice nearly
all of them had been killed, but somehow they managed to pull
through every time, defeating their opponents
again and again. Queen Beryl and her generals. The two
aliens searching for energy for their pathetic
plant life. The weakling Prince Diamond and his forces from
the Negamoon. That strange professor and
his search for the Holy Grail. The list went on. On each
occasion, the Sailor Scouts managed to
protect the earth from destruction, invasion, or whatever their
enemies planned. But why the earth? Why
would they fight for the earth and not the moon?
And the most important question, how did
they continue to win? In all of his studies DarkStar had never
uncovered any proof that the Scouts fought
well. In fact he found that Sailor Moon was particularly
clumsy. The Scouts relied on their powers
and their weapons to defeat their enemies. Thus, he realized,
the best way to eliminate the Sailor Scouts
was to deprive them of their powers, rendering them helpless
before him.
For many a night DarkStar had pondered these
thoughts. Now he had a new dilemma, a totally
impenetrable force shield around the entire
moon. The sensor scans reported that the shield's power came
from the Crystal Palace, home to Neo-Queen
Serenity and her Sailor Scouts, but DarkStar didn't need
that to know what was happening. It had
happened to Diamond a hundred years ago. His attack on
Crystal Tokyo had been all but crippling,
the entire city was nearly destroyed. The only place left was the
Crystal Palace. Diamond tried to attack
there as well, to take the city fully, but his attempt ended in
disaster. The Sailor Scouts created a shield
around the palace, and no barrage had been able to even dent
it.
Lord DarkStar took another long drink. He
was tired. He had come to a stalemate with Neo-Queen
Serenity and the Moon Kingdom. Diamond
dealt with a tiny shield around a castle. Now DarkStar was
dealing with an enormous shield around
the entire moon, with no possible way to get in. He could do
nothing. He stood up and walked towards
his lavish bed aboard the Black Helm.
And tripped over one of the books lying on the floor.
He came crashing to the ground, his face
landing in an open page of a particularly old book. He lifted his
head up, rubbed his nose, and scanned the
page. He hadn't noticed this before. Prince Diamond had sent
several of his servants, Rubeus and the
Four Sisters, back in time to take over the points of Crystal Tokyo
on Earth. That was old information, but
it suddenly gave DarkStar an idea. If Rubeus could use a ship to
travel through time, why couldn't he? He
stood and walked towards the door to his quarters, the book he
fell into in his hand.
Moments later he appeared on the bridge,
straightened his black jacket, and took a seat in the captain's
chair. "Helm, set a course for the remains
of the Negamoon. Maximum jump velocity."
"Aye, sir," the helm replied, never questioning
the orders of his lord. DarkStar was only 21 years old,
barely an adult, but his vast powers and
rather destructive nature kept him in control of his fleet. He ruled
through fear and intimidation. And no one
cared.
The helmsman punched in the coordinates, and engaged the engines. "We are underway, milord."
DarkStar nodded to the helmsman, and looked at the open page in the book. "The Time Streamer…"
The space outside swirled and opened into
the empty blackness of jumpspace.
Several days later the Black Helm dropped
from jumpspace, and engaged the main engines to approach
the giant black moon drifting endlessly
through space. After it had been knocked out of orbit around Sol, it
had drifted trillions of miles into deep
space, and constantly pillaged by star fleets traveling past it. By the
time DarkStar's fleet reached it, it was
in shambles. A great battle had taken place on the Negamoon, and
the defenders had lost, miserably. Any
remains of technology was left destroyed, and some form of bomb
had ravaged random parts of the planet,
leaving nothing but dust.
DarkStar had studied this war sufficiently.
The ruler of the planet, Prince Diamond , had dedicated all of
his forces to the invasion of Crystal Tokyo.
An attack from a totally unknown enemy had descended upon
them after the loss of most of the royal
family. They stood helpless against the massive attack that reigned
down upon them. Some say Prince Diamond
himself took to a starfighter and attempted to stop the attack,
only to be shot down and killed by the
enemy forces. Shortly after they took the Negamoon, and ravaged it
completely. Most everything had been either
stolen or destroyed.
A rather farfetched story, and the part
about the Prince was wholly untrue (he had in fact died at the
hands of the Sailor Scouts months before,
but few knew this), but still, one hundred years later, almost
nothing was known about the Negamoon's
fall from grace.
In fact, DarkStar's sources were very inaccurate
in the matter of the Negamoon. Some reports said that
an even stronger force eliminated the entire
Negamoon royal family, in order to take the future for itself.
DarkStar thought that maybe he could harness
this power to assist in his conquest, but no one in the entire
galaxy could tell him more. At least, none
that DarkStar had found.
The Black Helm settled into an elliptical
orbit around the planet, and scanning began. The scanners told
Lord DarkStar what he already knew: The
place was trashed. However, the scanners did pick up a secret
underground complex with a unique energy
source underneath the planet's capital city. DarkStar took a
small group of soldiers and took a dropship
to the planet's surface.
