The Knights of the Crystal Moon

A Space Western Story by ZestyFictionist

This Part Of The Story Is Told Through The Perspective Of:Eurolyn

As we trudge across another desert, we munch on the last of our bread. Our ship crashed a few miles back, so it was very obvious that we had to start walking. "You sure this is the place The Traitors have gotten to?" questions jfairbanks. "Of course,"I assure. "Why else would we land on this planet?" We continued to traverse the vast desert of a planet that was The Motherload. Dotted with only small towns and gold mines and maybe a even a few lakes and rivers, but all else was a vast, baking desert.

Suddenly, rocks begin to rumble around us. We look about and see nothing. And then we look up. We look up to see a giant,three masted, pirate ship gleaming with stardust rushing towards the ground. And us.

"RUN!" shouts Randomness4. But by then, we already have...

This Part Of The Story Is Told Through:Cecilia

"Are you sure you've made it to The Machine Room on the 6th floor?" asks Octavian through the communicator in my right hand as I open the door to see The Machine Room. Steam mingles with the air as the machinery set up everywhere continues working. Cranks, gears, and cogs are the most of what I see.

"Yeah, I'm sure," is my reply.

"Good, walk over to the nearest machine and turn the biggest wheel counterclockwise," he orders. I put the communicator in my pocket and begin walking over to the wheel. As I do, I ask Octavian why I must turn this wheel.

"Cause if you don't,this ship is going to crash-"

"Isn't it going to crashing already?"

"Look," says Octavian. "If you turn the wheel, it will only be a pipe in that room that gets broken. If you don't, it will be a whole lot more shit that gets broken besides a pipe!"

Well now, it was Louis's idea for getting us to this planet. I shouldn't have to be the one coming down here and doing the dirty work now should I? I think this to myself as I begin the task of turning the giant wheel counterclockwise...

This Part Of The Story Is Told Through The Perspective Of:Betty

K'vellia and I stare from fo'c's'le and over the rail down at the bottom of the ship. The crash still has enough energy to keep The Maiden carving it's own little path through terrain of the desert for at least for another mile.

Suddenly, a look of a shock and realization carves itself onto Betty's face as her eyes wander a little bit further off from the front of the ship.

"Louis!"shouts Betty as she turn towards Louis and Octavian,whom are at the Command Center."What the Hell is it now?!"Louis shouts back."Cecilia is already down there trying to slow down the energy!"

"Yes, but there are humans down there!" I warn. "Kids! And I think they're running for they're lives." "No shit lady," replies Louis. "If they can run long enough, I'm sure they'll be just swell."

The ship then comes to a quick halt. Almost throwing us all over. God Damn, about time it's finally over, I think. When Cecilia comes out from below deck, we all regroup at the fo'c's'le. Then, we climb down the ladder, retract it back up, and go to investigate what happened to the kids. Obviously, old cowardly Octavian doesn't tag along.

We find that they've started running of into the distance. So we chase after them. "Hey,this might actually get good," says Octavian through my communicator. "If they keep leading you guys, they might get somewhere good. Someplace with fuel. The ship's out of fuel you know..."

This Part Of The Story Is Told Through The Perspective Of:jazz687

"We'd be heading towards Nara-Ish if you had stocked up better on tacos," I scold to Mystic_Scribe as the floating bubble we're traveling in begins to dematerialize. We step on to the ground and begin walking in the direction of what I assume the be the nearest signs of civilization.

"Don't worry Jazzy, it's perfectly fine to land here and get some more water bottles, strawberry rhubarb pies, and as many tacos as we can," cheers Princess Despain. "Well, it's perfectly fine as long as ThreeWayStreet don't start catching up on us."

It's then as we continue walking that we spot a small but visible slash of purple in the distance. We walk a little bit faster towards the slash of purple and when we finally get there we find.....nothing but a streak of grape juice that got shuffled around under someone's shoe!

But then, we spot another streak of color in the distance. So then we run over to the streak of colors and we find....a perfectly circular field of vervain with an island of olive trees in the middle. "It's beautiful," whispers Mystic_Scribe.

We wade through The Sea Of Vervain, the sweet aromas and honeybees waft all around us and blow this way and that as we step onto The Island Of Olive Trees. And then, as if all of us could read each other's minds...just even for a second, we all just find a good place in the shade of the tree and lie down for awhile, our heads on pillows of strangely soft wood, our backs resting on a mattress of dirt. The peace of our surroundings covering us like a warm blanket.

