Shattered Skies: The Morning Lights

CHAPTER 61: As Lucifer Fell

[Author's Note:

I am dreadfully sorry this took this long... there was a ton I needed to get through for this chapter, and adopting a new and very rambunctious five-month-old yellow lab at the end of April ate up pretty much all my writing time for two months. Up until a few hours ago [Note: This was written on Wednesday], I had been telling myself that if I couldn't get this done by tonight, I would cut the chapter in half and shunt the rest into Chapter 62. I didn't want to do that, since my gut feeling tells me that as lengthy as it is, it flows better as all one chapter... but over the past three days I made one final push and got all of it out, just in time for when I go out of state for a convention tomorrow [Note: Which is now yesterday. This post was delayed due to travel stuff.]

As with Chapter 60, there's stuff in this one that I've been working toward for years now. Please be kind in your critiques, enjoy the conclusion of Act III... and remember, comments and detailed feedback are an author's food pellets, so leave plenty! - BHS]

Chapter 61: As Lucifer Fell

-VERTEX FOUR: 8.36679-

Pipirima Star System

Mu² Scorpii a-134

A Little While Ago

The Dead End outpost and research facility on Mu² Scorpii a-134 was a cramped affair... understandable, as the facility was squeezed onto a moon so tiny that it barely had enough gravity to hold itself together. Concealed beneath the moon's barren, rocky surface and cloaked from sensors by a variety of dampening fields, the facility was almost impossible to find unless one was specifically looking for it.

The researchers inside—all humans, surprisingly—had to live within the closed confines. It was obvious they didn't enjoy the accommodations, and nothing short of complete brainwashing could force them to. Two of them sat slumped over opposite sides of a humming console, its holoscreens' glow throwing their faces into eerie cyan relief. There wasn't enough room to stand with one's arms stretched above their head, and one had to be careful when walking around lest they collide with an overhanging pipe or conduit, so the hunches in their backs likely verged on being permanent. That is, if they weren't already.

"I don't get it," said one researcher to the other, breaking the silence. He was a man roughly in his thirties, with spiky red hair and bags the color of bruises beneath his eyes. "Look at this combat footage. Those girls from Vertices One and Three... why do they need to twirl around and wave their weapons and do all that elaborate preparation before they use their spells? It doesn't make sense. It shows up all the time in their movies and television, too: a minute, maybe a minute and a half of choreography before they launch the attack. You'd think their opponents would just shoot them while that nonsense is going on."

"There's a simple explanation," said the other, a heavyset fellow. He was faintly wrinkled and entirely bald save for a bristly forest-green patch on his chin. Without looking up, he pointed a stylus at his coworker for emphasis. "Their opponents are idiots. Most of them stand there staring the whole time."

"Meanwhile in our universe, Takamachi doesn't bother," the first said. "She just blasts you into next year... and that's if you're someone she likes. You know she used the first Starlight Breaker on her girlfriend, right?"

The older one shuddered, then crinkled his brows. "Wait, were she and Testarossa together at the time? I was never sure if they were official or not."

"Does it matter?"

"Eh," he shrugged. "Personally, I always thought she, Takamachi, and Yagami were all... you know."