This is a speculative fic about a period of Sailor Moon history not well covered: The events leading to the expulsion of those whose descendents became the Dark Moon Kingdom.
Sailor Moon and the Dark Moon Clan are the creation of Naoko
Takeuchi. All rights reserved to whoever has them.
Comments and criticism welcome.
JULY 23, 2047, 0036 SHIP'S TIME
"Captain on the bridge!" shouted the bosun mate of the deck as the Defiant's commander walked into the bridge of the Prometheus class naval vessel. The officer of the deck stood up as the captain entered, surprised, to say the least, by the captain's presence at this late hour.
"At ease." said the Captain. He turned to the lieutenant commander. "Mr. Tristen, what is our status?"
"Condition normal, or as normal as one can expect. We picked up two Russian Typhoon-II subs, and a British Stealth Frigate, so our total is now at twenty ships. It'll be a rush getting them all up to speed on this, but I think they'll be ready when we encounter the enemy, Sir."
"I see. When do we arrive at the engagement point?"
"At present speed, we should be in Tokyo bay at about 1300 hours local time. We can engage the enemy then." the captain mused about the last sentence of the deck officer's report.
Twelve and a half hours until we dock. Not much more than half a day before what was likely the last battle of what would possibly be mankind's last war.
One that, if the UN attack on the former city of Mega-Tokyo showed, possibly a futile battle. The captain knew of the fate the soldiers who attacked the self-proclaimed Queen of Earth and her senshi entourage. Even now, those whose own guns did not explode in their faces, or whose missiles did not return to the point of fire, were begin given the Choice.
Be purified of 'evil,' or be banished from Earth forever.
Of course, every member of this fleet faced that choice as well. Every person on Earth was faced with this when the announcement of the Neo-Queen's ascension first came out.
"Any sign of trouble?" Not that the captain thought there would be. Most of the nations of Earth were either too busy fighting each other or too broke to maintain a working fleet to mount a resistance against the fleet. And since no reports existed of a Crystal Tokyo naval presence, the Black Moon Resistance fleet was practically alone in the Pacific.
"No military radar signatures detected, sir. The strange thing is that there are no air signatures in our path. If the enemy is aware of us, and are mounting a counterattack, they're keeping it very quiet." the deck officer reported.
"Captain, If I may ask, why are you up at this hour? I thought you left the deck to get some sleep about six hours ago?" Tristen asked with obvious concern.
"Following an old tradition. Taking a tour of the ship before a battle." Before a hopeless battle, the captain grimly thought. He suspected the rest of the crew shared that notion, even if no one on board openly said so.
"Lord Nelson toured his flagship before his last battle with the French in the Napoleonic War. He died in the battle, but least he won the day!" the officer of the watch said with the obvious pride of a former British Navy Lieutenant Commander. Failing to change the dour mood of the former American, now Army of Resistance commander, he added, "Just a thought, captain."
"Appreciated, Mr. Tristen. What do think are our chances against the enemy?" the captain asked.
"Not good. Conventional attacks from air proved ineffective since the bombs exploded in mid air too far above the crystals to damage them. Solders are prevented from entering, and bullets bounce back from that shield of theirs. Unless we can find a way to overload the power of that crystal Serenity has, this may be a short battle."
"Sounds like you've had enough combat experience to gauge an enemy well then?" They all had. The last couple of decades had seen the tired old Earth embroiled in wars on nearly every continent. The United States fought in major conflicts in Taiwan, Korea, and Siberia in rapid succession before being forced to fight a war within its own borders.
The second American Civil War was a bloody affair, with the Constitutionalists and Presidentialists using every weapon of mass destruction remaining in the arsenal against each other. With the forces of the former superpower engaged in a self destructive orgy, it was an easy task for Captain Gregory Dumond to lead a group of mercenaries and rebels to recapture and revive the submersible carrier for what would surely be its last mission.
The sorry state of affairs in America repeated itself in the inhabitable remnants of Russia and Southern India. The Northern half of India, much of Tibet, and almost all of Pakistan had been rendered a radioactive wasteland over a decade ago.
Except for the members of the Dark Moon Resistance, there wasn't much of a military left in the world. There wasn't much more of the world left to defend against Serenity, the captain darkly mused.
