There was a time, in the era of great chaos, when the earth and the moon 
were at war with each other. A daredevil from the moon piloted a bizarre 
aircraft... it was feared and, because of its shape, called "Einhänder"

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Phases of the Moon part 4

Epilogue

Black Moon

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An Einhänder fanfic by Snapdragon

Snapdragon@videotron.ca

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	Excerpt from the Lunar Chronicles, December 17, 2245, Front Page :

	'LUNAR HEROES MISSING AFTER LESS THAN A WEEK.'

	Which was followed by a long article that included pictures, quotes 
from various interviews, and an official apology from the minister of 
Defence on the loss of such great persons.

	But, for some reason, there was no connection with the 'EOS bug' story 
that had garnished the newspapers the day just before. Not even speculations 
on the subject...

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[Music: Einhänder - 09 - Silence]

	Adam Jones was a journalist. Unfortunately, he was one of those nearly 
unknown writers that do small, unimportant articles, and that nobody outside 
the press knows.

	Adam had a dream. He wanted to have his name on the front page. Even 
if only once. He wanted to be sure that he had done something important in 
his life before he died. That was why he was here now.

	'Here' was actually a military-restricted zone where, judging from 
reports handed by a friend in the army, the largest amount of ships had been 
destroyed during the 'EOS bug crisis'.

	He, like many of his comrades in the newspaper buisness, didn't 
believe the story the military had told them one bit. It reeked cover-up 
like nothing else before. Adam wanted to prove that they were right.

	So he was travelling in a sea of scrap metal, zigzaguing around EOS 
carcasses for something, anything he could write about.

	It seemed that the gods were listening to him today, for after looking 
around for five, he finally found something that was out of place.

	It was a ship's right wing, one that had likely been ripped off. 
However, it carried a message that was all too important.

	'Endymion FRS Mk. III' was written on it in bright red letters.

	Because of the massive media coverage the lunar heroes had gotten, 
everyone on the moon knew their names and the names of their ships.

	The question was : How could that ship have been there ?

	Adam had a few contacts in the army, and he knew from one of them that 
the heroes' ships were to have the EOS program installed into them, but not 
for another week or so.

	A phonecall later, he confirmed it. The Einhänders weren't due for 
anything until the 22, which was five days from now. There was no way that 
they could have gotten infected by the so-called bug.

	His journalist's instinct kicked in fully, and he got back to 
searching around for clues.

	One thing was sure : The military WAS hiding something.

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[Music: Einhänder - 05 - Ruins]

	The air was stale and full of smoke, but that could be expected from 
the cockpit of a crashed aircraft. There were traces of a fire near the 
back, but these were unimportant.

	What was important was the man in the middle of the cockpit, bent 
toward the control panels.

	He was important because EOS don't have pilots.

	Unfortunately, the man was dead. The crack of his helmet and the 
dried blood confirmed this. If he had been lucky, the blow that broke 
through his helmet had been fatal. If he had not... Dying from bloodloss 
was an horrible way to die. Adam did not know who this man was, as the 
bloodied helmet covered most of the face from analysis, and had prooven 
impossible to remove. 

	A quick search in the cockpit revealed nothing out of the ordinary, 
and the crash was undeniably due to the loss of the right wing. But why 
was that unknown man here ?

	Adam shuffled around the ship, knowing he was missing something. 
What was this man hiding ?

	Then it hit him. Normally, when you die from a crash, your arms hang 
limply on the side. But not this man. His arms were in front of him, as if 
he was hugging something protectively.

	And he was.

	Adam extracted from the man's hands a case, which had been cracked by 
the impact. The disk inside had survived the shock, and seconds later was 
being read by Adam's portable computer.

	Inside were dozens of videos, and a text file, which said :

	'May god forgive me, for I have sinned...

	I have been made a hero for committing acts of destruction which 
should never have been. The propaganda lied to the people of the moon. The 
Earth is no paradise, just a war-scarred wasteland like our planet. That is 
why we heroes will rebel today. We want to be remebered for something else 
than slaughtering the people of the Earth. Hopefully, the war will stop if 
we take out the EOS.

	To the one who reads this, please make it public. I prefer being a 
rightful traitor than an evil hero.

							Michael Smith - 16/12/45'

	As Adam started to view the videos, he smiled to himself... He 
basically OWNED the front page now...

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End of Chapter Four - Epilogue - Black Moon

End of the Phases of the Moon

Author's Notes :  

Einhänder belongs to Squaresoft and is not meant any displeasure by this work

Snapdragon/Thierry Chartrand-Chamblay
August 2001