Part 1Chapter 1 It was a time of terrible despair throughout the Galaxy. Although the Sailor War had ended years ago, a new threat had surfaced. The once-good Queen, Galaxia, had defeated the source of all evil only to have it corrupt her when she sealed it away within herself. She sought the powers of the Galaxy, the starseeds of the Sailor Senshi protecting the thousands of planets, conquering world after world.
In due time, Galaxia’s forces were led to the Planet Freejia. She had heard of the Imperial family’s powerful starseed, collectively known as the Imperium Silver Crystal. Her craving for this crystal is what brought Shadow Galactica down upon the Freejians with out warning and without mercy.
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The dead and dying bodies of soldiers lay across the battlefield. The one-sided battle was over shortly before it began. Immense explosions bloomed in the sky. Mortar tanks began firing at large buildings indiscriminately. Galactican soldiers marched their way into the city, killing anyone whom dared stand in their way.
Princess Serenity had packed only belongings she could fit into a backpack. She heard a desperate knocking at her door. The door opened to reveal her best friend, Apollo, whose face was wrought with panic. "Serenity, we've gotta get outta here immediately. The enemy is in the city and is headed this way! If they catch you, were all totally screwed!" he said in the rather undignified manner he often used. He was famous on Freejia as the guitarist and lead-singer for his band, Millennium. Apollo carried only his guitar on his back and his standard-issue side arm at his hip. Aside from being a musician, he was also a fighter pilot in the Freejian Aerospace Corps, a subsidiary of the Freejian Navy.
Behind him, The Freejian Empress, Selene and an armoured Knight were waiting. "Let's go, Serenity! We haven't much time." Her mother said impatiently. Serenity took one last look at her room and then left with the rest of them.
As the hurried down a flight of spiral stairs, a woman’s voice reported over an intercom, "Warning: Galactican Stingers are attacking the escaping ships. Repeat, Galactican Stingers are attacking the escaping ships."
All they could do is hope their warships could hold out against this onslaught. In orbit, several Freejian warships fought back against Shadow Galactica's destroyers with great tenacity, to clear a path for more escaping ships. Fighters and cruisers alike on either side erupted in flames during the battle. The faster ships had no choice but to retreat from the planet's orbit to a relatively safe location around the larger of Freejia's two moons.
Back on the ground, Galactican troops soon began storming the palace. Warning klaxons blared while the woman on the intercom said, "Warning: Enemy troops have entered the palace! Repeat, enemy troops have entered-PSHHHHHHH..." only to be cut off in a burst of static as an enemy soldier broke into the room she was working in and shot her with a paralysing EMP burst.
The outside of the palace took a mortar shot and shook violently. Just as the escapees were running down the corridor to the North Hangar, several of the large pillars came down, separating the group. Serenity and Apollo were stuck on the wrong side while Empress Selene was at a clear shot to the last transport offplanet. Apollo took out his communicator and contacted the captain of the cruiser
Velocity, the Empress's flagship. "
Velocity, this is Lieutenant Solaris. We are separated and I cannot get the Princess to you at this time. She is safe for the time being, but I'll have to get her offplanet myself."
Hearing this and seeing that there was no other option, the Empress warned, "If she has so much as single scratch on her, I'll personally jettison you into a black hole without a second thought!" As if to confirm the ominous threat, the palace walls shook again as she and her guard continued down the corridor.
Considering this threat, he was now a little anxious. "C'mon!" he said as he took Serenity's hand and they ran down the opposite direction to an intersection between two corridors. In the second it took to decide which way to go, two Galactican soldiers in full armour came down the corridor to the right. One of them appeared to be Human, but the other one was clearly a large, bipedal canine being; a species hailing from the planet Canis.
The Human soldier shouted, "There she is! Set for stun!" upon seeing the Princess and fired at her. His shot missed as they managed to backpedal behind the corner. Apollo immediately drew his laser pistol and returned fire, but his shots hardly pierced their armour.
As a stun burst barely missed them, he fired at the Human soldier's faceplate and he fell on the spot. The Canian howled as he saw his companion fall and began to charge at Apollo and Serenity. Luckily, Canians don't run very fast on two legs and the armour the Galactican military used made it difficult for one to get into a decent running position.
Apollo and Serenity outran their pursuer and rounded a corner. Soon, they came to another intersection and stopped. Serenity reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle of expensive perfume. "What're you doing? They're using Canians! If you put that on, they'll be able to track us better!" Apollo reasoned.