Even the Defiant, the newest vessel of the old U.S. Navy, was nearly 20 years old. Yet the submersible aircraft carrier, designed for quick and stealthy ocean voyages, had patches in the flight deck from the bombs that had fallen nearby, and burns on the bow from the tactical nuclear blast it had barely survived in the last days of the Taiwanese War.
The ship was still functioning though, and was still battle ready. Some of the other ships in the fleet, representing every major power from the pre-collaspe, pre-Neo-Serenity era world, were quite frankly barely even seaworthy.
Whatever the conditions of any individual vessel, these were all that remained of the anti-Serenity resistance navy. On the ships were the last loyal members of the anti-Serenity resistance left free.
We'll make a good show of it at least, Captain Dumond thought darkly."Lieutenant, why did you join our fugitive fleet?" the Captain asked.
"Sir?"
"Why did you join the resistance? I've been asking everyone I've run into on my tour so far."
Tristen gave a thoughtful stare at the radar console as he pondered the question. Please let this be a thoughtful fighter, the Captain prayed.
When he asked his crew why they joined, most gave pat answers like "What gives that witch the right to tell us how to live our lives," or "We have to save our way of life." Never mind that in a world where no-one knew if their homes would be standing the next day, or even if they would get a meal tonight because of the breakdown in the supply lines, most people believed that anything was better than they way they now lived. This feeling was most keenly felt by those old enough to know the wealth and comfort of the world in the early 21st century.
Others answered that they signed on to fight the last few battles of the Twenty Years War. Those who answered that way were mosty mercenaries, fighting for whichever potentate, dictator, or warlord paid them. Some wanted to take down Serenity so that they could continue their trade, but most sadly realized that the age of war was ending, and wanted to be in one last great adventure before the final quiet came.
Dumond thought those were the perhaps the saddest cases of all, since the world would soon pass them by, and having no need of them, would either take away the talents that defined those people, or ask them to go away.
Of all the crew he asked, one spoke of the deeper meaning of the conflict that drove Dumond to the Black Moon banner. The one that spoke of the desire to keep one's essential humanity, both its positive and negative aspects. The need to keep the darkness in one's soul to drive change and invention. The answer that drove Captain Dumond from his U.S Navy commission to the Black Moon: Society's need to keep the Ram among the sheep to drive it to achieve.
The British officer answered. "Well, if I had to boil it down, sir, I'd say I don't want to be part of a world where everyone is 'purified' into being good. Maybe I'm coming at this all wrong, but it sounds like the world Serenity wants is one of blissful sheep. Where would the drive to pursue great deeds come from, the desire to invent and conquer the next mountain, if not from the same lusts that can pervert us. More so, where is the desire to improve ones soul, if one is always...good."
"I heard a poem once. It was a fictional epitaph for a librarian who had fought to keep the classics in her shelves from being torched by the good church going townsfolk. She gave her reason on her tombstone, on the final line of the poem. She said that to know what is good, one had to know of evil."[1]
"I think I understand." the Captain said with an understanding smile that beamed his pleasure at finding a kindred spirit. "Tell me, Tristen. Have you ever read 'Paradise Lost'?"
"Yes Sir. I always thought Milton was our finest light, Sir. I sometimes thought he was a finer writer than Shakespeare. The bard may make you have sympathy for Brutus, but only a truly great poet could make you have sympathy for the devil." Tristen responded.
"I agree. You read that, and you understand where Lucifer is coming from. 'Tis better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.' Not dissimilar to where we are, wouldn't you say?"
"I think so." the Lieutenant agreed. "The way you talk, you're making it sound like were heading to Armageddon, not Crystal Tokyo?"
Captain Dumond gave a bemused grin as he walked out to the door leading from the bridge to the flight deck. "Does that mean were from Gog or Magog? I thought we came from Midway!"
Tristen sadly remembered the scene that greeted the crew of the Defiant as they arrived to resupply themselves at Midway. Where a strong outpost of the once mighty United States stood, was now the lonely base with machines and crew abandoned in the Pacific. The ships left there were derelict without a stream of parts from the divided nation that built them, and the men remained because no-one on either side of the conflict had the inclination to return them. Many of the remaining crew joined the rebellion and helped them strip the base of supplies, while the group left a plane with enough fuel to allow the remainder to return to Hawaii.
