(Rating: R) ================================================ Episode 408: I Had a Little Help from my Friends ================================================ *** [title sequence] *** One of the more interesting features of Nagano-2's underground headquarters was the shower room. Wide and spacious, it had been a holdover from previous plans to make Valhalla just an ordinary bomb shelter. It boasted three dozen shower heads and enough square meters to have a nice game of field hockey. It was the perfect place for two senshi to wash up after a hard day of work defeating an alien. It also boasted an "under construction" sign: it was being converted into storage space. Thus Sailors Orion and America, after debriefing a few floors above in a conference room, had to go to a small secondary shower room. The room was small, with half a dozen narrow stalls which barely had room for one person, let alone two. Jen found herself constantly bumping her elbows into the walls of the enclosure. From the sounds Eileen was making to her left, it seemed that she was having trouble adjusting too. "You know," said Eileen as she took a moment from her attempts to clean herself just to stand under the steady stream of water and relax, "if all our enemies were this easy to pick off, being a senshi wouldn't be bad at all." "I know," replied Jen. Blindly she reached for a bottle of shampoo. "Much more fun, too, I think." They both winced as the water temperature momentarily surged and then returned to normal. "Remind me to complain about the plumbing," said Eileen, checking herself to make sure she hadn't been scalded anywhere. "That's the third time that's happened since we got in here." "Well, maybe-" The lights went out, and the water stopped. Neither moved for a moment in the pitch blackness; the only sound was the dripping of water from hair, bodies, shower heads, and the breathing of the two women. "What was that?" "I don't know," replied Eileen uncertainly. Turning slowly, she went to where she thought the door to the stall should be and reached for the theoretical position of the handle and found it. From the creaking of the door next to her she knew Jen was out too. "Should we towel off?" "Do we have that kind of time? We don't know what caused this." "It could have been a simple accident," Eileen offered, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself of it. They both knew the emergency lights should have clicked on as well. "We can't afford to take that chance." To that, there could be only one other response. Still dripping wet, the two senshi performed their magic. "America Crystal Power, Make Up!" "Orion Crystal Power, Make Up!" For a brief moment, the shower room was bright as noonday as a flash of light heralded the transformations of Hinansho's two sailor senshi. "Now, what next?" asked Sailor America, wondering if her high heels were waterproof and skid-resistant. "Can you give us some light?" "I can try." Concentrating on her power for a moment, she tried to summon a single star from her attack. After a few brief flickers, it worked: a single point of light, much too bright to look at directly, appeared in America's hands and lit the entire room. As she and Sailor Orion cautiously walked towards the door, both wondered what could have happened. The hallway wasn't any brighter; only half of the battery-operated emergency lights were on. They proceeded down the halls, not meeting anyone else. Sailor Orion stopped at a red-painted storage locket that was at floor level and knelt down to open it. "What is it?" Sailor Orion rummaged around a bit, the various contents of the locker rattling loudly. Finally, she stood triumphantly and slapped a metal cylinder in Sailor America's gloved hand. "Flashlights," she said, beaming. A moment later two beams of light cut through the darkness of the subterranean base, which was still silent as a tomb. Sailor Orion couldn't even hear the murmur of the air conditioning units. At one point she thought she heard footsteps from the level above, but couldn't be sure. As they reached a stairwell that would take them to Valhalla, the lights flickered on once, then twice, and then stayed on. "Took long enough," muttered Sailor America. They nearly ran down the four flights of stairs, impatiently running their ID cards through the security checkpoints. Ordinarily the computers would recognize their fuku and let them in without having to use the cards, but apparently they hadn't finished initializing. The actual doors of Valhalla were very plain in comparison to its purpose. Simple steel doors three centimeters thick guarded the main control center; anyone who came this far wasn't going to be deterred by a door, no matter how thick, and how many people that determined