They landed outside a massive dark castle,
giant spires rising thousands of feet into the sky. All around the
tales of war showed. Buildings were toppled,
streets were destroyed, the wreckage of a thousand year's
work drifted dead through space. DarkStar
and his soldiers entered the castle through the main gate, the
door previously knocked down by the first,
and last, attackers of the Negamoon.
Inside the castle the main hall stretched
hundreds of feet in all directions. The ruins of a powerful kingdom
laid here, and its greatest secret was
still hidden somewhere underneath the castle.
One of DarkStar's companions approached
his master. He had long white hair, and dressed in a black
uniform similar to DarkStar, along with
a pair of impossibly dark sunglasses. "Milord, I believe I've found
how to enter the underground complex."
"Have you now, Terrak?" DarkStar faced his highest ranking officer, Commander Terrak.
"We must find the throne room. It should
be at the end of this entry hall." They continued for what seemed
to be at least a mile down the foyer, past
giant pillars lining the halls and old banners that once hung
proudly. They all held the mark of the
Negamoon, a black crescent moon on a white background. They
were once feared throughout the galaxy.
Now they were only a legend shrouded in mystery.
Finally the group reached the throne of
the Negamoon, an ornate chair laced in the most expensive metals
and cloths in the galaxy. "Whoever destroyed
the Negamoon," Terrak remarked, "was not looking for
monetary gain."
DarkStar nodded and approached the throne.
"One hundred years ago, Prince Diamond sat here, as he
ordered so many of his followers to their
dooms," DarkStar announced. "His end was fitting, no?"
"Indeed, milord," Terrak said. "Now press the indentation of the crescent moon directly above your head."
DarkStar looked up, saw the carving in the
golden metal, and touched it. Instantly it jarred awake, and
pulled backwards. A small door to the right
of the throne opened, darkness shrouding where it went.
"Follow me," DarkStar said, as his sunglasses
adjusted to night-vision. He could see perfectly down into
the depths. A long staircase wound down
into the darkness. DarkStar and his followers descended deep
into the underground complex beneath the
Negamoon's capitol.
At the bottom DarkStar found his sunglasses
did not perform well, as there was simply no light to amplify.
He groped around for a torch, a light switch,
anything. His hand came across a small button on the wall.
He pressed it, and was greeted by an awesome
sight.
The lights came on all around inside a gigantic
chamber, holding an enormous black ship, nearly as big as
the Black Helm itself. Plasma guns bristled
all about the hull, and spikes came in seemingly random places
along the entire length of the ship, nearly
a mile long in length.
DarkStar smiled. "The Time Streamer," he whispered.
"I am impressed," Terrak said, staring up
at the giant time machine. He and his lord began another long
walk, towards the entrance to the ship.
A small ramp led up to a closed door on
the hull of the Time Streamer. There was no indication of how to
open it, but a small note was left on the
door. It was in Negamoon script.
Terrak read it. He was well-endowed in languages
through the entire galaxy. "'We have lost,'" he began.
"'The power of the Negamoon will fall.
The evil that will overtake us cannot be stopped. To whoever finds
this Time Streamer, congratulations are
in order. Use this formidable weapon to the best of your ability,
and crush your foes before they can attack
you. We could not use the Time Streamer to stop our foes
from the Moon Kingdom or the forces that
are now destroying our cities. Perhaps you will be more
successful. But beware, only five beings
can exist the passage through time at once. That is the boundary,
and the price of time travel'. It's signed
'The Time Streamer Lead Scientist.' That's all, milord."
"Well, I suppose they've invited us to take it. Let's just hope they left the keys in the ignition."
"Uh, no sir, they're down here," shouted
one of the soldiers from below. He held a small control device in
his hand.
DarkStar reached out and called the device
to his hand. It flew through the air and landed in his palm. It
contained more Negamoon script. "Press
the red button on the top right," Terrak said, after glancing at it.
DarkStar did so, and the door to the Time
Streamer opened with a hiss. Terrak stepped inside first, and
said, "I might have expected a larger space
inside the ship."
Indeed, the only place anybody could go
aboard the entire ship was into a large central chamber, and ten
smaller chambers all around the walls.
Mirrors hung about the room, and a pedestal stood in the center. It
was all outlined in black. "Nice color,"
DarkStar remarked.
All the rest of the ship was outfitted with
the incredible engines needed to pull the ship through time.
DarkStar wasted no time. "Terrak, call
the other three commanders, they will go with us. Have the Black
Helm blast the debris out of the way so
we can haul this ship back to the earth. And get to work
deciphering how to operate this thing!"
"Right away, milord." Terrak disappeared in a glint of pale green light, to carry out his lord's orders.
"Prepare yourself, Sailor Moon. Soon you will face Lord DarkStar."