The honeybees buzz around restlessly. They sooth us to sleep with their with their gentle, monotone hum...

This Part Of The Story Is Told Through The Perspective Of:Cecilia

It's been eight minutes of running when we see that we and ThreeWayStreet are approaching an island of olive trees in a sea of vervain. The kids wade into the vervain and we wade in after them.

When we approach ThreeWayStreet, or the kids,we see that there is no longer three kids, there's six now. The Triplet Traitors and ThreeWayStreet meet once more! Well, except now they have Plutonium Revolvers.

Princess Despain aims her Plutonium Revolver at Randomness4. Which causes jfairbanks to aim her revolver at Princess Despain. Which causes Mystic_Scribe to aim his revolver at jfairbanks. Which causes Eurolyn to aim her revolver at Mystic_Scribe. Which causes jazz687 to aim her revolver at Eurolyn.

And then Khrysalis ruins the moment by pulling out a coconut and holding it up into the sky and shouting "The chicken wings wore dinner for breakfast!"

"Idiot," I whisper. "Bitch," he whispers back.

While I whirl around and smack him on his left cheek, jfairbanks fires here Plutonium Revolver. The kids then dodge the round and run about and take cover behind trees, and begin firing bullets at whatever enemy is nearest. Bullets whiz by, not striking any plants, any of us, not even the dazed Khrysalis standing next to me!

After being at it for awhile. The kids chase each other off into the distance while we, The Knights Of The Crystal Moon, along with a slightly less dazed Khrysalis, chase closely behind them...

This Part Of The Story Is Told Through The Perspective Of:Tanya The Female Recurring Narrator

It's dusk as the rays of The Motherload's pink colored sun finally stop exerting it's heat on a mesa not far from the town of Bougainvillea. It was at this time at dusk when a red and white zepplin, lands on the reddened soil and rock of the mesa.

A door leading to the outside of the gondola, is opened by someone from the inside by someone. When it finally does open, a male figure dressed in a white, hoodless cloak made only from the best of bulletproof silk steps forward from the gondola. His black hair is gently blown around by the breezes of the dusk. The lowering sun casts it's final rays of light on the male figure's grim pale face. The figure has a name...Emperor Necrodetus Yillvanesh III Of Okress!

Necrodetus steps to the edge of the mesa and gazes towards the town of Bougainvillea. "Stop creeping," he says. "I know you're there."

"Christ, you really don't know what a good entrance is, do you?" says a soft feminine voice from behind him. The crunch of dirt and rocks can be heard behind Necrodetus as the person approaches him until it comes to his right.

Now if there was anything to describe this woman in some words, it would be that she sure loves red! She's dressed in a red column style dress that reaches all the way down to her ankles, exposing the very fashionable and very red sandals. Her skin is a light tan, but has red hues here and there. A red bowler hat is perched very firmly upright on her head. Her black hair, the only thing that isn't red besides her lime green eyes, is done into a flapper's bob and bobbed at the ear, completely smooth and free of any and all curls. But what Necrodetus noticed most is the longbow made of cedar wood hanging on her right shoulder, and a belt which, on the left side of that belt, holds a quiver full of arrows made from the wood of magnolias.

The woman also has a name as well...Myrtle Sinclair, but better known as her alias, Magnolia.

"So why did you pay me to come wait on this rock?" asks Magnolia. "Well this rock is a mesa to be exact," answers Necrodetus." And this mesa functions as a gold mine for the miners here in Bougainvillea as the gold is their main export. In fact, this mine is the most precious and most fruitful mine on The Motherload! But what if I stole all of the gold from The Mesa Mine? The Motherload would be forgotten by the rest of the galaxy due to it's worthlessness. Then, it's people would suffer as the planet would in a symbolic way, be dead.And boy, do I love me some suffering!"

"And what is my role in this plan?" ask Magnolia. "There are some people on their way to this town, The Knights Of The Crystal Moon, I need them to be kept busy."

  "Very well then," confirms Magnolia. "I'll get to town at once..."

This Part Of The Story Is Told Through The Perspective Of:Khrysalis 

Current Location:The Honeysuckle Cantina

  I'm floating in black until my eyes open. When they do, I'm instantly falling in love with the scenery. A casual 2000's song, is churning out through a Wurlitzer 1015 jukebox across the room.