"We did, sir. May I join you in your tour of the flight deck?" the Lieutenant asked his superior officer.
"I suppose there's nothing in the tradition disallowing some company for a bit. Permission granted!" the Captain walked down to the deck as the deck officer grabbed his coat and joined him.
He came down to the launch bay and looked at the planes still on the flight deck. Most used the remaining jet fuel, but a few used the fusion packs that were the power source of choice in the mid 21st century. Even with that, they planes on deck could only afford a few sorties before the supplies ran low, even with the stop at Midway to capture the remaining supplies of the crumbling airbase.
"Captain, if I may ask, when did you join the resistance?" the Lieutenant Commander asked from behind the fleet leader.
"Me? Well, I was one of the first to join the group. We started forming only hours after Serenity annouced her presence. When the nations of the world started accepting her as leader, my cell was making plans for our rebellion."
"You were one the first cells then, sir?"
"Yes. Our miliary group started taking out the Californian warlords to gain control of weapons and airbases in the west. We used those to lauch some of the first strikes on the crystal Tokyo." The Captain glanced at the British officer. "And you. When did you join the resistance?"
"I joined hours after the Prime Minister accepted Serenity as his queen. I realize we haven't had a monarch since King Charles' death seventeen years ago, but to bow to a foriegn queen...Captain, our country hasn't been ruled by a foreign power since the Normans invaded in 1066!"
"If that was all, I might have accepted our Prime Minister's acceptance. There's not much left of the world anyway." Tristen glanced at the deck before continuing. "But when she made clear her intent to purge evil from Britain, starting with our armed forces... that was too much. I joined within hours of that announcement."
"Serenity wants society to be peaceful and content. But society achieves great things due to the *discontent* among us! Take that away...and you just have a stagnent society of sheep." Here the bridge officer gave a wry grin. "I'm sorry, but if I want to live among sheep, I'd move to New Zealand, thank you very much!"
Captain Dumond smiled brightly. "So you're a true believer too, eh? Very good. Return to the bridge. I'll continue my tour."
Tristen turned to return to the con tower. As he did, he shouted out, "Good luck to us anyway. Maybe progress and invention will prevail over stagnation afterall!"
"I hope so. If not, then we'll storm the gates of the underworld together!" Dumond's subordinate stopped short of the stairs, turned around, and snapped a quick salute to the Captain.
"I'll take the point under your lead, sir!" Tristen responded as he climbed the stairs and entered the bridge. When he was gone, Dumond turned to face the flight deck, and the full dimension of his situation.
The situation being that he lead a ragtag fleet crewed by a disparate group of men and woman, united only in their burning need to topple a Goddess in her crystal city. Dumond gazed up at the flag flown by all the ships of the fleet, whether they were the core group or the ones who joined en route. It was a beige flag with an inverted black crescent. Some even had a slogan: "Death to Serenity," or the more lyrical (and to Dumond's mind, more romantic) "Sic Semper Tyrannis".[2]
"I wonder what they'll write of us when it's over? Will they see us as heros or villians?" He said to himself as the morning wind blew on the deck.
As he continued his lonely tour of the Defiant, he realized that he already suspected the answer to his last question.
July 24, 2047. 2036 TOKYO LOCAL TIME.
The battle was over. Now it was Dumond's turn to stand before the new Queen of Earth, and make the Choice.
Purification or Banishment.
He knew from the moment he and the fleet set out that it would end like this, as it had for the rest of those loyal to the Black Moon banner. The moment the planes launched their missiles into the city, only to have them explode harmlessly over it, all doubt vanished as to the outcome of the battle. The final injury the once proud Defiant suffered came with the shout of "Deep Submerge" from a green haired woman in a lovely sailor fuku and short skirt with green collar and frills. At which point the bow was crushed by the giant wall of water that seemed to smash the carrier's deck at her call.
It would almost be hilarious if it wasn't such a tragic and pointless end to the proud vessel.
As he walked down the crystal hallway to the fate, the fact of his continued existence most galled him. In the end, one of the very Senshi who sent his ship to the bottom of Tokyo Bay robbed him of his right as Captain to go down with it!
A young woman with dark (almost blue) short hair appeared, chanted a phrase, and sent a beam to him that transported Dumond to the dock where the survivors were being held.
