Lunar Expedition

Prologue

Usagi grabbed a plate of cookies her mother had made a few minutes ago and plopped down in front of the television. She munched happily on the still-warm sugar cookies and pulled the remote control towards her with her toe, leaning over to grab it with sticky fingers. Her mother said something to Usagi’s brother, Shingo, as he too received a plateful of cookies as Usagi flipped through some channels.

The walls flashed green, then pink, then green again as various soap operas, anime, and nature channels flashed across the screen. Usagi mechanically lifted each cookie to her lips, staring just above the screen at a family portrait of her parents, a baby Shingo, and a much younger Usagi (missing her front tooth) grinning back at her. She wasn’t really paying attention to what was right in front of her, instead focusing on what she would have to do that afternoon.

First she had to pack for a sleepover at Rei’s temple (toothbrush, pajamas, the bunny stuffed animal that Mamoru had bought her the year before, hair brush, shampoo and conditioner, cell phone with the crescent moon charm, her transmitter, socks… was there anything else?) and then there was the Senshi meeting scheduled for an hour or so before bedtime.

That meant she’d have roughly two hours in which to attempt (however futilely) some of the mounting homework she had been putting off thus far. She also had to find some time to talk to her parents about getting a part-time job since she wasn’t too happy about her allowance (she dreaded this, fairly sure that it wouldn’t happen on a basis of time alone). She also had to look into some extra training and replacements for patrolling since there hadn’t been any attacks from any youma lately and that usually meant something pretty bad was eventually going to happen.

Some other little thoughts passed through her mind as she zoned out further, ignoring the television even as she held the remote control limply. She even stopped nibbling on the cookie in her hand, instead pressing it against her bottom lip. Shingo plopped down beside her and started laughing. Attracted by the sound, Usagi looked over at him.

“What?” she asked curiously.

“You’re watching the news? Since when do you care what happens in the world outside of your comics,” he chortled. Usagi looked over at the television and flushed. There was some kind of event going on that looked so completely boring, she normally would have just skipped over it if she had been paying attention. The only time she watched the news was when some dark energy queen/king decided to destroy the Earth and she had to watch for signs of destruction. She started to retort that she did pay attention to the news, sometimes (which was technically true) and that he shouldn’t make such rude comments about his older sister when she caught a couple words from the television.

“Experts have claimed to see unidentifiable objects on the dark side of the moon’s surface that were recently undetectable through earlier technologies but which have caused a stir of intellectual curiosity since their discovery several months ago. The most recent moon launch by the Americans were sent to recover samples from a site close to the location in question and, through international cooperation and assistance, has been routed to explore this area, known as the “Mare Serenitatis,” or the “Sea of Serenity.” Here is a picture of this area as seen from the Lunar XI254 satellite launched four years ago.”

As the reporter said this, a crisp picture of a crater in the moon was shown. The crest of the crater was shown as starkly white and very bright whereas the depression and the surrounding ground were black and deep. Serena peered closer, trying to see what “unidentifiable” objects the scientists had supposedly seen.

The screen changed to show a group of four people walking towards a space shuttle. A woman, drowned in the heavy astronaut suit, made a peace sign at the camera. The camera angle changed again to show the anchor speaking.