  In the center of the room, there's a square shaped bar with plenty of stools. Along the walls are pictures and diner style booths. To the left of the oak door that leads outside, is the Wurlitzer 1015. And we happen happen to be sitting in a corner booth.

  Cecilia is casually sipping a cup of oolong tea, Sally is in between me and Cecilia munching away on a meatball sub. K'vellia practices her pipa while the other five surround us, deeply engaged in drinking their Daiquiris and a game of poker.

  "I smacked you so hard and dazed you so badly that you passed out," informs Cecilia before I could even conceive of asking her what happened. 

  "Where are the kids and how did we get here?" I ask.

  "K'vellia was able to teleport us and The Triplet Traitors here. ThreeWayStreet is searching the buildings outside for us, but hasn't gotten to The Cantina yet. The Traitors are in the booth to our right chatting about plans for escape." I checked, sure enough they were.

  Louis shouts with joy, happily winning the game. "Overachiever," remarks K'vellia. I sigh with a strange feeing of relief. "What a day..."

This Part Of The Story Is Told Through The Perspective Of:Sally

  An explosion is heard outside The Honeysuckle Cantina as The Triplet Traitors leave through a back door beside their booth. The nine of us run outside the front door instead to investigate, Valdris and I in the lead. We clamber outside onto The Cantina's brown roofed veranda. The final pink rays of the dusk blind us for only a moment. We adjust to the lighting and look around for the source of an explosion.

  Khrysalis withdraws his sword cane and points to the smoking and burning ruin of two robotic horses and the also smoking and burning ruin of a stagecoach. "Hey, what do you know, the luring worked out after all," says a soft voice.

  A figure leaps down from the roof of the General Store across the street and lands a few feet in front of the smoldering horses and burning wood of the stagecoach. It's a girl, clutching a longbow tightly in her left hand. "Well, who the in the God damn nine rings of Hell is that?" I inquire. "That is 26 year mercenary, Myrtle Sinclair," replies Betty.

  "Correct you are," says the mercenary. "But I prefer to go by my alias, Magnolia. Oh, and well, I'm here to kill you."

  "Prideful douche," I whisper.

  "Mouthy bitch," curses Magnolia. "WHORE!" I curse back. "You wanna come at hoe?! Say that to my face!" I show her my face of rage and draw my katana. "I think we'll just let you handle it Sally," says Valdris. "You look like you really need let it all out." I charge ferociously at her.

  "Explosive," says Magnolia. As I rush to her, she grabs an arrow from the quiver tied at her waist and puts it in her longbow. She pulls back her bowstring with her right hand and aims the longbow at me with her left hand. Once the bowstring seems pressurized enough, she launches the arrow at me.

  I narrowly dodge it as I whirl to my right, I hear a small explosion behind me. "Normal," she whispers and launches another arrow at me. I dice it into halves and slash at her, but she blocks it with her longbow made of sweet smelling cedar. Magnolia sighs and says "It's gonna take a lot more than that to even dent my longbow, bitch." She shoves me back a few steps with her bow.

  Well her attitude sure wasn't sweet.

  "You wanna play melee bitch?! Let's play melee!" shouts Magnolia as she hangs her longbow on her right shoulder and pulls a red hilted and red sheathed kwaiken dagger from her quiver. She draws forth the blade and held it using the traditional reverse grip technique. She bared the seven inch blade at me. I didn't flinch at such a horrid attempt of intimidation.

  For a few moments, standing a meter away from each other. Stares of rage aimed at each other just like our blades, battle positions ready. Then...she charges.

  Wrong move with such a small blade.

  I parry her blade's attack and slam the flat side of my katana into her right cheek. She falls and lands hard on the dark orange dirt. "Oh, could you interrogate her for me since your closer to her?" asks Louis. "Um OK?" I reply. "What do you want me to ask her?"

  "Ask her who's she working for and what's her part in her client's plan," says Louis. "I'm perfectly able at hearing you guys," coughs out Magnolia. "I'm working for Emperor Necrodetus. My job is to distract you guys, or better, kill you guys while he's pillaging the local mine of it's gold from today's work."

  "Thanks for the info," I say. It's then that I use my left fist to deal her a blow to the head, knocking her out...