He entered a large hallway, made entirely of crystal. A few feet away from the former commander was Neo Queen Serenity. The woman who would be queen of the entire world.
She certainly looked the part, the Captain thought. She was clad in a long flowing white gown, with a crystal crown on her head. Even the calm look on her completed the regal image, making her look like an angel who was above the troubles of mere mortals."Mortals including himself," the Captain ruefully reminded himself.
The queen greeted the defeated enemy Captain with what the Captain thought was unusual warmth. "Captain Gregory Dumond, former commander of the U.S. Naval carrier Defiant, I presume?"
He always thought that when the moment came, he would curse and spit at this usurper. Perhaps ask if she ever had a real man, or something far less...gentile. Yet when Dumond met this regal individual, with sparkling blue eyes and general warmth, all he could say was, "Yes, ma'am."
"I don't believe I need to tell you why you're here. You have to make a choice. I hope you make the right one."
The warmth continued to emanate from the queen, as she waited for a response from Dumond. If it was an act, he thought, it was a convincing one.
"Given that you are the head of the flagship that attack our city, I suspect I know your choice already, but I cannot act until I know from you what that choice is. Consider though, that the world is tired of the wars, of the endless destruction and despair that threatens to bring a dark age upon the world." The queen continued.
"I don't know if you are aware of this, but the reason this city became a crystal city was to fight a great evil. One that would have destroyed mankind and left the world a lifeless hulk for the entity to silently brood. An evil, Captain, that the wars and destruction you participated in attracted to this world."
"My Queen...."
*My* queen? My god, Captain Dumond thought, she's even got me bowing to her! I have to take the initiative, or else I'll become one of her sheep, just like the mercenaries he saw bow and ask to be purified. He'd *want* to be one of her sheep!
"...Ma'am. I may be many things, but I was not an evil man. I fought the wars my country wanted me to fight, and when there was no country I fought for whoever could use my talents. But I did not attract some *monster* to this world. Whatever you had to fight to get where you are now, do not blame my men or me for it!"
"If you are not an evil man, Dumond, why did you attack a city and a person who only wished to bring peace to the world? Why not embrace the new age, and accept purification? I'm sure that with your abilities, you would quickly find a place in making a paradise of Earth." Serenity responded.
"Just like the leaders of my country did? Surrender their control, their traditions and bow to you like they did? No ma'am. I would rather be banished than be brainwashed! Than to be...purified!" Dumond hissed, spitting out the last word.
"You want to *know* why we fought under the banner of the Black Moon? Why we attacked your Crystal Tokyo, even though we knew the attack was futile. Yes, ma'am, I knew there was no hope of victory!"
"I fought you because I believe that the world needs a certain amount of evil to push it to good, to push it to create. History shows us that contentment and peace lead to stagnation and collapse. Man needs to forever grapple with the monsters in his soul, or he loses the best part of himself. Without the master struggle, our souls will wither and die. We will be left as nothing more than content sheep, happily going about our business without a spur to invent or create the world of tomorrow."
"If there is no evil, there is no reason to be saintly instead of merely good. If there is no injustice to fight, what spur exists to change and improve the world."
"We intend to build paradise, Captain Dumond." Serenity interrupted. "If the world is perfect, what need is there to change anything?"
"But the world will never stay prefect. Then you need people like me and the others of the Black Moon Resistance."
Serenity's expression changed to that of sadness. A feeling of loss pervaded the entire chamber, to the point that even the Captain could feel it.
"You've made your choice then?" The queen stated with what seemed even to Dumond to be genuine sadness and loss.
"Yes. I will go to exile with the rest of my crew. I wasn't able to go down with my ship, but I can at least join those who followed me to wherever you've sent them."
Sadly, Queen Serenity stepped back from the bound Dark Moon Resistance Captain, and picked up what looked like a crystalline specter. As she raised it above her head, she asked one last question of Captain Gregory Dumond, former U.S. navy. "Is there anything you wish to say before I banish you from Earth, never to return?"
As the specter came down, glowing with the spell's energy, Dumond spoke his last words on this Earth.
"Have you ever read Milton?"
As Dumond disappeared Serenity could only tilt her head in confusion over the statement. She'd have to ask Ami who Milton was later, when this was all over.