would try to invade a humble colony world? The doors weren't even locked. Sailor Orion simply turned a handle and walked right into chaos. Seemingly every person in the room wanted either her or Sailor America's attention, and wanted it right there and then. "Allow me, Jen," whispered Sailor America into Sailor Orion's ear. The brown haired senshi stepped forward into the crowd. "QUIET!" They fell silent, and Sailor Orion's calm voice cut through the tension. "Sammy, status report. What the hell caused that power failure?" "We're still trying to trace the source. It was probably Antares!" Sailor Orion had no response for that. Nagano-2 was powered by two fusion plants, each on opposite ends of the city. The two were capable of providing for the power needs of the entire northern hemisphere in an emergency. Granted, that wasn't much, considering how lightly populated the entire planet was, but still, this sort of emergency was just the reason why there were two. What could have happened to use that much energy? "Confirmed," said a voice that rang out throughout the room. The senshi glanced up to one of the screens, which showed a short looking man in a heavy orange survival coat. From his breath which condensed in the air before him, Sailor Orion guessed him to be with Antares. "We did it." "How?" asked America simply. "We got a signal from one of the watch stations, thought it might be another attack. So we . . . we tried to boot Antares into full battle readiness." What looked like a scowl crossed his face, though it could easily be an involuntary shiver. It was a good ten or so degrees below freezing there, after all. "He wasn't ready. Went into some kind of feedback loop and ended up trying to pull all the power from the planetary grid. The dampening systems managed to stop the surge before the core or peripheries were damaged, but a *lot* of capacitors blew out. Two of our people died from shrapnel injuries. "Antares is undamaged, yes. Tactically, however, he's useless until we've had time to run more tests, or barring a miracle. He's capable of some self-repair, mind you." "That's all I needed to know," replied Sailor Orion quickly. Antares was essentially useless for now, but they at least had power. She and America were also going on no rest at all. It had been just five hours since the last enemy was defeated, and now it seemed very likely that they'd have to go at it again. Sailor Orion took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "Do we have any sort of clues about what it is?" "Just two transient signals from one of the southern telescopes, and a very faint radar blip that disappeared as soon as it was detected." Sailor Orion thought it over for all of one second. "Order the evacuation of Nagano-2 and the mobilization of the armed forces." "Sir," protested Kim from her seat, "half the residents are still returning from the shelters, and-" "-they'll have to go right back," answered Sailor Orion. "We're on alert as of now." She inwardly growled: the clocks read 01:33, and she didn't relish the thought of sending parents and children heading for the shelters again at this hour. "No, belay that. They can go back to their homes, just make sure they stay there!" "Y-yes sir!" Kim and the rest of the staff were surprised by this reversal, but immediately moved to put it into place. *** Far out over the ocean that lay to the south of Nagano-2, a titan slowly emerged from the murky waves, lit only by the faint light of the stars and one of Hinansho's moons. After a pause, it began to glide north. Very very fast. The sonic boom it created disturbed fish near the surface, and for a week afterwards fishermen found themselves catching less than their share of fish. The champion drew closer to the site of combat. *** "Infrared detectors have been tripped," called out Vanessa. "Seems to be coming in from the ocean, intercept point Kenson Beach in fifty seconds." "Right, we need as much artillery as we can get between Kenson and Nagano. Kim, get on it." "Aye aye," replied the short black-haired woman, dashing off to give orders. Sailor Orion turned to her lover. "That artillery isn't going to do the trick. We're going to have to go topside again." "Again?" asked Sailor America in disbelief. "We just got finished with one of them." "Consider it a warm-up. "We'll get back with plenty of time for breakfast." "I hope so," said Sailor America reluctantly. "Sammy, you're in charge!" called out Sailor Orion as the two senshi made their way to the express elevators. The blonde looked up from her computer console, surprised. "Why not Vanessa?" It was Vanessa's turn in the rotation. "Just a hunch." *** "Senshi arriving at contact zone," reported Kim. The external sensors were almost at full strength once more after the earlier power failure, and showed their adversary. A long, pregnant pause. "That," said Sammy slowly, "is a very big youma." No-one bothered correcting her; they all knew spectral scans denied the possibility of it being a true youma. It was definitely big. Once again humanoid, except with arms twice as long as would be proportional, with a total height of nearly six meters. It gangled. "Sailor Orion," continued Sammy, "we have a visual on Sierra-4. It's a humanoid life form approximately six meters in height, moving due east at two meters per second. Do you copy?" Sailor Orion's voice came through the speakers with a bit of noise. "Yes. Can't see the thing yet, though." 