But Serenity had ideas of her own. Instead of spraying the perfume on herself, she threw the glass bottle down to the floor and broke it. A flowery, feminine smell quickly filled the immediate area. "Now they will have a hard time tracking us at all." she said smugly.
Meanwhile, just as the Empress and her guard were about to board the
Velocity, a group of enemy soldiers surrounded the ship and one soldier managed to squeeze off a single shot at the Empress as the ramp was being raised. The shot hit her through her back and burned it's way through the other side of her body. Her Knight bodyguard caught her as she fell and carried her to the ship's infirmary with the aid of a Freejian soldier.
As if speaking to the atmosphere, Selene painfully groaned, "Please be safe, Serenity... And don't let Apollo do anything stupid!" She could feel the strength slip away from her body. In a fit of sheer desperation, she drew energy from her Silver Crystal’s Holy-elemental powers to heal the wound. Her vital signs had stablised, but in due time began to decline. Medics rushed to treat her with the finest of their medical supplies.
Soon the ship blasted away from the palace's North Hangar and into space. As the ship cleared the planet's atmosphere, a blockade of Galactican ships began firing. The
Velocity fired back as Stingers started to engage the ship directly. Deflector screens went up at maximum power and weapons fired their full salvos as the
Velocity's engines brought it to full speed.
*****
Four Canian soldiers had been following Apollo and Serenity by scent, but once they reached an intersection in the corridors, the trail was interrupted by a strong, girly smell. The one in front took a step forward and heard a crunch beneath his feet. Looking down, he saw a broken bottle and a mess of perfume on the floor.
He growled in frustration and barked to his comrades to get their attention. "Split up and hunt them down! One of you go down the right hall and another go down the left." he ordered, pointing out directions with the gun integrated into his armour. Then he added, "and you with me." He said to the remaining soldier. They then went their separate ways.
Serenity and Apollo soon ended up at a dead end in the passageway. "You know, for someone who grew up in this palace, you don't seem to know your way around too well." Apollo criticised.
Serenity glared at him and replied, "So sue me! I made a mistake! Let's go!" they turned to backtrack, but two of the Canians rounded the corner up ahead. Apollo pulled Serenity out of sight and looked around for any possible escape. Looking up, he found a ventilation shaft that appeared to go through the dead-end wall.
"C'mon! The vent!" he said, pointing up. He carefully climbed up on a nearby machine, jumped up to the vent and crawled inside.
"Oh yeah, they'll never think of looking for us in the vent.” Serenity said sarcastically. Then she heard heavy footsteps approaching and one of the Canians saying that they never checked the corner she and Apollo happened to be occupying. She saw she had no other choice. She used her Senshi powers to jump up to the vent and climb inside after Apollo. The alien soldier in front glanced up at the vent just in time to see the soles of Serenity's designer boots disappear inside.
For a moment they thought they were safe, but soon gunshots were fired at them from one of the pursuing alien soldiers. As they hurried down the ventilation shaft, all but a single shot missed the two. Just as the hot blue plasma bolt grazed Apollo's shoulder, he shoved Serenity in front of him and fired back at the soldier struggling to get into the vent to chases them. Serenity found a grate that opened up in the South Hangar and, thinking quickly, took Apollo's pistol and shot it out. "Come on!" she ordered, as she dropped down. Taking his gun back, he fired one last shot at the pursuing soldier and he, too, dropped down to the Hangar below.
Upon arriving in the hangar, a woman in a gold-armoured Senshi uniform turned to face them with a menacing glare. Serenity immediately recognised her. "Galaxia..." she said, her voice barely the ghost of a whisper.
In her right hand, Sailor Galaxia brandished a longsword. She raised it, preparing to strike Apollo down when a man in armour different from the rest of the soldier's walked up to her. Serenity also recognised him and couldn't believe her eyes. The man was a Knight, a male counterpart to a planet's Senshi guardians. And what's worse is that he was a Freejian Knight!
"My queen, let me handle them! They don't look worthy to die by your hand." said the man in armour to Galaxia. Galaxia lowered her blade and hesitated for a second, as if to consider the man's proposal. Finally, she answered, "Very well. Eliminate the boy, but leave the princess alive. She has something I want." And with that, she vanished, teleporting to another part of the palace.
