Luna Libros VIII: Four Color Chaos Theory

Ahoy, True Believers! The five ancient citadels of the arcane have erupted with cmykaos energy from the second dimension, transforming the Starchasers into comic book versions of themselves! Excelsior!

Thirty-one star pilots, space wizards, superheroes, and sky pirates gathered on the launchpad, eager to begin the adventure. Among them, Mr. Incredible, Edna Mode, Squirrel Girl, Darryl Dixon, Tank Girl, Black Widow, Gandalf, Green Lantern, Super Mario, and a Super Librarian, to name a few. As the Day Star began to fade and twilight began to set in, our brave pilots wrapped up their preflight, Starfire, flagship of the Starchasers fleet arrived, sporting a super new upgrade to her cargo hold and sonic disruption array, and Spin Star flew her first SCUL ship! Boomer informed us that we would be joined by a detachment from PBJ (Providence Bike Jam) of the Providence System led by a Space Horse!

Soon, it was time to blast off toward the five libraries of the New Bedford Star System to close the trans-dimensional gates and restore Dewey Decimal order to the galaxy.

As we approached the perimeter of the Buttonwood Constellation, Gemini lost her propulsion transfer conduit, sending Redbeard and Firefly into a spin and away from the fleet. Snoopaloop stepped up to fill the role of commsat and informed the mission leader that something was amiss. Our friends were lost in space and we had to find them. Civitron gave the order to slingshot around the Lunar Cumbies, doubling back to recover our comrades. Luckily, we found them just in time. Their ship was nearly intact and their life support systems were holding strong. After a short pause, the mission was back on track and we were headed to our first destination, the Lunar Wilkes Branch Library.

The road to the Northern Quadrant was wrought with peril of oncoming and incoming transport vehicles, a blockade of angry civilians in the Temple Landing Constellation, and a trailing civilian, disrupting the flow of traffic and making the tailgunner very nervous. Not to mention, the emotional roller coaster ride of dramatic swells and dark lows of the life support synthesis. However, despite all that, there were moments of excitement as cheering crowds of alien life forms boosted our spirits and fueled our hearts with joy!

Soon, it was time to take a break. During an impromptu “gas station dance party”, during which no one danced, we shifted gears to lighter fare, sent a worried mother on her own mission, and bade farewell to some tiny friends and their parental units. This would be the first of many burn-ups, but our spirits remained high and we pressed on.

Suddenly, one of the civilian ships suffered a plasma rupture and lost power to the primary thruster, just as we approached a Lunar Seven Eleven. It truly is a convenience store! The lunar base provided our pilots with an opportunity for fuel dumping and re-snacking, as well as time to repair our flat and sticker some onlookers.

Back on our flight path, we passed more cheering crowds and detected ST activity in the vicinity, as we entered a wormhole in the Brooklawn Constellation. TurboHoney jettisoned tool bag and new cadet Gandalf stepped up to recover it. At the other side of the wormhole, we had finally arrived at our first destination! There, we dropped landing gear, deployed chalk bag, and had an actual proper dance party. We played some trivia and gave away some old comic books as prizes for either the most correct or the most entertaining answers. The comics were provided by the Lunar Newbury Comics in the North Dartmouth System. The ST arrived but only to caution us against the dangers of navigating flight lanes full of oncoming and incoming transport vehicles and to tell us about the local Pokestops. We exchanged stickers and he went on his way. We weren’t the droids they were looking for.

We left the library and headed toward a nearby wormhole, where a birthday boy lost propulsion, sending the entire fleet into a seemingly infinite loop inside the Riverside Constellation. Once resolved, we were free to fly to our next location, the Lunar Howland Green Library. Later, as we cruised down a particularly silent portion of the Acushnet Starlane, another mechanical set us back for a bit but it wasn't a big deal and we were able to move it along. Unfortunately, this was when we said goodbye to our new PBJ friends, Boomer, and a few others, leaving us with 13 daring pilots to complete our mission.

As we skirted the Acushnet Nebula along the edge of the dNB Quadrant, we were greeted with even more cheering crowds. Soon, we were in the Southern Quadrant where we suffered another plasma leak from the same thruster as before. As Green Lantern and Gandalf made repairs, Civitron offered some trivia questions. Who was Batman's first Robin? Christopher! What is Green Lantern's weakness? Knives! It was fun but it was clear that spirits were low. It was late, pilots were getting sleepy, and we hadn't even reached our second destination. The mission leader made the decision that we would warp through the next two checkpoints, following the same flight plan but zipping by without stopping until we reached the Mother Brain!

There on the steps of the Lunar Main Branch, we sat and watched the changing of the ST guard, took a photo and wished birthday boy a final blessing before zero hour, and set our thrusters on a course for home.