'Six meters?' she asked herself in disbelief. How in heaven were they supposed to beat something the size of a small building? *** Overhead, the sky exploded. On Sammy's orders, dozens of flare guns were constantly fired into the air, with the goal of illuminating the area for the two senshi. It was another three hours to sunrise. Under the strobe-lit sky Sailor Orion and America crept forward, eyeing the shape in the distance. From three hundred meters away it looked more like a house than a monster. "Should we take it here?" asked Sailor America. A note of impulsiveness crept into Sailor Orion's voice. "No, I have a better idea." A surge of confidence building from their previous success, she unsheathed her sword and brandished it, running headlong towards the thing. "I'll take the top!" Sailor America nodded and ran afterwards. "I've got his legs!" At fifty meters, the thing finally took notice of them. Slowly it turned, and as it did the senshi could see that its eyes burned with a cold, distant light. Sailor Orion didn't plan on looking at it for long. "Orion Saber Disruption!" she cried, aiming for its arms and torso. "American Stars and Stripes!" shouted Sailor America, going for its legs. Both attacks hit dead on. For a moment the stars and stripes blinded the two, and it was a few seconds before they could see their impact. Direct hits: the beast lay immobile on the ground. "Yatta!" crowed the brunette. "Two for two!" "RRRRAAAAAWWWWWRRRRRR!" The two leapt back, half in fright, half in surprise. The formerly vanquished champion lumbered to its feet . . . or rather its foot. One leg had been blown off, and its left arm and shoulder lay in a puddle on the ground. As they watched, though, the leg began to regenerate rapidly. "Run," was all Sailor Orion said. The two senshi turned and sprinted back towards the city at full speed. For a senshi, this was an impressive speed indeed; any senshi could sprint faster than any normal human, and maintain that speed for kilometers at a time. In ten seconds they were up to nearly fifty kilometers per hour, their feet scarcely feeling the heat due to magical interference. The beast lumbered behind them, but slowly and clumsily. The senshi were far away in no time at all. *** "Sailors Orion and America are falling back, Sammy!" "I know!" the blonde shouted back at Kim. On the map, the two blue dots that denoted the sailors were moving back towards the city, while the single red dot of Sierra-4 followed at a much slower, almost imperceptible rate. "ETA?" "Two minutes for the senshi, closer to seven or eight for Sierra-4." Sammy clenched her fists. 'Dammit.' "Call up Fifth Unit," she said quickly, pointing to a lime green dot to the north of the chase. "They're to fire everything they have at that thing and slow it down as much as possible, okay?" "Aye aye," replied Kim, who had already had the orders ready. The Fifth Unit of the Planetary Defense Force, fifty troops strong with surface to surface rockets, rifles, and a few land mines at its disposal, had been waiting to move and needed only the signal to go. "Vanessa," continued Sammy, "notify Project G that they're needed now." Vanessa's eyes widened. "Sir, the council expressly-" "Do it Vanessa!" said Sammy testily. The brunette shook her head slowly, but got to work on it anyway. "Oh, and Vanessa?" "Yes?" Sammy bowed her blonde head for a second. "If . . . when the council asks, I'll take full responsibility. You were following my orders, nothing more." Vanessa paused in the middle of her tasks to turn around and face Sammy, but Sammy had turned to face the wall, hiding her emotions behind the mask of duty. A tear caught in Vanessa's eye; they'd all been there before, the three, they all knew what it was like to be in the big chair and make the decisions. It was times like these she was glad not to be a senshi. She adjusted her microphone. "Project G leader, this is command. Mobilize and stand by for further orders." *** Sailors Orion and America didn't look back at the explosions and flames that occurred