"Come... Bring it on, son!" said the man, arrogantly gesturing with his hand, displaying the life-sustaining bracelets that Galaxia gave him. He drew his own sword and prepared to attack. The blade began sparkling and crackling with electricity as he charged it with his electric powers.
Serenity, completely appalled at her guardian’s betrayal, immediately protested. "Garrik, what is the matter with you? Why have you joined forces with the enemy?" Sir Garrik didn't answer, but instead attacked Apollo with brutal force. Instinctively, Apollo dodged the attack and shot at him. The Knight's armour was too strong; Apollo's shots didn't even pierce it.
Now Serenity knew what she had to do. She clutched her glowing Silver Crystal in her hand and called out, "Freejia Heavenly Charm!" A pure white flash of holy light filled the entire hangar. The attack stunned the traitorous Knight by targeting the dense darkness in his heart. He lay on the floor, trembling and hyperventilating from the holy power that pierced his dark soul.
Now was their chance to escape. Fresh, red blood stained the sleeve of Apollo's grey-blue uniform. He gripped his shoulder as he led Serenity to a small maintenance ship. They boarded the ship, started the engines, and blasted their way out of the hangar, running down a few approaching soldiers of several species in the process.
Then Galaxia reappeared in a furious rage. Recovering from the short-lived battle, Garrik stood to face his Queen. "You let them get away?" Galaxia yelled. As Sir Garrik attempted to explain, Galaxia snapped her fingers and the bracelets that he wore to sustain his life were removed and he immediately disintegrated. "Useless fool..." she muttered under her breath. “If they are leaving the system, they'll never get past my fleet!"
Once they cleared the atmosphere, Apollo immediately saw the blockade and veered up in an attempt to avoid it, but to no avail. Once they came in range, the enemy ships began firing at them. As a fighter pilot, he had knowledge of evasive actions. He put the ship into a roll at full speed. They took only a few hits because of this, but one of those hits was directly on the viewport, cracking it. The vacuum of space pulled at the cracks, making them worse as the ship tumbled forward, past the blockade.
"Uh oh...." they both said in unison. Red energy bolts still continued to fly past them into space as the viewport grew increasingly weaker. The ship’s weak deflector screens were now completely dead.
Apollo took out his comlink and said, "We're in serious trouble! We need a pick-up right away!" The communications officer onboard the
Velocity got the call and passed the word on that the Princess and Lieutenant Commander were in danger. An officer on the observation deck saw their small maintenance ship hurtling into space, barely under control, and gave the order to pick them up.
"Roger, Lieutenant. This is the
Velocity. We're right above you. We're opening the mooring field now." was the communications officer's response. He gave the order to an officer in the ship’s docking bay, who began to activate the artificial gravity field that would bring in the ship.
Upon hearing this, Apollo suddenly realised that this may make their situation worse. "No wait! Just open an airlock hatch and prepare to close and pressurize it the moment we get in." He suggested. The officer wasn't sure what Apollo had in mind, but complied anyway. Serenity was now both confused and scared. How was he going to go about saving them? If the gravitation field pulled at the cracking viewport, it might burst pulling them out into the vacuum of space. However, if they were prepared, this could be a good thing after all.
Suddenly, Apollo grabbed her around the waist and said, "Exhale!" As he took a deep breath, she immediately knew what he was planning to do and started to struggle screaming, "Apollo, what are you doing? If we jump, our lungs will explode!"
"Exhale... slowly!" He said. He inhaled deeply and added, "Trust me! Hold on... and steadily exhale as soon as we break through!" Serenity felt she had no choice. She did as she was told and they jumped out into the void, using inertia to pull them into an open airlock hatch. The
Velocity's main airlock hatch opened to receive them and then quickly closed and pressurised just in time to save them from asphyxiation.
"Let's… not... do... that... again!" Serenity gasped. Apollo just nodded his agreement, gasping heavily. Just then, a medic and another military officer came rushing into the airlock.
"Are you all right, ma'am?" the medic asked Serenity while the other officer helped her to her feet. Apollo slowly got up on his own and followed the group to the infirmary to have his arm looked at. "Send a message to Weapons to load and fire one last salvo before we jump into hyperspace." commanded the officer to a subordinate.
"Yes, sir!" the other officer replied with a salute and turned on his heel. Minutes later, the ship vibrated as its cannons fired their rounds and whined as its engines were pushed to full power. No one onboard knew if they’d ever see their homeworld again.
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