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LUNA-TERRA, EPISODE TWO: "Don't shoot me down before the mission starts."



Saturn and the Celestial Mechanics have been dealt with, but Cradle’s Graces are still operating in the area. Before we get to that mission though, each day offers new mail and comms to check.

pre:


       We're a long way from anything important out here, I can't help but notice./

You think command wants you as far away from them as they can get you?
What makes you think that?

                                        That you said it, that 'command' is my ex,/
                                       and that I did once double-cross Memorial foundation.

In that case, you should be happy you're in the field at all,
and not in a brig or in the process of being shipped back to Earth.

                                                      Well, I am. I'm so thankful,/
                                            I don't need to be lied to about my work being important.

Oh, I would never lie about a thing like that.
In fact, the most lovely sixth planet of our solar system,
Cronus, has become extremely busy in the past 24 hours.



You're just the woman for the job,
reining in incorrigible pilots is your specialty.
Let's see if that power can be used for good, for once.

                       ...Europa, please leave some of me left to fight the enemy./
                                    Don't shoot me down before the mission starts.

Was I too mean?

                                             I would prefer direct combat, any day./

Well, let me tell you something nice then.
The Cradle's Graces superweapon, your favorite, has been spotted in the system.

                                                    My favorite? What do you mean?/

Don't play dumb.

You make that same face whenever Krun Macula is spotted.

                                          It's the biggest mystery of their side,/
                                and one of the only reasons Cradle's Graces hasn't collapsed by now.

                                               The Krun Macula's power is unreal./
                                           It's far stronger in reality than anything that could
                                       possibly have been projected from its original schematics.
                                  Its capabilities seem endless and impossible to predict or counter.

And no one knows who the pilot is.
The list of people who could pilot something like that is very short, however.


Was that better or worse than their last conversation?



Anyway, two new things in the inbox.



“Aha. You are saying that you, as you are, the person who you are, doesn't want to be you?

LT: Yes.

Then you aren't that person.

LT: ...but that person weighs on me.

So you would like to have the weight of being this other person, that you are not--you would like that removed?

LT: Yes. Please.

That may be possible.”

—



There.



Time to spin backwards.



>LAUNCH



"Central said to launch immediately. We have to get to the Celestial Mechanics lab regardless of whether or not the prototype is already gone."

Damn, no escorts this time. Rest in peace, Pilot B. You will not be forgotten, and your story will be told.

"There's valuable information there, but it's worthless if Cradle's Graces gets there first."

"Have some patience, Luna-Terra. The Cradle's Graces carrier just launched a completely unknown Ship-Self."

"This can't be right. A person can't pilot a ship that big. The tidal resonance should tear the pilot apart."

"Is this... Impossible. I hope. I've never seen anything like it, and no you can't fight it, Luna-Terra, so don't even think about it."

"Any better ideas? It must be headed for where the prototype launched, right? Where else?"

"Because they have to know that it already escaped. Don't underestimate your opponent, Luna-Terra."



"Even against an unknown and objectively stronger enemy? What makes you so sure, Luna-Terra?"

"No particular reason."

"Or a single particular reason?"

"Haha. Still don't trust me?"

"Don't insult your former instructor, Luna-Terra. I knew how much to trust you before you betrayed us to Cradle's Graces. My opinion hasn't changed because we welcomed you back into the fold."

"My best pilot and worst student, you've never been predictable except in your consistency for trouble. But it's a reliable metric."

"You're right. You know me. So if you're worried, don't have to let me have free rein like this."



"Very unlike Pluto, the hope of Cradle's Graces. She could lie right to my face, with a smile, if she thought it was for the best."

"Pluto exceeded the wildest expectations of the pilot program, so much so that it was decommissioned in part because of her."

"If Celestial Mechanics have successfully built a monster that can withstand her, this engagement will end in disaster."

"And that is much more terrifying than this machine you're so eager to fight. That concerns me far more than you betraying us, or fighting a battle you can't possibly win."

"I don't think any of you really understood what you were doing."

"Pluto is unreal. She's far more overwhelming than any of you understood."

"If that ship is unworthy of Pluto, it's going to be torn apart under the pressure of her, not the other way around."

"Pluto is the only real human being. No wonder she feels so alien when she looks at us."

"You want me to let you take an impossibly dangerous mission because you think you can save our enemy?"



—

Mission start!

Music - Fog Screen



And Luna-Terra needs to make sure all the calculations are in order. Everything in her ship operates manually. She's just been at it long enough that it feels like a second skin.

The jolt of nostalgia interrupts Luna-Terra's mental math. She forgets to carry the one. It interrupts Pluto's focus, and she has a moment where she's not invincible.

Close enough to touch the surface of the moon lab, Luna-Terra is seen and known by Pluto, and they are suddenly falling down the well of "too late" and "nothing you can do."