behind them; they were too busy running in terror. "What now?" gasped Sailor America as they nearly flew through a small suburb. Sailor Orion had just enough time to see some of the doors were still open, the lights still on in the houses. The town had been evacuated in a hurry. "We keep running," replied Sailor Orion, sucking in great gulps of air. "Hopefully . . . the cavalry . . . can slow it down . . . long enough for . . . us to . . . think of . . . something!" The two reached the crest of a hill and tried to stop. Super speed was a clear advantage, of course, but it didn't come with enhanced stopping abilities either. The best they could manage was a sort of graceful tumble. Coming to a stop, they turned to face the behemoth. The flare guns were still being fired, so they could see the vague shape of Sierra-4. It slowly lumbered closer, unfazed by constant weapons fire. Two kilometers distant, it stopped and turned towards the north. Sailors Orion and America turned and watched as it meandered away, parallel to the city limits. For the second time since the battle had begun, they were stunned. "Do we chase it?" asked Sailor America. "Are you kidding? We report in first, *then* we chase it!" "Why?" Sailor Orion slumped her shoulders and sighed as she reached for her communicator. "Because after that I have no idea what we'll do." She punched a button. "Valhalla, this is Orion, status?" "We read Sierra-4 as moving north-northeast at a couple meters per second," replied Kim. Sailor Orion pulled up a mental map of the city, and overlaid its and their position. After looking at a street sign, she could see that she was now outside the northeast corner of the city. "It's going to Antares, isn't it?" "That's the projected course, sir." "Right. Evacuate the complex up there and close it up tight." A voice she hadn't heard in years cut into the conversation. "I wouldn't recommend that, Jenny. I can take care of myself, but I'd much rather have my staff." "Antares? I thought you were down!" The senshi was too surprised to take offense at the diminuative name. "You thought wrong." A long pause. "I'm not yet at a hundred percent, but this will have to do for now. The tech crew is working as hard as they can, and you have other things to worry about. You have a gertie arriving in about one minute, rendezvous point is the Thirty-third Street bridge over the loop." "Whoa now, what are you saying?" A gertie? It took forever to make one of those. They couldn't have made one on such short notice, could they? "A gestalt device," explained Antares patiently, "just like on Pleiades. Granted, this one has a lower theoretical yield, and lower power requirements, and is slightly smaller since it has to be portable-" "You've built one!" "No, the physics department of the university built one." "I didn't know they knew how." "They didn't. I told them the basics and provided a couple examples of how previous models were built. I also told them that each device needs to be calibrated individually, and of the risks involved in activating one without proper testing." Sailor Orion nodded to herself, still surprised that her old 'friend,' so to speak, was alive again. "But they went ahead and did it anyway." "The target's ETA to my location is thirty minutes. I don't think there's any other choice." She was forced to agree. "So, do you think it'll work?" "Best case scenario gives a forty-four point six percent chance of success. Worst case, zero." "That's what I always missed about you, your encouraging 'can do' attitude." "I try my best," replied the computer warmly. Sailor Orion smirked. "Is this thing for one person or two?" asked Sailor America into her own communicator. "Two is what it was built for. Whether or not it'll work is a crapshoot." "That works, then," Sailor Orion said with a shrug. She didn't have any better ideas. *** "This is *not* going to work," said Sailor America, shaking her head. "There comes a time," mused Sailor Orion, looking over the small controller she held in her hands, "when you have to take a leap of faith, and hope that the people and equipment behind you are properly prepared." "And this is one of those times?" "Yes." "How many do we have left, so I know to be out of town for them?" "Ha ha." The parking lot they stood in was deserted, pools of yellow light from the lampposts spotting the black asphalt. The shopping center itself was dark and silent: the power usually feeding it had been diverted to the Gertie that sat in a truck which was the only vehicle in the lot. Four technicians had been sent along with the truck, all of whom looked like they had gone without sleep for a couple of days. The brightest of them seemed to be surviving only by munching on candy bars. "You arm it using