This Part Of The Story Is Told Through The Perspective Of:Valdris

Fun Fact:Teflon is invulnerable to the corrosive effects of fluoroantimonic acid.

  Due to Khrysalis's utter stupidity, it's taken us close to five hours to make the trek from Bougainvillea to the top of the mesa when it should've taken just two. And at the top of the mesa, along with our observations of the purple moon casting it's violet beams of moonlight upon the red dirt of the mesa, we see Necrodetus's plan in action.

  I counted fifteen Kalecdite guards keeping watch around Necrodetus as he focused an unbreaking stare at a group of Kalecdite servants loading a cart full of gold into a abnormally large zeppelin.

  Christ, after all this time and we still don't got gas!

  "So, can we go get gas now?" asks Tor. "Can't we just take out these douches first?" begs Louis. "Alright," says K'vellia curtly, while also answering for Louis. "But it's me that's going for Necrodetus. I want out of The Knights Of The Crystal Moon as soon as possible, and I won't have you guys mess it up."

  We charge towards the enemy. The servants loading the gold flee into the Zeppelin, leaving the gold to spill over onto the ground. Tor removes the front half of a guard's head with her blades and K'vellia splashes a teflon bottle of fluoroantimonic acid into another guard's chest along her way to Necrodetus.

  A knobbed tetsubo made of pure steel appears in Necrodetus's right hand. He deals a smash at K'vellia. She blocks it as Louis slits a guard's throat and makes a crazed dash over to K'vellia and Necrodetus...

This Part Of The Story Is Told Through The Perspective Of:Khrysalis

  I slice open the stomachs of two guards, and quickly dart behind a large boulder as their innards spill onto the red dirt, turning the dirt even more red than it already was.

  Hey! Would you like to hear a joke while I contemplate whether or not to run across the mesa to snatch up the two gasoline cans next to Necrodetus's zeppelin?

  OK, here it goes: My friend was cold, so I told her to go stand in a corner. Corners are 90 degrees! Get it?! Actually, no, scratch that. That joke was pretty shitty.

  Hey! Now that I think about, maybe I will run across the mesa to fetch up those gasoline cans next to Necrodetus's zeppelin.

  And so begins my mad dash to the gasoline cans next to Necrodetus's zepplin.

  I duck under the bullets that have been released in a firefight between the guns of Louis, Cecilia, Sally, and some of Necrodetus's guards. I dart around the weapons of Tor and Valdris as they clash with the blades of...guess what? More Kalecdite guards!

  I can see moonlight shining down upon the Zeppelin as I approach it. The wind blows a soft breeze as I reach the cans and snatch them up. I turn around to run back to the boulder when someone hidden in the shadow of the Zeppelin steps out into the moonlight. In the moonlight, I can see that she's dressed in red. She has a longbow, the bowstring has drawn back with an arrow loaded and aimed at me.

  "You thought a little whore with a sword could stop me?" asks Magnolia. "Shit," I whisper. It's at this point that I hear the moaning of metal, I'm sure Magnolia hears it too. The metallic moaning grows louder as the giant shadow of a ship appears upon the dirt of the mesa.

  We turn our heads to the right to see none other than The Maiden floating a mere inch away from the side of the mesa! It's right at this moment that Octavian leaps from the deck of the ship and lands safely behind Magnolia. He then shatters a porcelain vase over her head, effectively knocking her out.

  "Hey there," chirps Ocatavian. "Um...hello..." I reply.

This Part Of The Story Is Told Through The Perspective Of:Tor

  As the others finish off the last of the guards, I sheath my blades and walk over to K'vellia. She's just standing there, looking at The Zeppelin as the moonlight continues to shine upon it. I stand beside her and stare at the Zeppelin.

  "He got me on my shoulder with his tetsubo," she whispers. "He got away with a handheld teleportation device after grabbing a few gold nuggets. So, that means I'm still stuck with you guys."

  "Hey! Can you guys stop with the sulking and get over here?!" inquires Octavian as he and the others walk over and begin boarding The Maiden. "Louis says he wants to take a little trip to this place called Zealia," informs Betty.

  And with that, K'vellia and I board The Maiden and head off to wherever Zealia is...well...after we stole the rest of the gold!

  Well, I never said The Knights Of The Crystal Moon were the absolute best at being any sort of hero...