Against Pluto, is that really such a good idea? She's someone who always thinks just enough.

Which makes it easy for Luna-Terra to slip through, deep into the lab, until it gets quiet except for the sounds of the moon quaking and trembling.

After almost a year, the dread and the thrill is way too much to slow down and start talking. That's what the arrow flying into Pluto's Gravity Well is saying.

Who will make the first move?







And more terrifying than the finesse is her gentleness, spooling matter like threads in the tiny galaxy of which she is the sun.

Her power is very kind, but it's also a little perverse. What meaning does mercy have from something that can core out a moon?

Krun Macula's developers compared it to a black hole; they wanted a machine so powerful and absolute even light couldn't escape it.

Luna-Terra understands now that was wrong.

She's a star. Gushing and twinkling with matter and light. Who wouldn't be swept up in that?

The Mare Crisium is so small; Pluto has never seen it from a perspective like Krun Macula's before. She never imagined it would look so fragile from here, like a toy version of the fierce fighter she remembered.

Pluto's sense of scale is true. Luna-Terra feels just like a plastic toy, too.



"It really does fit you."

"So much more than I ever thought."

"Is it hard to look away?"

"Being able to render you speechless is the power I've always dreamed of."

"What do you think?

"I know just a look won't change your mind, but I want you to tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"That I regret betraying you? I told you then, that I always would."



"Did you think I'd be mad?"

"I mean, of course I'm mad at you! But not for anything you did to me."

"..."

"I wouldn't ever be mad at you for not having enough faith in me, to see through Cradle Graces' dream of a new home for humans in space."

"I'm just mad at you for not having enough faith in yourself to see it through."

"And leaving all the work to me!"

"Oops, I guess that is why I'm a little upset with you. Not mad, you know..."

"...just disappointed."



"I'm trying to be the grown-up, you know."

"I did the responsible thing. I took the realistic option."

"I'm here to play the part of the boring adult, the grown-up villain."

"Oh, that's right."

"I remembered why I actually am mad at you."

"You better not go down quietly."

"You better really believe what you just said. I'll forgive you if you left us for something stupid, but I'll never forgive you if you left us for something you don't believe in!"

"And you better not believe in it, because I also won't forgive you for fighting for a future that cruel!"



"Don't you dare. I won't forgive that either."

"Were you hoping, maybe, that it wouldn't be like this?"

"That I wouldn't have to fight?

"It'll change you."

"In ways you don't understand."

"I've seen you fight so many times."

"I saw when you got that scar and your poor ship got her wound."

"Has anyone else seen that side of you as much as me?"

"I don't think so."



"But it's different when you're on the other side."

"You think I don't really know you, because I've never stared down the barrel of your rifle or felt that knife nick my ship?"

"It's a different kind of knowing."

"Teach me then."

"Or I'll teach you."








DECISION TIME! They clearly have a long history, but they also still have a lot to learn. Who has more to learn though? BETRAY or stay LOYAL?


EPISODE TWO CONCLUSION





The vote has concluded. Memorial Foundation will be the winner of this engagement.



"..."

"Oh, right, you never wanna make the first move."

"Then I can go-"

Even still, maybe there aren't any winning moves. Luna-Terra has to be ready for that possibility. The Krun Macula is a very impossible sort of machine. Almost as impossible as Pluto.

Krun Macula can grind spacetime to a crawl with its tidal forces. Krun Macula can pull ambient matter into a whirl with enough friction for the combustion to give birth to a star.







Luna-Terra isn't where Pluto is expecting, and then there's suddenly a hail of bullets in her skull.









"Is this body so me that you finally aren't going to be weird about fighting it?"

Luna-Terra thinks Pluto could use a lesson in how terrifying actual combat can be, but is there anyone terrifying enough to teach it to her?

"Are you trying to hide from me?"

"I've been waiting for a real fight!"

"I'm tired of you telling me you think I'm right."

"If you really thought that, you'd be here, on my side."

"So prove I'm wrong already."

"Or admit defeat!"





And that whirl will become a star, washing the Mare Crisium in heat and light and radiation.

(Some have wondered how a tiny toy soldier could possibly defeat a living god.)







It's not enough, but it hurts. It's serious. The brittle spear is of a cold and rational metal that repels cosmic concepts.

(The answer is, of course, with hard steel.)











But she can move more than Pluto can, at least for long enough to get away.



"Now I know why everyone hates you so much. You're no fun to fight with at all!"

"Haha. Are you kidding. Like you fight fair."

"Now that I know what you're really like, I'm not going to accept anything less."

"I don't want to do that again."

"Well, too bad. Whose fault is that?"

"Yeah."

"I know."

--

Mission complete. Maybe not a complete victory, but we escaped from a terrifying superweapon in her giant robot, and lived to fight another day.



Already we can see the gravitational effects of our choices. Stay tuned for the start of Episode Three!