this switch," said the tech, munching on a bar and pointing with his free hand. "Then, you just do your thing. Only thing you have to remember is that you cannot let go of it until you're finished with the attack." "What happens if I do?" Sailor America asked belligerently. The tech took a moment to remove the bar from his mouth, then made a gesture with both his hands. "Boom. Whole thing explodes, as far as we can tell from the sims. Then again, this whole thing is so jury-rigged we'll be lucky if we don't get blown up trying to turn on the damn thing!" "Have I mentioned how much pride and trust I have in you and your team?" "We built this damn thing in two days, *sir*, it's the best we can do!" He stared down the senshi with wide eyes, the now-forgotten candy bar fallen to the ground. The brunette backed away. "Okay, I'm sorry then." She made a note to talk to whoever was in charge of this operation. That much stress couldn't be healthy. "Here he comes," said Sailor Orion quietly, or tiredly; Sailor America was too exhausted to tell herself. Sailor America was also too tired to ask why her lover was so certain it was male, if anything. They turned to face their adversary. Behind them, the techs got to work flipping switches and activating electronic boxes Orion didn't understand at all. The crew wasn't running, though, which she supposed was a good thing. "Tallyho!" It was moving as slowly as ever; apparently its prodigious speed over water couldn't be achieved on land. Most of it had turned black from all the weapons that had struck it, but it seemed unfazed by them. Before it, two police cars raced away, gunshots echoing as they sped past the shopping center. Above them all, the sky gradually lightened as dawn broke. "Ready, Eileen?" asked Sailor Orion, gripping her controller. It was a small calculator-sized box, attached by two thick wires to a host of devices in the truck. "Ready as ever, Jennifer." She swallowed hard and held her identical controller shakily. "Gertie power at maximum," called out the head tech. Above, the lights flickered once, twice, then went out. Simultaneously, a whining shriek came from the truck. "Um, I wouldn't wait very long if I were you!" he hastily added. "Gotcha," nodded Sailor Orion. "Okay, on three. One, two, three!" Both the senshi flipped on their controllers. Both reacted differently. For Sailor Orion, it was unpleasantly like being electrocuted. A thrill of power surged through her entire being, from her toes to her chest to her ears to her fingertips. She was conscious of one thing, and that was that she had to let this out, and NOW. Fighting unconsciousness, she brandished her sword and began her attack. For Sailor America, it was unpleasantly like being on fire. Her entire body felt like it was aflame, and she could only think of one thing to put those flames out. Her facial expression unwittingly matching her lover's, she brought her arms out to their ready position. "Orion . . ." "America . . ." "Saber . . ." "Stars . . ." "DISRUPTION!" "AND STRIPES!" The two attacks leapt forward from the women, enhanced far beyond their normal capabilities with the technological support. With a blinding flash they met the opponent, who howled as its upper half sparkled and melted into a soup of basic chemicals and its lower half simply vanished into nothingness under a spray of streaking stars. "Got him," whispered Sailor Orion, releasing the trigger switch on the gertie and allowing it to power down. Sailor America did the same. "We did it." Behind them, the whine built to a crescendo. "Um . . . ," began Sailor America. "DOWN!" screamed Sailor Orion, panicking, and rightfully so. As they hit the rough pavement, the whine reached ear-shattering proportions and then culminated in a fiery explosion. The makeshift gertie, unable to withstand the strains placed on it in such a short time, self-destructed and instantly killed all the techs who had been in and near it. The two senshi ducked their heads down, wincing as bits of debris rained down around them. Both knew that had they been a few meters closer, their remains might have been part of that debris. Finally, after she stopped shaking, Sailor Orion pulled out her communicator. "Valhalla, this is Sailor Orion. Target eliminated. We need a recovery crew here immediately . . . and a coroner as well." "Acknowledged, they're on their way. Good job." The connection closed with a click. "Good job my ass," said the redhead bitterly, rolling over on her back and facing the rising sun. "Real great job indeed." Sailor America got to her hands and knees, crawled over, and held onto Sailor Orion tightly, holding her until the tears finally came. It was the only response she could think of. Words at that point were useless.